Lysette Anthony Biography

Lysette Anthony was first seen on television in the series ‘Crossroads’ in 1964 when she was just a baby. Her first stage appearance was for the ‘Cambridge Theatre’ at the age of 10. She became the youngest member of the ‘National Youth Theatre’ after being accepted there at 14. Around this time, she also started modelling; and two years later, photographer David Bailey called her the ‘Face of the Eighties’. Lysette got her first television role as an adult actress in the television adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s novel ‘Ivanhoe’ (1982), in which she played Lady Rowena. She was an established model before she embarked on an acting career at the age of 20. During her modelling days, she featured in several popular music videos, including Bryan Adams’s “Summer of '69”, “Heaven”, “Somebody” and “Run to You”; Simian Mobile Disco’s “Cruel Intentions” and Depeche Mode’s “I Feel You”.

In 1983, Lysette made her film debut in the science fiction movie ‘Krull’. After appearing in a few films like the 1985 comedy ‘Night Train to Murder’ and the psychological drama ‘Looking for Eileen’, she was stereotyped as an ‘English Rose’. However, Lisette did not want to be typecast, as her image was not allowing her to get the kind of roles she wanted to do. In order to change her image, she posed nude for ‘Playboy' in 1988. After wrapping up the British sitcom ‘Three Up, Two Down’ in 1989, she moved to the US. Her most popular role was in the American film ‘Husbands and Wives’ (1992), in which she played a sexy, astrology-crazed aerobics instructor. She appeared nude again in the films ‘The Advocate’ (1993) and the erotic thriller ‘Save Me’ (1994). She also acted in the horror classics ‘Dracula: Dead and Loving It’ (1995) and ‘Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde’ (1995). From February 2016 onwards, she is appearing as Marnie Nightingale in the British soap opera ‘Hollyoaks’. Lisette is also a well-known stage actress who has been part of famous plays like ‘The Vagina Monologues’, ‘84 Charing Cross Road’ and ‘Lady Windermere's Fan’.

In October 2017, Lisette Anthony accused Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment. She alleged that Weinstein raped her in her London home in the late 1980s. She made this claim hours after the ‘Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ expelled the movie mogul over sexual misconduct allegations. Lisette said that she remained too terrified to speak about the incident for a decade, and only got the courage to talk about it after several other women also came forward with their accounts of rape and sexual harassment by Weinstein.

Lysette Anne Chodzko was born on September 26, 1963, in Fulham, London, United Kingdom. She is the only child of actor Michael Adam Anthony and actress Bernadette Milnes. Lysette had a difficult childhood, as her mother suffered from manic depression and schizophrenia. Her parents divorced when she was eight years old. Two years later, she was sent to a boarding school by her mother. She was discovered by photographer David Bailey when she was just 16. At 24, she fell in love with Dutch artist and entrepreneur Luc Leestemaker. They soon moved to the United States and got married in 1991. Their marriage ended in a divorce after Lysette fell in love with American film director David Price, whom she had met on the sets of ‘Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde’. They married in 1999, only to be divorced four years later (2003). Lysette was in a relationship with music composer Simon Boswell for six years and gave birth to their son James Boswell on May 21, 2004. James was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis in 2008. Lisette has faced many difficult times in her life, but she always manages to fight back and emerge victorious.