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The actress also starred in &34;Doctor Dolittle,&34; Disney's &34;Hercules,&34; and an episode of &34;Star Trek: The Next Generation.&34; Samantha Eggar, Oscarn

The actress also starred in "Doctor Dolittle," Disney's "Hercules," and an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

Samantha Eggar, Oscar-nominated star of The Collector and David Cronenberg's The Brood, dies at 86

The actress also starred in "Doctor Dolittle," Disney's "Hercules," and an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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October 17, 2025 4:50 p.m. ET

Samantha Eggar in 1970. Credit:

Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty

Samantha Eggar, the English actress who starred in such films as *The Collector* and *The Brood*, has died.

The actress' daughter Jenna Stern announced that she died at age 86 on Wednesday. A cause of death was not immediately available.

"My Mama passed Wednesday evening," Stern wrote on Instagram. "Peacefully and quietly surrounded by family. I was there next to her …holding her hand, telling her how much she was loved. It was beautiful. It was a privilege."

Eggar's manager, Christopher Sherman, remembered the actress in an Instagram post.

"Very saddened to hear the news today that longtime friend and client, Samantha Eggar, has passed away," he wrote. "Sam was the brightest, FUNNIEST, most talented person I have ever known. A beacon of light wherever she went. I will greatly miss our breakfasts, and her wonderful stories, but mostly I will miss her love of the art, her fabulous voice, her compassion for people and animals and her spectacular laugh!! RIP dear friend. Godspeed."

Samantha Eggar in Hollywood, Calif., on July 31, 2019.

David Livingston/Getty

Born Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar in London in 1939, the actress declined a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts to pursue fashion design. She later attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, and began her acting career on the stage in productions of *A Midsummer Night's Dream* and *Landscape With Figures*.

The latter play led to her debut film, 1962's *Dr. Crippen*, which starred future *Halloween* icon Donald Pleasence. After a few TV performances in the early 1960s on shows like *The Saint* and *Ghost Squad*, Eggar spent the remainder of the decade focusing on film roles.

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After appearing in movies like *Return From the Ashes* and *Psyche 59*, Eggar's most acclaimed film role came in 1965's *The Collector*. Directed by William Wyler (*Ben-Hur*, *Roman Holiday*), the film saw the actress portray an artist who is kidnapped by a disturbed young man (Terence Stamp). Eggar received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress (ultimately losing to Julie Christie in *Darling*), and won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival as well as Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama at the Golden Globes.

The following year, Eggar starred in *Walk, Don't Run*, which was Cary Grant's final film before his retirement. Perhaps her most recognizable '60s project was 1967's *Doctor Dolittle*, in which she played Emma, the traveling companion of Rex Harrison's titular veterinarian. The film was a notorious box-office bomb, but received eight Academy Award nominations, winning the award for Best Song for "Talk to the Animals."

Anthony Newley and Samantha Eggar in 'Doctor Dolittle'.

Harry Benson/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty

In the early 1970s, Eggar appeared alongside Sean Connery and Richard Harris in *The Molly Maguires*, acted opposite Oliver Reed in *The Lady in the Car With Glasses and a Gun*, starred with Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner in *The Light at the Edge of the World*. She reteamed with Brynner in *Anna and the King*, a TV sitcom that saw the actor reprise his role from *The King and I*.

The actress starred in the Sherlock Holmes–Sigmund Freud movie *The Seven-Per-Cent Solution* with Alan Arkin and Robert Duvall in 1977, and reunited with Pleasence in the anthology horror film *The Uncanny* that same year.

Eggar's best-known '70s project was 1979's *The Brood*, an early psychological horror film from David Cronenberg (*The Fly*, *Videodrome*). The actress portrayed a psychotherapy patient with a mysterious connection to murderous creatures that terrorize a community. She also guested on episodes of *Hawaii Five-O*, *Columbo*, *The Love Boat*, *Starsky & Hutch*, and *Fantasy Island* in the late '70s.

In the 1980s, Eggar returned to the stage in productions of *The Seagull* and *The Lonely Road* in the U.K. She appeared in episodes of *Magnum, PI* and *Murder, She Wrote* during the same period, as well as horror films like *Curtains* and *Demonoid*. She also acted opposite Audrey Hepburn in one of the *My Fair Lady* star's final projects, the 1987 TV movie *Love Among Thieves*.

Samantha Eggar as Hera in 'Hercules'.

Buena Vista Pictures

Eggar appeared in a number of notable projects throughout the 1990s, including an episode of *Star Trek: The Next Generation* in which she played the sister-in-law of Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard. She provided the voice of Hercules' Olympian mother Hera in Disney's *Hercules*, and reprised the role on seven episodes of the animated film's TV spinoff of the same name. She also played a supporting role in the Billy Zane–led superhero movie *The Phantom*.

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Eggar's final film role came in 1999's *The Astronaut's Wife*. The following year, she had a 19-episode stint on *All My Children* as Charlotte Devane, and played MI6 boss M in the James Bond video game *007: Nightfire*. In 2005, she played a recurring role on ABC's *Commander in Chief*, and she later guested on *Mental* and *The Nine Lives of Chloe King*. The actress' final screen performance came in 2012 when she voiced* *Whale in Adult Swim's *Metalocalypse*.

The actress' family and friends also knew her as a steadfast animal lover, and she advocated for conservation organizations like the Cousteau Society and the World Wildlife Fund, as well as other orgs like the Kidney Foundation and the British Olympic Association.

The actress is survived by her daughter, Jenna Stern, and her son, Nicolas Stern.**

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