British actress Georgina Cates died May 6, 2026, at 51, and the press did not report her death for more than five months.
Cates was known for the BBC sitcom “2point4 Children” and the film “An Awfully Big Adventure.” Her children, Naiia and Jakob, survive her. No cause of death has been made public.
The news spread Saturday, Oct. 17, after Andrew Marshall, the creator of the sitcom, posted on X.
“Our 1st Jenny in 2p4”
“I’m very sad to report, I have just discovered, that lovely and talented Claire Woodgate aka Georgina Cates, our 1st Jenny in 2p4 died last May,” Marshall wrote.
Marshall said he knew nothing beyond what IMDb carried. He offered his sympathies to her family and children, and he asked anyone with more information to share it. No explanation has been given for the more-than-five-month gap before the press reported the death.
A Daughter’s Instagram Post in June
Her family had said so months earlier. Naiia Ulrich, her daughter with actor Skeet Ulrich, wrote on Instagram in June that her mother had died.
“My beautiful, free-spirited mom lived a hard life and still found ways to make herself and others laugh and smile,” Naiia Ulrich wrote.
Skeet Ulrich, who starred in “Scream” and “Riverdale,” left a comment under his daughter’s post. “I love you more than words can say sweetheart,” he wrote.
Red Hair and a Scouse Accent
Cates auditioned under her real name for the role of Stella in the 1995 film “An Awfully Big Adventure” and was rejected. She then dyed her hair red, adopted a Liverpudlian accent and came back as Georgina Cates, a 17-year-old working-class Scouser. She got the part.
Mike Newell directed the film, an adaptation of Beryl Bainbridge’s 1990 novel. Cates played Stella Bradshaw opposite actors Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant. The film premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes.
Newell said he had been conned. He was angry at first. He later took the view that the ruse was good for show business.
Her First Screen Role at 16
She was born Clare Elaine Woodgate on April 4, 1975, in Colchester, Essex, England, and went to Colchester County High School for Girls. She landed the part of Jenny Porter at 16, her first screen role.
Jenny Porter was the teen daughter of a London household beset by bad luck and strange mishaps. Cates played her for the first two seasons, from 1991 to 1992. Actress Clare Buckfield took over the part for the show’s final six seasons.
She said in a 2016 interview that she had always been odd. She said in the same interview that she ran away from home for a day at 13 to find herself an agent.
Cates married Skeet Ulrich in 1997, after the two met at an Oscar party. They wed on their farm in Madison County, Va. Their twins, Naiia and Jakob, were born in 2001. The couple divorced in 2005, after eight years.
Seven Years Away, Then “Sinner”
Cates drew her sharpest notices in 1998, as Amanda, a cheating wife, in the black comedy “Clay Pigeons.” Ridley Scott produced the film and David Dobkin directed it, with actors Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix co-starring.
The same year brought “Illuminata,” written and directed by John Turturro and set in a turn-of-the-century New York theater company. She also appeared that year in “A Soldier’s Sweetheart,” a Showtime telefilm shot in New Zealand with Ulrich and actor Kiefer Sutherland.
Her other credits included “The Ruth Rendell Mysteries,” “The Bill,” “Casualty,” “Chris Cross,” “An Exchange of Fire” (1993), “Au Pair” (1994), “Frankie Starlight” (1995), “Big City Blues” (1997) and “Stiff Upper Lips” (1997).
She took a seven-year break from the industry and returned with the independent film “Sinner.” She won Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 41st Brooklyn Arts Council International Film & Video Festival in 2007, for her role as Lil in the film.
She appeared in “Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa” in 2013. Her last screen credits came in 2016. She worked in recent years as a photographer.