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
The Witches (1990)
as Mrs Jenkins
Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005)
as Mama Heffalump (voice)
The Wild Thornberrys Movie (2002)
as Mrs. Fairgood (voice)
The Sleeping Dictionary (2003)
as Aggie
Undertaking Betty (2002)
as Betty Rhys-Jones
Lovely & Amazing (2002)
as Jane Marks
Remember Me? (1997)
as Shirley
Secrets & Lies (1996)
as Cynthia Rose Purley
Inside the Golden Statue (1998)
as Self
Saving Grace (2000)
as Grace Trevethyn
Girls' Night (1998)
as Dawn Wilkinson
My Angel (2011)
as Headmistress
The Best of So Graham Norton (2004)
as Self (archive footage)
Sheppey (1980)
as Miss Grange
Mysterious Creatures (2006)
as Wendy Ainscow
Music from Another Room (1998)
as Grace Swan
Bedroom Farce (1980)
as Kate
Charlotte (2022)
as Grossmama (voice)
Ethel & Ernest (2016)
as Ethel Briggs (voice)
The Storyteller: A Story Short (1988)
as The Storyteller's Wife
Sonny (2002)
as Jewel
Two Men in Town (2014)
as Emily Smith
Blizzard (2003)
as Aunt Millie
Daddy and Them (2001)
as Julia Montgomery
Dead Man Running (2009)
as Mother
Beyond the Sea (2004)
as Polly Cassotto
The Yellow Bird (2002)
as Mrs. Louise Tutwiler
Little Voice (1998)
as Mari Hoff
Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too (2009)
as Mama Heffalump (voice)
On the Nose (2001)
as Mrs. Delaney
My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Duper Super Sleuths (2010)
as Mama Heffalump (voice)
RKO 281 (1999)
as Louella Parsons
On a Clear Day (2005)
as Joan
Mary and Martha (2013)
as Martha
Bob the Builder: The Knights of Can-A-Lot (2003)
as Dr. Florence Mountfitchet (voice)
Dragonfly (2025)
as Elsie
London River (2009)
as Elisabeth
Piccadilly Jim (2004)
as Nesta Pett
Pumpkin (2002)
as Judy Romanoff
The Imitation Game (1980)
Actor
In the Winter Dark (1998)
as Ida Stubbs
King Lear (1982)
as Cordelia
Belonging (2004)
as Jess Copplestone
King of the Teds (—)
as Nina
Say No to Strangers (1981)
as Policewoman
A Way of Life (2004)
as Annette
Night Train (1998)
as Alice Mooney
Mike Leigh: Making Plays (1982)
as Self
Claws (1987)
as Sylvia
Henry VI Part 1 (1983)
as Joan La Pucelle
Grown-Ups (1980)
as Gloria
Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen and Milkmen (2018)
as Narrator
Fools (—)
Actor
Clubland (2007)
as Jean
The Bullion Boys (1993)
as Gwen
The Calling (2010)
as Sister Ignatious
The Shawl (1989)
as Miss A
Vera, Farewell Pet (2025)
as Herself / Vera
Floating Off (1983)
as Janice
Strawberry Fields Forever (—)
as Grannie Nellie
The Many Faces of... Michael Caine (2011)
Actor