Biography for
Claire Stansfield More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

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Mini Biography

Claire was born in London, England. Her father is English and her mother is German. They moved to Canada when she was very young so even though she has a British passport she considers herself a Canadian. She went to school in Toronto and grew up around the High Park area. She worked as a model in her teens but was not really that good at it. She did some runway shows (as she was already 6ft tall at 16), a bit of magazine work and some commercials. Claire has done a lot of traveling. Her mother is a flight attendant for Air Canada and she has had many cheap airline tickets thrown her way. She speaks German and spent most of her summers in a town outside of Cologne in Germany (with her beloved grandmother Kai), after whom she named her production company, Kai Productions. She settled down for two years back in London in the 80s (going back to her roots apparently) and enrolled at London's Central School of Drama. When her studies were finished and her parents cut off her cash, she followed her father to California and decided to try her luck in Hollywood.

Her mother now lives in Vancouver, B.C., and always comes with her on location. She's very proud and has finally learned not to shout across the set (to tell Claire to stand up straight) in the middle of a take. Claire is in her thirties now and likes to take time to remember and appreciate the things she has to be grateful for. She is extremely grateful that her family is healthy and that they all get along. She has a dog named Dino, adopted from "Pet Orphans" in LA. Dino and Claire have been together for 7 years now.

Among her film credits are Best of the Best 2 (1993), Drop Zone (1994), Sensation (1994), The Outpost (1995/I), Sweepers (1998) and a small role in The Doors (1991).

Trivia

Performed a dance number at the 2002 XenaCon in Pasadena with Xena co-star, Hudson Leick (Callisto), mirroring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Mostly known to fans as Alti, evil sorceress and nemesis to Xena in "Xena: Warrior Princess" (1995).

Ex-girlfriend of Simon Le Bon, they were in a relationship in the early 80s.

Speaks fluent German.

Ex-model.

Personal Quotes

[on Gary Busey]: "Gary is just the sweetest man. He was very supportive of me and protective. I guess I saw that very passionate, slightly crazy side that he seems to vent in some bad ways sometimes. But I never saw anything but the good side of him, and I liked him very much."

[on her nudity in Sensation (1994)]: "[the movie] plays on cable all the time, and I've had guys come up to me in the gym and re- peat intimate lines from my love scene. I went in to pick up my cleaning one day, and my dry cleaner gives me this smile and says, 'I see you on TV last night...' These are people I barely know, yet they know something very intimate about me and it makes me just want to go and hide. I've done my share of B-movies, but I really don't understand that 'Here come the tits' approach where they just parade them on and off screen every 15 minutes. That's not sexy. It's just a way to keep the audience awake during a very bad movie."

[on The Outpost (1995/I)]: "It was the best cast and the worst script. What can you do? The whole thing was us running around in some underground hallway, holding a stick with a syringe scotch-taped to it and chasing a long-haired body builder with this phallic thing that comes out of his mouth. It was just so silly. But the biggest challenge was trying to keep a straight face, before every take, we would chant 'Monster movie, monster movie, monster movie.' It was our own little mantra to psyche ourselves up to get through the scene without laughing."

Where Are They Now

(March 2003) Created a designer clothing company, C&C California, with friend and theater actress Cheyann Benedict (C&C = Claire & Cheyann). The initial product line is high-quality 1970s-styled t-shirts and tank tops.

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