Joanna Lumley (born May 1, 1946 in Srinagar, Kashmir, India) is a British actress and former model who is best known for her portrayal of the chain smoking, boozing, cocaine-sniffing and other drug-taking sexpot Patsy Stone on the British comedy television show Absolutely Fabulous.
Tall, leggy, thin and blonde, she began her acting career as a Bond girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Her first major role was as Purdey in The New Avengers: a revival of the secret agent series The Avengers.
She has specialised in playing upper-class parts, and her distinctive plummy voice has reinforced this. However, following her rise to fame, she revealed that she had been an unmarried mother during the 1960s when it was socially unacceptable. The first of her two subsequent marriages was to comedy writer, Jeremy Lloyd.
Lumley was awarded an OBE in 1995.