Brenda Blethyn
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Brenda Anne Blethyn is an English actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. Blethyn has received two Academy Award nominations, two SAG Award nominations, two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one. In addition, she has won a BAFTA, an Empire Award and a Golden Lion, and has earned a Theater World Award and both a Critics' Circle Theatre Award and a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for her theatrical work. Born into a working class home in Ramsgate, Kent, Blethyn pursued an administrative career until her early 30s before enrolling in the Guildford School of Acting after the dissolution of her marriage in 1973. She subsequently joined the Royal National Theatre and received credits for her performances in Troilus and Cressida (1976) and Mysteries (1979). In 1981, Blethyn earned her first critical acclaim for Steaming. In 1980, Blethyn made her television debut in Mike Leigh's film Grown-Ups; then, after a modest number of guest spots in several productions, in the mid-1980s she garnered leading roles in the short-living sitcoms Chance in a Million and The Labours of Erica. Having followed her big screen debut with smaller supporting roles in films such as The Witches (1990) and A River Runs Through It (1992), she made her real cinema breakthrough with her role in the 1996 dramedy Secrets & Lies, for which she received rave reviews. Blethyn has since appeared in an eclectic range of films, including independent comedies such as Saving Grace (2000), Plots with a View (2002) and Clubland (2007), music-themed films like Little Voice (1998) and Beyond the Sea (2004) and big-budget dramas such as Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007). In addition, Blethyn has appeared in television productions including The Buddha of Suburbia (1993), Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001), Belonging (2004) and War and Peace (2007). Her most recent leading role in TV drama is the title role in Vera (2011), playing Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope. Description above from the Wikipedia article Brenda Blethyn, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Credits
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
as Mrs. Bennet
Atonement (2007)
as Grace Turner
A River Runs Through It (1992)
as Mrs. Maclean
Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005)
as Mama Heffalump (voice)
The Witches (1990)
as Mrs Jenkins
The Wild Thornberrys Movie (2002)
as Mrs. Fairgood (voice)
The Sleeping Dictionary (2003)
as Aggie
Secrets & Lies (1996)
as Cynthia Rose Purley
Undertaking Betty (2002)
as Betty Rhys-Jones
Two Men in Town (2014)
as Emily Smith
Saving Grace (2000)
as Grace Trevethyn
Music from Another Room (1998)
as Grace Swan
Little Voice (1998)
as Mari Hoff
Lovely & Amazing (2002)
as Jane Marks
RKO 281 (1999)
as Louella Parsons
Beyond the Sea (2004)
as Polly Cassotto
Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too (2009)
as Mama Heffalump (voice)
My Angel (2011)
as Headmistress
Dead Man Running (2009)
as Mother
Dragonfly (2025)
as Elsie
Daddy and Them (2001)
as Julia Montgomery
Inside the Golden Statue (1998)
as Self
Mary and Martha (2013)
as Martha
Blizzard (2003)
as Aunt Millie
Remember Me? (1997)
as Shirley
Ethel & Ernest (2016)
as Ethel Briggs (voice)
Girls' Night (1998)
as Dawn Wilkinson
Piccadilly Jim (2004)
as Nesta Pett
On a Clear Day (2005)
as Joan
Pumpkin (2002)
as Judy Romanoff
Charlotte (2022)
as Grossmama (voice)
Sonny (2002)
as Jewel
London River (2009)
as Elisabeth
Sheppey (1980)
as Miss Grange
Bedroom Farce (1980)
as Kate
On the Nose (2001)
as Mrs. Delaney
The Best of So Graham Norton (2004)
as Self (archive footage)
The Yellow Bird (2002)
as Mrs. Louise Tutwiler
Mysterious Creatures (2006)
as Wendy Ainscow
Grown-Ups (1980)
as Gloria
My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Duper Super Sleuths (2010)
as Mama Heffalump (voice)
Bob the Builder: The Knights of Can-A-Lot (2003)
as Dr. Florence Mountfitchet (voice)
King Lear (1982)
as Cordelia
The Calling (2010)
as Sister Ignatious
The Bullion Boys (1993)
as Gwen
Say No to Strangers (1981)
as Policewoman
Henry VI Part 1 (1983)
as Joan La Pucelle
Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen and Milkmen (2018)
as Narrator
The Imitation Game (1980)
Actor
Mike Leigh: Making Plays (1982)
as Self
The Storyteller: A Story Short (1988)
as The Storyteller's Wife
King of the Teds (—)
as Nina
Night Train (1998)
as Alice Mooney
Belonging (2004)
as Jess Copplestone
The Shawl (1989)
as Miss A
Clubland (2007)
as Jean
Fools (—)
Actor
Vera, Farewell Pet (2025)
as Herself / Vera
In the Winter Dark (1998)
as Ida Stubbs
Floating Off (1983)
as Janice
Strawberry Fields Forever (—)
as Grannie Nellie
The Many Faces of... Michael Caine (2011)
Actor
A Way of Life (2004)
as Annette
Claws (1987)
as Sylvia