Clare Frances Elizabeth Higgins (born 10 November 1955) is an English actress. Her film appearances include Hellraiser (1987),
Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988), Small Faces (1996) and The Golden Compass (2007).
A six-time Olivier Award nominee for her work in the theatre, Higgins received her first nomination in 1984 for her role as Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. She has since won the Olivier Award for Best Actress three times; for Sweet Bird of Youth in 1995, Vincent in Brixton in 2003 and Hecuba in 2005. She made her Broadway debut in 2003 in Vincent in Brixton, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play. She returned to Broadway in the 2014 revival of A Delicate Balance.
Higgins, the second of five children, was born in Bradford, to Paula Cecilia (née Murphy) and James Stephen Higgins.[citation needed] Her parents were from working class Irish Catholic backgrounds, and worked as teachers. Higgins was interested in acting since her childhood. After being expelled from a convent school, she ran away from home at seventeen. At 19, she gave birth to a boy but gave him up for adoption at her social worker's insistence.

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