Alice Maud Krige was born on 28. June 1954 in Upington (South Africa) as a child of a German emigration family and grew up in Port Elizabeth (South Africa) without television. She wanted to become a dancer since childhood, but her father (Dr. Louis Krige) did not approve of this idea. Instead of that, she attended the Rhodes University in Grahamstown (South Africa) and planned to study psychology like her mother (Professor Pat Krige).
The university started a drama school and Alice visited the dramatic acting class, because she had one free credit left - and that changed her life. She decided to be an actress, got an honors degree in drama from the Rhodes University after she has been at first gratuated with a psychology degree. Alice moved to London, UK, to study acting for three years at the Central School of Speech and Drama. One year after she left her place of birth, television arrived in South Africa.
Before Alice made her professional acting début on British Television with the role of Lucie Manette in the TV movie "A Tale of Two Cities" in the autumn of 1979, she did 'a very tiny role in a BBC "Play for Today" '. One year later she came to international attention with the Oscar-winning "Chariots of Fire". It closely followed a horror movie "Ghost Story" and for her role of Eva Galli, she have been recognized years later from people, which come up to her in a supermarket with the words, 'Oh, my God, you're the ghost lady!', because "they show 'Ghost Story' on American television every Halloween (...)."
After that, three years of playing at theatre's in London (UK) and Newcastle (UK) with the Royal Shakespeare Company followed. She received her first awards in 1982 for her role in "Arms and the Man" (1981): "Play and Players Award for Best Newcomer" and "Laurence-Olivier-Award for the Most Promising Newcomer".
From 1981 to 1983 she performed plays like "King Lear", "Lear", "The Tempest", "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Cyrano de Bergerac".
A lot of TV-Series and movies followed, like "The Professionals" (1982), "Ellis Island" (1984), "Wallenberg: A Hero's Story" (1985), "King David" (1985), "Murder, She Wrote" (1985), "Dream West" (1986), "Second Serve - I Change My Life" (1986), "Barfly" (1987), "Baja Oklahoma" (1988), "Spies Inc." (1988), "See You in the Morning" (1989), "Haunted Summer" (1989), "Max and Helen" (1990), "L'Amérique en otage" (1991), "The Strauss Dynasty" (1991), "The Hidden Room, Episode: Dream Child" (1991)[Cable ACE Award nomination for Best Actress], until she got in 1992 a role in Stephen King's "Sleepwalkers".
In an interview from 1992 she admit, that she'd never seen a Horror movie in a cinema before she met Mick (the producer of "Sleepwalkers") and that she "hadn't great affection for this genre". To be prepared for her role, she watched five Horrors movies on video over the weekend and she "didn't slept a wink."
She received in 1992 for her role in "Sleepwalkers" a nomination for the "Saturn Award" (for Best Supporting Actress) and an award from the "Fantafestival" (for Best Actress).
"Ladykiller" (1992), "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1992), "Judgment Day: The John List Story" (1993), "Double Deception" (1993), "Jack Reed: Badge of Honor" (1993), "Scarlet and Black" (1993), "Sharpe's Honour" (1994) and "Sea Beggars" (1994) followed, before Alice played in 1995 the role of Belvidera ("Venice Preserved" by Thomas Otway) at the Almeida Theatre, London, UK. In the same year (1995), she appeared on screen in "Joseph", "Institue Benjamenta", "Donor Unknown" and "Devil's Advocate".
In 1996 she became a part of the world-wide Star Trek-Family, for her remarkable portrait of the Borg Queen in "Star Trek: First Contact." Because she grew up without television, Alice only know the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty", and so she had to borrow video tapes with Borg episodes from a friend, to prepare herself for the role.
"Hidden in America" (1996), "Amanda" (1996), "Habitat" (1997), "Twilight of the Ice Nymphs" (1997), "A Father's Betrayal" (1997), "The Commissioner" (1998), "Close Relations" (1998), "Welcome to Paradox" (1998), "Becker: Activate Your Choices" (1999), "Deep in My Heart" (1999), "Molokai: The Story of Father Damien" (1999), "In the Company of Spies" (1999), "The Little Vampire" (2000) and "The Calling" (2000) followed, before she got another chance to play the Borg Queen in the TV series finale of "Star Trek Voyager: Endgame" (2001).
She was not the only actress who played the role of the Borg Queen. In "Star Trek: Voyager's" episode "Dark Frontier" and "Unimatrix Zero" Susanna Thompson was hired, because Alice was prevented with other work commitments.
A little step back in time - thanks to her performance as the Borg Queen, Alice appeared at several Star Trek conventions in the USA, UK, Germany and one in the Czech Republic since 1999, where fans have the possibility to see her live and ask questions during the panels, and to get an autograph from her.
More movies with Alice for 2001 were "Attila", "Superstition" and "Falling" and once again a contact to her role as the Borg Queen. For the PC game "Star Trek: Armada II", she lent her voice for the computer generated Queen.
Together with Stacy Keach, Jeffrey Jones and Miriam Margolyes she read a role for an audio book called "Another Time" (by Ronald Harwood, Publisher: L.A. Theatre Works) in January 2001.
In 2002 we saw her in two episodes of the series "Six Feet Under", in the mini-series "Dinotopia" (2002) and in a small role of the movie "Reign of Fire".
2003 was the year, when she and her husband began to shoot their movie project about the life of the young Julius Caesar. They filmed in a prison in Wales, UK, with a mix of actors and prisoners. It's Alice's first work as a producer.
As an actress she was seen in 2003 in "Children of Dune", "Threat Matrix" (Ep.: Flipping) and in "The Death and Life of Nancy Eaton".
She was also playing once again the Borg Queen in "Borg Invasion 4D" (German title: "Star Trek Borg Encounter") for a theme park attraction (Space Park) in Bremen (Germany) and for STAR TREK: The Experience in Las Vegas (USA), which will be shown in 2004.
Other projects in 2004 were "Looking for Natalie Wood", where she played the mother of the actress Natalie Wood ("West Side Story"), another episode of "Threat Matrix" (Ep.: 19 Seconds), "Shadow of Fear", "Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure" and "Deadwood".
On 02. April 2004 Alice received an honorary Doctor of Literature (DLitt) degree from the Rhodes University, Grahamstown, in South Africa. To read more, please click here:
Pictures from the Graduation *
Article *
Citation by the University Public Orator, Professor Paul Walters *
Graduation Address by Alice Krige *
(* Articles and pictures used with kind permission of the Rhodes University.)
Rhodes honours actress Krige (external link to another article from IOL: Education)
A new year - 2005: "Silent Hill", "Lonely Hearts", "The Contract" (starts shooting on 8. August 2005 in Bulgaria) and a three-part piece for the BBC called "The Line of Beauty".
Alice lives with his husband Paul Schoolman in Malibu, California. [Source from 2004]
One of her favorite books is "Awakening to the Tao" by Liu I-Ming (translated by Thomas Cleary). [Source from 2003]
Her current "favorite" piece of music is "Wild Honey Dreaming," with Riley Lee playing the shakuhatchi and Matthew Doyle the didgeridoo. [Source from 2003]
Her favorite film is "Tales from the Gimli Hospital" by Guy Madden and her favorite TV program is "Fawlty Towers". [Source from 2003]
