Hannah Taylor Gordon

Actor

• Born: March 6, 1987
• Place of Birth: London, England

Contribution: Hannah Taylor Gordon is an English actor best known for her portrayal of Anne Frank in the ABC miniseries Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001), for which she received nominations for a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe.

Background

Hannah Taylor Gordon was born on March 6, 1987, in London, England, the eldest child of Andrew, a media entrepreneur, and Claire, a stay-at-home mother. Taylor Gordon has six younger siblings: Cassian, Mila-Blaise, Felix, Leo, Alec, and Talya.

Taylor Gordon landed her first acting role when she was just four years old, when she was cast in an episode of the hit BBC medical drama Casualty. She attended boarding school just outside London before studying art history at University College London. After completing her studies, Taylor Gordon focused on honing her acting skills, taking a three-month intensive course in 2008 at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, a method acting school located in Manhattan, and then training in a two-year program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) from 2010 to 2012.

Career

Two years after her first acting role, Taylor Gordon was cast as young Blanca Trueba alongside Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep in the 1993 film adaptation of The House of the Spirits, which chronicles a prominent Chilean family in the late twentieth century through three generations. The House of the Spirits won best work of a non-Latin American director on a Latin American subject at the Havana Film Festival in 1994, among numerous other awards.

Following The House of the Spirits, Taylor Gordon landed a bit part in the thriller Don’t Get Me Started (1994) and another alongside Hugh Grant and James Fleet in the romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). She was cast in a slightly larger role in Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 film adaptation of Frankenstein as the young version of Elizabeth.

Also in 1994, Taylor Gordon was cast in her first starring role in the BBC television series Against All Odds: Lost and Found. The show was quickly canceled. However, that did not prevent the actor from landing small parts in the 1995 television movie Buffalo Girls, which follows the exploits of rough cowgirl Calamity Jane, and the film Saint-Ex (1996).

Three years after Saint-Ex, Taylor Gordon landed a substantial role in the 1999 romance Passion’s Way, a film about a love triangle set in France during the early twentieth century. That same year she starred in the well-received film Mansfield Park, an adaptation of the famed Jane Austen novel of the same name. Taylor Gordon also starred alongside actor Robin Williams in the 1999 comedy-drama Jakob the Liar, about a Jewish shopkeeper spreading hope among his oppressed peers in occupied Poland in 1944.

This would not be Taylor Gordon’s last foray into World War II stories. Two years after Jakob the Liar, she received the role that would catapult the young and virtually unknown actor to stardom. At the age of thirteen, Taylor Gordon was cast as Anne Frank in the 2001 ABC miniseries Anne Frank: The Whole Story. For her role, she was nominated for both a Golden Globe Award for best performance by an actress in a miniseries and a Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a miniseries or movie.

Anne Frank: The Whole Story became Taylor Gordon’s breakthrough and opened doors for the young actor. She received first-billed roles in the 2004 films Secret Passage and Vipère au poing (Viper in the Fist) before starring in the 2005 film The Fine Art of Love: Mine Ha-Ha, about girls raised and educated in a suspiciously secluded school.

In 2006, Taylor Gordon landed the role of Rachel in the Emmy-nominated television miniseries The Ten Commandments, which tells the Exodus story of the biblical figure Moses freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. She then appeared in the fantasy short To the Waters and the Wild (2011).

The actor’s next major role came in 2012, when she starred as Lady Macbeth in the direct-to-video film The Tragedy of Macbeth, a reimagining of Shakespeare’s classic play. She also filmed a part for Kenneth Branagh action thriller Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2013).

Taylor Gordon went on to appear in a number of British television programs and films. In 2014, she played Seren in the made-for-television thriller The Gigolo: Origins and Mary Shelley in Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night, a BBC television movie about the making of the famous science-fiction novel Frankenstein. In the years that followed, she found roles in shorts including the 2015 drama Daddy, the 2016 comedic fantasy The Five Wives & Lives of Melvyn Pfferberg, and the 2017 thriller The Gigolo. Taylor Gordon also notably appeared as a nurse in the 2016 BBC series Close to the Enemy, a spy drama set during the Cold War. Taylor Gordon subsequently retired from acting. According to Taylor Gordon's LinkedIn profile in 2024, she was the creative director of The Little Grown Ups clothing line, which she founded. She also founded a bilingual children's book series.

Impact

Taylor Gordon is a retired actor who started her career at the tender age of four. As she grew older, she demonstrated her talents on the small and big screens in America and Europe among famed actors many years her senior. At fourteen, she received recognition for her acting abilities with nominations for a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy Award for playing Anne Frank in the 2001 television movie Anne Frank: The Whole Story.

Personal Life

In addition to acting, Taylor Gordon worked as a casting director for a time. She is also a highly skilled horseback rider and enjoys horse jumping. She is a talented dancer as well, mainly in ballroom dance and ballet.

Bibliography

"Hannah Taylor Gordon." IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm0853364. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.

Kelleher, Terry. “Picks and Pans: Tube.” Rev. of Anne Frank: The Whole Story, dir. Robert Dornhelm. People 21 May 2001: 31. Print.

Owen, Rob. “ABC’s Anne Frank Disturbing, Compelling.” Rev. of Anne Frank: The Whole Story, dir. Robert Dornhelm. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. PG Pub, 20 May 2001. Web. 22 Aug. 2013.

Peyser, Marc. “Out of the Attic, at Last.” Newsweek Rev. of Anne Frank: The Whole Story, dir. Robert Dornhelm. 21 May 2001: 57. Print.

Riding, Alan. “Undaunted by the Legend; A Young Actress Finds the Spirit of Anne Frank in a New Miniseries.” New York Times. New York Times, 20 Feb. 2001. Web. 22 Aug. 2013.

Taylor Gordon, Hannah. “Kindred Spirit.” Interview. People 28 May 2001: 72. Print.