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| “Britain has been good to me, and I’m grateful” says Stuart Damon and the feeling is mutual. We say we’re grateful to Stuart for being someone new and exciting to be pleased about. |
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 | | Stuart Damon is American, you can’t argue with that. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and openly admits he was a rebel, a teddy boy with the leather jacket and studs gear to prove it.
Of course he soon grew out of that phase—you can’t smash street lights when you are at University—and he became a senstive, serious-minded guy, all the more sympathetic because he’d had it tough as a kid.
Stuart sounds American, too. You can’t mistake his long Yankee drawl, slow and considered when he begins to explain something, but very fast when he’s hooked on a subject.
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But for all that, Stuart is as British as they come. He’s genuine, he’s soft and he has manners, all of which say he’s almost more typically British than the bowler hat and umbrella brigade!
He came to Britain especially to play Houdini on the West End stage and loved us so much he decided to stay when offered The Champions. He gave up his apartment in New York and bought a lovely olde-worlde house in Chelsea. He actually had fewer qualms about leaving than his English wife Deirdre, who he met when she was an actress in New York.
“Deirdre has been more of an influence on my life than anyone. She has made me adapt my character both work-wise and socially.
“I learned to appreciate animals through her. Her family have a farm in Devon and I love going down there, especially at Christmas. I love Christmas in England—the atmosphere is so friendly.
“I learned to ride when we came here and now we’ve got three horses (with one on the way), and my greatest ambition is to have a stud farm and breed horses.
“We also have two poodles: Fripé and Charlie—named after characters in plays that Deirdre and I have done: Irma La Douce and Charlie Girl.”
Family is all-important to Stuart. It’s the secure part of his life to balance the insecurity of acting. Home is a sort of protection from the outside world.
“Deirdre designed practically everything in the house and since we moved in we’ve collected lots of 17th- and 18th-century furniture, either from antique shops in London or from auctions around the country.
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“I need life in the country, but I love living in town. It’s interesting to see the people walking along King’s Road—they think they’re all different but they’re really all the same in their individuality.
“I love English girls. They’ve got backbone, not like wet jelly-fish. They are independent but remain feminine.
“In fact I love everything British. The only thing I can’t stand is bubble and squeak!”
| ANNE WILSON
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