Daily BirthdaysMartine McCutcheon Forum
| ||
| by nova Birth name Martine Kimberley Sherri Ponting Born May 14, 1976 (age 30) Origin London, England Genre(s) Pop, adult contemporary Occupation(s) Singer, actress Years active 1992–1994 (group) 1999–2002 (solo) Label(s) Polydor Records (1992–1994) Virgin Records (1999–2002) Martine McCutcheon (born Martine Kimberley Sherri Ponting[1] on May 14, 1976) is an English singer, television personality and Olivier award-winning actress. Early life McCutcheon was born at the Salvation Army Mothers Hospital in Hackney, London, England, when her mother Jenny was just 19. She endured a turbulent early childhood due to the abusive and irrational behaviour of her drug-addict father, Thomas Hemmings.[2] Her earliest memory of her father is him dangling her over a balcony by her ankles, 30ft up in the air, threatening to drop her unless her mother did what he wanted.[3] Despite her father leaving when McCutcheon was 2 years old, he would return periodically to threaten her mother, so her early years were spent running and hiding in order to escape him. When McCutcheon was nine, her mother finally won sole custody and an injunction was made against her father seeing her until she was 18.[3] When McCutcheon was 10, her mother met and married window cleaner John McCutcheon (the father of Martine's younger brother), which led to Martine taking her step-father's surname.[2] She knew she wanted to be a performer from a young age, but as her family couldn't afford the fees for a drama school, she had to find an alternative method to learn her trade. McCutcheon met a woman at a local dance-class who had been to the Italia Conti stage school and suggested it would be a good environment for her. After a persuasive letter from McCutcheon, a Church of England trust agreed to sponsor her. She trained after school and every Saturday (learning tap, ballet, jazz, and drama) in order to catch up with the more privileged children who were competing with her for a place at the prestigious school.[2] Career At the age of 12 McCutcheon obtained her first acting role and was paid £350 to appear in an American television commercial for the drink, Kool-Aid, which was followed by modelling assignments and bit parts in TV shows such as in the ITV police drama The Bill.[2] By the time she was 15, she had formed an all-girl band, 'Milan', with two fellow students and landed a record contract and a gig touring as the 'warm up' group for the British Boyband, East 17. Milan were reasonably successful. They entered the dance charts three times but were not successful enough for McCutcheon who didn't like playing in seedy clubs and she ended up leaving the group.[2] Mainstream success Her unwavering determination finally paid off in 1995 when, while working as a shopgirl at 'Knickerbox', McCutcheon was offered the small part of Tiffany Raymond on the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. As McCutcheon received more exposure from the soap, press interest also increased, and what should have been a triumphant experience was marred in 1996 by a series of salacious stories sold to the press, first by her father and then by her boyfriend, Gareth Cooke.[2] Despite this, the role of Tiffany grew, as did McCutcheon's popularity, and 22 million viewers tuned in to see her final scenes in Albert Square in 1998, when her character was killed in a special episode screened on New Years Eve.[4] In reality McCutcheon had decided to quit the soap in order to embark on a pop career, and the death of her on-screen character was not viewed favourably by the actress. Since leaving the show she has publicly slammed Mal Young, the executive producer who made the decision to kill her character, for treating her unfairly and bringing her role to an end so irrevocably merely to punish her for quitting.[2] In turn, Young has hit back at McCutcheon, saying that her anger only arose because she wanted him to keep her role in EastEnders open as a 'safety net' in case her pop career failed and he was not prepared to do this. McCutcheon has subsequently written an autobiography entitled Who Does She Think She Is?: My Autobiography , which depicts a less than favourable account of the producer.[2] http://www.moviesbuzz.com/english/actresses/martine-mccutcheon/profile.htm Comment on this... |
| ||
| by andrina she has good songs on her myspace! http://www.myspace.com/martinemcc Comment on this... |
| ||
| by dannielle hi i love martine she is my bigest fan i have always like her and i cry at her song perfit moment im her no1 fan and always will be  Comment on this... |
| |||||||||
| by Amy Crasweller hi martine is fab in the films im in her fanclub i wont miss anything what she is in. love amy Comment on this... | |||||||||
|
| ||
| by Jason I am dying to see this movie with Martine in it! Comment on this... |