Celebrity Nooz: Justine Waddell

Justine Waddell (Actress) - Dracula 2000

Updated: 11/09/23

Name: Justine Waddell

Birth Name: Justine Waddell

Born: November 4, 1975 in Johannesburg, South Africa

Claim To Fame: Justine Waddel is a South African-British former actress. She played roles in films Dracula 2000 (2000), Chaos (2005), and The Fall (2006).

Family Life: N/A

Info: Her father, Gordon Waddell (1937–2012), was a Scottish rugby union player who captained the Scottish national team and played for the British and Irish Lions. He later became a Progressive Party Member of Parliament in South Africa, and a director of Anglo American PLC.

Her grandfather, Herbert Waddell (1902-1988), also played rugby for Scotland and the Lions.

She has three sisters and a brother.

Waddell moved with her family to Scotland when she was eleven. Four years later they moved to London.

She studied Social and Political Science at Cambridge's Emmanuel College.

Trivia: Waddell has divided her work between stage and screen.

Amongst her roles to date have been her performance as Sasha opposite Ralph Fiennes and Bill Paterson in the Almeida Theatre's London production of Ivanov (1997), Countess Nordston in Anna Karenina (1997), Tess in a London Weekend Television production of Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1998), Julia Bertram in Mansfield Park (1999), Estella in Great Expectations, Nina in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Seagull by Anton Chekhov (2000), for which she was nominated for an Ian Charleson award and Molly Gibson in the television mini series Wives and Daughters for which she won a Broadcasting Press Guild Best Actress award.

She played Mary Heller in the American film, Dracula 2000.

She won a Prism Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Natalie Wood in The Mystery of Natalie Wood, a 2004 TV movie directed by Peter Bogdanovich.

In 2006, Waddell starred alongside Jason Statham and Ryan Phillipe in Chaos. Later on the same year she co-starred with Lee Pace in Tarsem Singh's The Fall.

For her role in Target (2011), Original title: Mishen, she learned the Russian language from scratch. This would be her last acting role before her retirement.

She's also the founder and director of Kino Klassika Foundation which educates audiences about film and film materials from the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Where Are They Now: It has been over a decade since Waddell's retirement from acting. Currently, Waddell's a producer on Virginia Woolf's Night & Day which is in pre-production. No news on if she's return to the stage or screen, but we can always hope.

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