Kathleen Norris "Koo" Stark (born April 26, 1956) is an American photographer and actress, known for her relationship with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and her roles in erotic films. She is a patron of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, which runs the museum of the Victorian pioneer photographer.
Early life and education Stark was born in New York. Her parents were Wilbur Stark, a writer and producer, and Kathi Norris, a writer and television presenter in New York City. She is the youngest of three children. At the time of her birth, the family lived in Manhattan.TV Personalities: Biographical Sketch Book Volume 3 (1957), p. 148 Her grandfather, Edwin Earl Norris, was a cabinetmaker and musician, playing horn and viola in the Newark Symphony Orchestra. Her mother's family were Presbyterians.Andrew Devore Boyd, Joseph Boyd, Sr. (died 1799) of Prince George's County, Maryland, and his family through six generations (2010), p. 34: '221. Lena A. Loyd''Edwin Earl Norris, 80, widely known cabinetmaker and musician', obituary in Newark Advocate dated February 27, 1957 After a divorce in the 1960s, her mother remarried.Andrew Morton, Mick Seamark, Andrew, the Playboy Prince (1983), p. 137
Koo Stark attended the Hewitt School in New York and the Glendower Preparatory School in Kensington, London. After training at a stage school, she began her acting career.Wilbur Stark, TV Producer, 81 , dated August 14, 1995, at nytimes.com, accessed 12 November 2017
Career
Acting Her first film role was in the comedy All I Want Is You... and You... and You... (1974), produced by her father. In 1975 she appeared in Las adolescentes (The Adolescents), opposite Anthony Andrews,"Adolescentes, Las", in Luis Gasca, Un siglo de cine español (Planeta, 1998), p. 17 and starred in an episode of Shades of Greene.Quentin Falk, Travels in Greeneland: The Complete Guide to the Cinema of Graham Greene (2000), p. 149 Also that year she had an uncredited role as a bridesmaid in The Rocky Horror Picture Show."Metropolitan Life: Why Are They Famous?". The Independent. 8 August 1996. Retrieved 21 February 2020. Her best-remembered performance is the lead role in the erotic film Emily (1976), directed by Henry Herbert, 17th Earl of Pembroke.Christopher Neame, A Take on British TV Drama: Stories from the Golden Years (Scarecrow Press, 2004), p. xiv-xv Uncertain whether to accept the part, Stark did so on the advice of Graham Greene, with whom she had worked the year before. Of working with her in Emily, actor Victor Spinetti later wrote "I found Koo Stark to be an enchanting girl and terribly bright and interesting".Beatlefan, volume 7 (Goody Press, 1985), p. 12
She also appeared in Cruel Passion (1977), a film based on the novel Justine. Around the same time, she played the part of Camie Marstrap in Star Wars (1977); the scenes in which she appeared were cut from the film before its original release,Marcus Hearn, The Cinema of George Lucas (2005), p. 106 but can be seen in Star Wars: Behind the Magic (1998).Newsweek, Volume 132 (1998), p. 122
Stark also began to work as a fashion model, particularly for Norman Parkinson.Hugh Montgomery Massingberd, The Daily Telegraph Third Book of Obituaries: Entertainers (1998), p. 122 In February 1981, she was an understudy in the Edward Albee play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the National Theatre.
She appeared in the comedy Eat the Rich (1987), and then featured in "Timeslides", an episode of the sci-fi show Red Dwarf (1989), playing Lady Sabrina Mulholland-Jjones, the fiancée of a more successful Dave Lister.Paul Green, Encyclopedia of Weird War Stories: Supernatural and Science Fiction Elements (2017), p. 148
In September 1987, she returned to the stage, taking the part of Vera Claythorne in Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None at the Duke of York's Theatre.And Then There Were None at theatricalia.com, accessed 7 November 2017 The London Theatre Record posed the question "Why has a girl so obviously three-dimensional chosen a part so obviously two-dimensional?"London Theatre Record, Volume 8, Issues 1-13, p. 184. She played Miss Scarlett in the 1991 series of Cluedo, succeeding Toyah Willcox and befriending Rula Lenska.Karen Louise Hollis, The Other Side of the Table (2011), p. 61
Photography Stark has worked as a photographer since the 1980s, and may have been the first person to turn the tables on the pursuing paparazzi by taking photos of them.Liam Clifford, Koo Stark returns to London for first exhibition in 23 years dated April 12, 2017 at amateurphotographer.co.uk, accessed 12 November 2017 Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has told how in 1983 a photographic printer, Gene Nocon, invited Stark to take photographs of people taking photos of her, for his exhibition, Personal Points of View, planned for October. She persuaded Nocon to include Andrew's work as well.Prince Andrew, Photographs (Hamilton, 1985), p. 8: "The next step in my development as a photographer, apart from my trial and error experimenting, came when Koo Stark, now Jefferies, came back to the U.K. with some pictures of herself for printing, taken by Norman Parkinson. She went to see photographic printer Gene Nocon. At this time Gene was organising an exhibition planned for October 1983. The theme was photographs taken by people who were the subjects of photographers. He invited her to take part. It was called "Personal Points of View". Koo came to see me and suggested that I should take part as well. I replied that I was sure that I wouldn't be allowed to. Koo then went back to see Gene without my knowledge and asked him if a friend of hers could also take part. Although Koo was reluctant to name names and Gene was equally reluctant to agree to an unknown person taking part, it seems they came to an understanding..." Her early photographs led to a book deal, for which she took lessons from Norman Parkinson. She travelled to Tobago, where he lived, and he became her mentor. Her book Contrasts (1985) included about a hundred of her photographs. She went on to study the work of leading photographers, including Angus McBean, whom she met and photographed,Phil Coomes, In pictures: Koo Stark on both sides of the lens dated 8 May 2017 at BBC.co.uk developing her interests in photography to include reportage, portraits, landscapes, still life, and other work.
The book Contrasts was launched at Hamiltons Gallery, London, in September 1985, at an exhibition of the same name.British Journal of Photography, Volume 132 (Henry Greenwood & Co., 1985), p. 1022 In 1994, the Gallery Bar at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane hosted an exhibition called 'The Stark Image', forty photographs by Stark, including several previously unpublished.British Journal of Photography, Volume 141 (Henry Greenwood & Co., 1994), p. 58 In 1998, her work was featured at the Como Lario in Holbein Place, Belgravia.Jim Ainsworth, The Good Food Guide 1998 (Which? Books, 1998), p. 87 In July 2001 she had an exhibition called 'Stark Images" at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh,British Journal of Photography, Volume 148 (Henry Greenwood & Co., 2001), issue 7346 duplicated from June to July 2001 at Dimbola Lodge on the Isle of Wight.Harriet Lane, The Stark ages , in The Observer dated 17 June 2001, accessed 12 November 2017 A solo exhibition of portraits was at the Winter Gardens, Ventnor, from September to October 2010,David Bartlett, Koo Stark Exhibition At Winter Gardens dated 8th September, 2010, at onthewight.com, accessed 12 November 2017 and another at Dimbola Lodge from February to April 2011.Events February 2011 at iwcp.co.uk, Isle of Wight County Press, accessed 19 November 2017: "Koo Stark Contrasts Art Exhibition at Dimbola Lodge Museum, Freshwater, closed Mondays."
On 22 April 1987, a charity auction at Christie's, St James's, for the Campaign to Protect Rural England, featured signed work by David Bailey, Patrick Lichfield, Don McCullin, Terence Donovan, Fay Godwin, Heather Angel, Clive Arrowsmith, Linda McCartney, Koo Stark, and fifteen others,British Journal of Photography, Volume 134 (Henry Greenwood & Co., 1987), p. 234BBC Wildlife, Volumes 4-5 (1986), p. 201Arts Review, Volume 39, Issues 1-13 (Richard Gainsborough Periodicals, 1987), p. 136 Views by Stark, including some of Kirby Muxloe Castle, were in G. H. Davies's England's Glory (1987), a CPRE book launched at the same time.Review of G. H. Davies's England's Glory: a Photographic Journey through England's Threatened Landscape in Antiquity, Volume 61 (Antiquity Publications, 1987), p. 476
Pictures by Stark have appeared in Country LifeBritish Design Strikes a Winning Pose by Jennifer Guerrini-Maraldi, photographs by Koo Stark in Country Life volume 191 (1997) and other magazines. Several of her portraits are in the National Portrait Gallery,Koo Stark (1956-) at npg.org.uk, accessed 12 November 2017 and work is also in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, both in London.
A Leica user, Stark has said her camera transcends mere function and is a personal friend. A solo exhibition hosted by the Leica gallery in Mayfair in May 2017 was entitled Kintsugi, a Japanese word for a way of renovating things that have been broken. Stark explained the title: "Kintsugi is a way of learning to see individual beauty, and to appreciate the value of experience and honesty. It is the antithesis of digital, airbrushed, Photoshop-homogenised 'beauty'." In August the exhibition was repeated in Manchester, to mark the opening of a new Leica store there.Nigel Barlow, Koo Stark exhibition comes to Manchester dated August 11, 2017, at aboutmanchester.co.uk, accessed 12 November 2017
Personal life Stark has been a practising Buddhist since meeting the Dalai Lama.Time, Volume 149 (Time Incorporated, 1997), p. 19 She continues to live in London and is a member of the Chelsea Arts Club. She is a Patron of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, at Dimbola Lodge on the Isle of Wight, home of the Victorian pioneer photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
Relationships Stark met the then Prince Andrew (later known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor) in February 1981, and they were close for some two years, before and after his active service in the Falklands War.Alastair Burnet, The ITN book of the royal wedding (Michael O'Mara Books, 1986), p. 38: "The actress Miss Koo Stark was a regular girlfriend of Prince Andrew for several years." Tina Brown has claimed that this was Andrew's only serious love affair.Tina Brown, The Diana Chronicles (2011), p. 228 In October 1982 they took a holiday together on the island of Mustique.Kim McNamara, Paparazzi: Media Practices and Celebrity Culture (2015), p. 29 According to Lady Colin Campbell, Andrew was in love, and the Queen was "much taken with the elegant, intelligent, and discreet Koo".Lady Colin Campbell, The Real Diana, p. 161 However, in 1983, after 18 months of dating, they split up under pressure from the Queen. In 1997, Andrew became the godfather of Stark's daughter,Newsweek, Volume 128 (1997), p. 76 and in 2015, when he was accused by Virginia Roberts over the Jeffrey Epstein connection, Stark came to his defence, stating that he was a good man and she could help to rebut the claims.
Stark married Tim Jeffries, manager of a photographic gallery, in August 1984,Milestones, in Time dated Aug. 27, 1984 at St Saviour's, Chalk Farm, with the minister, Christopher Neil-Smith, commenting that "It was such a quiet affair you wouldn't have known it was happening."'Stark weds Green Shield heir', AP report in The Daily Register dated August 17, 1984, page A2, col. 1 They stayed together for a year, later divorcing.
She was later engaged to Warren Walker, an American banker, but he cancelled their wedding before the birth of their daughter, Tatiana, in May 1997.
Legal cases