Edinburgh-born Hannah Gordon burst onto the screen in the mid-1960s with a role in the first episode of the British horror/sci-fi anthology series Out of the Unknown in 1965.
Her early life was marked by tragedy, as her mother Hannah Grant passed away from a heart attack when she was just nine years old, followed by the passing of her father William Henry Gordon three years later due to advanced Parkinson's disease. Gordon came under the guardianship of an uncle who enrolled her in elocution classes.
By the age of fourteen, she was living independently and was able to determine her own career path, which began with drama studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. After graduating, Gordon had her first performing experience on the repertory stage in Dundee.
In 1967, she appeared as Florence Crompton in the play Spring and Port Wine, a role she reprised for the film version three years later. Her first big hit on the screen was as Suzie Basset in the BBC1 sitcom My Wife Next Door in 1972, co-starring alongside John Alderton.
Gordon's next big role was as the elegant Lady Virginia Bellamy in the long-running Edwardian drama series Upstairs, Downstairs in 1971, her character being several years older than herself. Other notable performances include Agnes Wickfield in David Copperfield, the waif-like Biddy in Great Expectations, and the resourceful Mary Garth in Middlemarch.
She also played Ann Treves, wife of the prominent surgeon and anatomist Sir Frederick Treves, in David Lynch's acclaimed motion picture The Elephant Man in 1980. Gordon commanded further leads in the banking dramas Telford's Change and Joint Account, as well as in the sitcom Goodbye, Mr. Kent opposite Richard Briers.
She was featured several times as foil for the stars on The Morecambe & Wise Show and has made guest appearances in Doctor Who, The Persuaders!, Jonathan Creek, Monarch of the Glen, and Midsomer Murders. Her character Glynis also killed off Victor Meldrew in the final episode of One Foot in the Grave.
In the 1990s, Gordon appeared in the TV series Hustle, playing an old paramour of 'roper' Albert Stroller.
Gordon often featured as a panelist on the game show Call My Bluff in the 1970s and 1980s. Her face remained in the public eye with commercials for the Safeways supermarket chain and as presenter of the lifestyle television show Watercolour Challenge between 1998 and 2002.
Gordon's work on both the classical and contemporary stage has included Othello, Shirley Valentine, and Lady Chiltern in An Ideal Husband.
Hannah Gordon was married to the late London-born cinematographer Norman Warwick, who was twenty years her senior. They had first met during the filming of Spring and Port Wine in 1970.
