Brenda Blethyn - Career, Personal life, Selected filmography

Theatre and film actress, born in Ramsgate, Kent, SE England, UK. After graduating from the Guildford School of Acting she gained early stage experience with the touring Bubble Theatre Company and the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. In 1975 she joined the Royal National Theatre. Productions at the National include The Mysteries (1979), Bedroom Farce (1987), and The Beaux' Stratagem (1989). Other theatre work includes Steaming (1981), Benefactors (1984), The Bed Before Yesterday (1994), and Habeas Corpus (1996). She has also worked widely in television in Britain in such programmes as Chance In A Million (1983–5), Outside Edge (1994–6), Between the Sheets (2003), and Belonging (2004). During the 1990s she concentrated on her film career, her films including The Witches (1992) and A River Runs Through It (1992). She received international acclaim for her portrayal as Cynthia in Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies (1996), for which she won the Palme d'Or for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. Later films include Little Voice (1998), Saving Grace (2000), and Pride & Prejudice (2005).

Brenda Blethyn
Promotional picture (2000).
Birth name	Brenda Ann Bottle
Born	February 20, 1946 Ramsgate, Kent, England
Notable roles	"Cynthia Rose Purley" in Secrets & Lies "Mari Hoff" in Little Voice "Grace Trevethyn" in Saving Grace

Brenda Blethyn, OBE (on February 20, 1946 in Ramsgate, Kent) is an English Golden Globe winning and Academy Award-nominated film, stage, television and voice actress, and writer.

Blethyn performs predominantly in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from comedies and dramas to historical films and crimes.

Career

1980s

After winning the London Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress (for the play Steaming) in 1980, Blethyn made her screen debut, starring in the play Grown Ups as part of the BBC's Playhouse strand.

1990s

After fifteen years of working in theatre and television Brenda Blethyn made her big screen debut with a small role in 1990's dark fantasy film The Witches.

Blethyn's breakthrough role came with Mike Leigh's film drama Secrets & For her improvised performance (Leigh favours improvisation, which he then works into scripts) Blethyn was praised with a variety of awards, including the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, the British Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe and a first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

As a result Blethyn gained opportunities to work in film work and in 1998 Blethyn starred in five different films.

At the same year Blethyn also co-starred as a neurotic psychologist in Billy Bob Thornton's poor rated direct-to-TV comedy Daddy And Them, while playing an all-disapproving wife in the Irish comedy On The Nose (alongside Robbie Coltrane and Dan Akroyd) and an affluent but desperate and distracted matriarch of three daughters in Nicole Holofcener's moderately successful drama Lovely & Afterwards Blethyn starred in A Way of Life, playing a bossy and censorious mother-in-law of a struggling young woman, and in the television film Belonging, playing a middle-aged childless woman, who is left to look after the elderly relatives of her husband and to make a new life for herself, after he leaves her for a younger woman.

Future work

Brenda Blethyn recently finished filming the drama Clubland and the historical mini series War and Piece.

Personal life

After divorcing Alan Blethyn, a graphic designer, in 1973, Blethyn kept her husband's surname as her professional name.

Selected filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1990	The Witches	Mrs. Jenkins
1992	A River Runs Through It	Mrs. Maclean
1996	Secrets & Lies	Cynthia Rose Purley	Golden Globe - Best Actress
1997	Remember Me?	Shirely
1998	Girl's Night	Dawn Wilkinson
	Night Train	Alice Mooney
	In The Winter Dark	Ida Stubbs
	Little Voice	Mari Hoff	Academy Award/Golden Globe nominations - Best Actress
	Music from Another Room	Grave Swan
2000	Saving Grace	Grace Trevethyn	Golden Globe nomination - Best Actress
2001	Anne Frank: The Whole Story	Auguste van Pels	Emmy nomination - Best Supporting Actress
	Daddy & Them	July Montgomery
	Lovely & Amazing	Jane Marks
	One The Nose	Mrs. Delaney
2002	Pumpkin	Judy Romanoff
	Sonny	Jewel Phillips
	Plots With a View	Betty Rhys-Jones
2003	The Sleeping Dictionary	Aggie	DVDX Award - Best Supporting Actress
	Blizzard	Aunt Millie
2004	Piccadilly Jim	Nina Banks
	Beyond the Sea	Polly Cassatto
	A Way of Life	Annette
	Belonging	Jess Copple	BAFTA TV Award nomination - Best Actress
2005	On a Clear Day	Joan
	Pride & Prejudice	Mrs. Bennet	BAFTA Award nomination - Best Actress
2007	Clubland	Jean	Post-production (as of September 2006)
	War and Peace	Márja Dmitrievna Achrosímova	Filming (as of September 2006)
	Atonement	Grace Turner	Filming (as of September 2006)
	No One Gets Off In This Town	...	Pre-production (as of September 2006)