Acting
Brenda Blethyn
EN, FR cinema · 64 credits
Born
20 February 1946 (age 80)
Birthplace
Ramsgate, Kent, England, UK
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
Filmography
Strawberry Fields Forever
as Grannie Nellie
King of the Teds
as Nina
Dragonfly
as Elsie
Vera, Farewell Pet
as Herself / Vera
Charlotte
as Grossmama (voice)
Ethel & Ernest
as Ethel Briggs (voice)
Two Men in Town
as Emily Smith
Mary and Martha
as Martha
My Angel
as Headmistress
The Calling
as Sister Ignatious
My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Duper Super Sleuths
as Mama Heffalump (voice)
Dead Man Running
as Mother
London River
as Elisabeth
Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too
as Mama Heffalump (voice)
Atonement
as Grace Turner
Clubland
as Jean, Writer
Mysterious Creatures
as Wendy Ainscow
Pride & Prejudice
as Mrs. Bennet
Pooh's Heffalump Movie
as Mama Heffalump (voice)
On a Clear Day
as Joan
Beyond the Sea
as Polly Cassotto
Belonging
as Jess Copplestone
Piccadilly Jim
as Nesta Pett
A Way of Life
as Annette
The Best of So Graham Norton
as Self (archive footage)
Blizzard
as Aunt Millie
Bob the Builder: The Knights of Can-A-Lot
as Dr. Florence Mountfitchet (voice)
Undertaking Betty
as Betty Rhys-Jones
Pumpkin
as Judy Romanoff
Sonny
as Jewel
Lovely & Amazing
as Jane Marks
The Yellow Bird
as Mrs. Louise Tutwiler
The Wild Thornberrys Movie
as Mrs. Fairgood (voice)
On the Nose
as Mrs. Delaney
Daddy and Them
as Julia Montgomery
Saving Grace
as Grace Trevethyn
RKO 281
as Louella Parsons
Girls' Night
as Dawn Wilkinson
Little Voice
as Mari Hoff
Music from Another Room
as Grace Swan
In the Winter Dark
as Ida Stubbs
Night Train
as Alice Mooney
Remember Me?
as Shirley
Secrets & Lies
as Cynthia Rose Purley
A River Runs Through It
as Mrs. Maclean
The Witches
as Mrs Jenkins
The Shawl
as Miss A
The Storyteller: A Story Short
as The Storyteller's Wife
Claws
as Sylvia
Henry VI Part 1
as Joan La Pucelle
Floating Off
as Janice
King Lear
as Cordelia
Say No to Strangers
1981
Say No to Strangers
as Policewoman
Grown-Ups
as Gloria
Sheppey
1980
Sheppey
as Miss Grange