Actors - Martine McCutcheon

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	Actors - Martine McCutcheon

Martine McCutcheon (born Martine Kimberley Sherri Ponting on May 14, 1976 in Hackney, London, England) is a British actress and singer.

Background and Early Career

Martine was born at the Salvation Army Mothers Hospital when her mother Jenny was just 19 and she endured a turbulent early childhood thanks to the abusive and irrational behaviour of her drug-addled, biological father, Thomas Hemmings. Her earliest memory of her father is him dangling her over a balcony by her ankles, 30ft up in the air, threatening to drop her unless her mother did what he wanted. Despite her father leaving when Martine was 2 years old, he would return periodically to threaten her mother, so her early years were spent running and hiding in order to escape him. When Martine was nine, her mother finally won sole custody of Martine and an injunction was made against her father seeing her until she was 18.

At age 10 Martine's mother met and married window cleaner John McCutcheon (the father of Martine's younger brother), which led to Martine taking her step-fathers surname, McCutcheon. Martine knew she wanted to be a performer from a young age, but her family couldn't afford the fees at a drama school so Martine had to resort to alterantive methods in order to learn her performing trades. Luckliy for Martine, she met a woman at a local dance school who had been to the Italia Conti stage school and suggested it would be a good environment for her and after a persuavsive letter from Martine a Church of England trust agreed to sponsor her. She trained after school and every Saturday (learning tap, ballet, jazz, and acting) in order to catch up with the more privileged kids who were competing with her for a place at the prestiguous school.

At the age of 12 Martine obtained her first acting role and was paid £350 to appear in an American commercial for the drink Kool-Aid, which was followed by modelling assignments and bit parts in TV shows such as in the ITV police drama The Bill. By the time she was 15, she had formed an all-girl band, Milan, with two fellow students and they had landed a record contract and a gig touring as the 'warm up' group for the British Boyband East 17. Milan were successful (making the dance charts three times), but not successful enough for McCutcheon (who didn't like playing in seedy clubs), so she quit the group.

Her Big Television Break

Her unwavering determination finally paid off in 1995 when, while working as a shopgirl at Knickerbox, Martine was offered the small part of Tiffany Raymond on the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. As Martine received more exposure from the soap, press interest also increased, and what should have been a triumphant experience was marred in 1996 by a series of salacious stories sold to the press, first by Martine's father and then by her boyfriend, Gareth Cooke. Despite this the role of Tiffany grew, as did Martine's popularity with the audience and millions of viewers tuned in to see her final scenes in Albert Square in 1998, when her character was killed in a special episode screened on New Years Eve. In reality Martine had decided to quit the soap in order to embark on a pop career and the death of her on-screen character was not viewed favourably by the actress. Since leaving the show she has publically slammed the executive producer, Mal Young (who made the decision to kill her character) for treating her unfairly and bringing her role to an end so irrevocably, merely to punish her for quitting. In turn Young has hit back at McCutcheon saying that her anger only arose beacuase she wanted wanted him to keep her role in EastEnders open as a 'safety net' in case her pop career failed, and he was not prepared to do this. Martine has subsequently dedicated a chapter of her autobiography depicting a less than favourable account of the producer.

Pop Career

In 1999 Martine unleashed herself as a new solo pop-artist, surprising critics and doubters alike by scoring a number 1 in the UK Singles Chart with the ballad Perfect Moment. The song was a global success reaching number 1 not only in the UK, but in Israel, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland & Australia too. That same year she scored two more top 10 hits, reaching number 6 with the singles 'Iv'e Got You' and later 'Talking in Your Sleep', which was recorded for the Children in Need appeal with all proceeds being donated to the cause. All 3 three singles were taken from her debut album 'You, Me and Us', which peaked at number 2 in the British Album charts and was certified as double platinum. During this period Martine thought she'd found happiness with a friend and lover, Jonathon Barnham, but that relationship soured with a reported miscarriage and the revelation that Jonathon had attended sex parties behind her back. There were also rumours that Martine had to stump up the £75,000 bail money for Jonathan, when he and his father were charged with importing cannabis into the UK.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Martine McCutcheon ]

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