Stockard Channing Smiles in Photos from Her Play in London Ahead of 81st Birthday

Stockard Channing is all smiles in celebration of her new play.

On Wednesday, Feb. 5, the actress attended a promotional event for her new West End production, Elektra, at the Duke Of York’s Theatre in London. She was photographed alongside her costar, Brie Larson. Larson stars as Elektra, while Channing stars as Clytemnestra.

The Grease star wore black leather pants and a navy blue pinstripe blazer, while Larson opted for a brown zebra print jacket with wide-leg black trousers. 

The premiere of the pair’s play comes just a week before Channing turns 81 on Thursday, Feb. 13. 

In late January, the Emmy and Tony winner revealed to U.K. outlet The Times that as she approaches her birthday, she realizes that “memory is very, very tricky” and “it’s painful to look at the past.”

She noted that she “consciously [tries] to be in the moment.” Adding, “There’s a lot of things conspiring to take you away — friends of a similar age who are still enmeshed in the past.”

As for what Channing hopes for in her 81st year, she’s steering clear of finding a romantic relationship. Channing told The Times “that [it] would be such a pain in the ass” to have a romantic partner. 

“I’m consolidating, thank you very much,” she said. “I’m very happy with the friends I have. No. Life is good. Life is very good.”

Channing has been married four times. First to Walter Channing Jr., then to Paul Schmidt, David Debin and David Rawle. The star had a longtime relationship with partner Daniel Gillham, a cinematographer who died in 2014.

After Gillham died, Channing left her residence in Maine and moved full-time to London.

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“I enjoyed living here [in London], the friendships I had, I kept. I was spending months at a time here. And then I was here during COVID, and that sort of cemented everything,” she told The Times. 

She continued: “I realized that I was happier here. Also at my age people get sick and people die and people move away. And that started to happen. Now I live here, and I’m really grateful that I was able to pull it off.”