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Grease star Stockard Channing reveals she lives 'reclusive' life in UK
11 August 2026, 12:14
The Hollywood actor has continued working on stage since moving to the UK, but admits she is unsure what comes next.
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Stockard Channing has revealed that she has embraced a quieter life in London following the death of her long-term partner, saying she is now “happy being a recluse”.
The 82-year-old actor, best known for playing the sharp-tongued Betty Rizzo in Grease, has largely stepped away from screen work in recent years, instead concentrating on theatre and living a life far removed from Hollywood.
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Stockard moved from Maine to London in 2019, five years after the death of cinematographer Daniel Gillham, her partner of 24 years.
The pair met while working on the 1988 film A Time of Destiny and remained together until his death in 2014.
Speaking to The Times, Stockard said the loss affected her more profoundly than she initially understood.
“My partner, Daniel, died in 2014 and it was more devastating than I realised; it had a lag effect,” she said. “The pattern of my life shifted, so I shifted my life from Maine.”
She said she has lived alone since Gillham’s death and has come to enjoy the solitude. “I’m happy being a recluse,” she said.
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The move to Britain also coincided with a period of political change in the US, with Stockard saying it “vaguely coincided” with Donald Trump’s election.
For an actor whose most famous character was the rebellious Rizzo, alongside John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, Stockard’s life now looks rather different.
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Her career has stretched across film, television and stage, with another of her best-known roles coming as First Lady Abbey Bartlet in The West Wing.
She has also appeared in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and Practical Magic.
Her relationship with Gillham followed four marriages, which Stockard described as representing different stages of her life.
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“I was married four times before Daniel and they all represent epochs of me,” she said.
Stockard also reflected on her decision not to have children. While she once considered becoming a mother, she joked that she now sometimes thinks about what it might be like to have children to look after her.
“Children were thought about,” she said, “because it’d be great to have someone taking care of me," adding: “Children can be just as selfish as everybody else out there.”
Despite describing herself as a recluse, Stockard has hardly disappeared from the British cultural scene.
She has continued to work regularly on stage since settling in London, including appearances in Night, Mother and Elektra.
She is currently directing Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape at the Edinburgh Fringe. Stockard has admitted, however, that she is uncertain about what comes next.
“I’m not sure I’ll do anything after that,” she told The Times.
This September, she will return to the world of Practical Magic, reprising her role as Frances Owens alongside Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in the long-awaited sequel.
