Brenda Blethyn
60 movies · 29 TV shows
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Feb 20, 1946 (age 80)
- Place of birth
- Ramsgate, Kent, England, UK
Biography
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.
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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.
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Profiles IMDb
Known for
Brenda Blethyn: movies and TV shows
Acting (89)
- Upcoming
- Upcoming Strawberry Fields Forever
as Grannie Nellie
- Upcoming King of the Teds
as Nina
- 2026
- 2025 Dragonfly
as Elsie
- 2022 Charlotte
as Grossmama (voice)
- 2020
- 2018 Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen and Milkmen
as Narrator
- 2016 Ethel & Ernest
as Ethel Briggs (voice)
- 2014 Two Men in Town
as Emily Smith
- 2013 Mary and Martha
as Martha
- 2012
- 2011 My Angel
as Headmistress
- 2011
- 2011
- 2010 The Calling
as Sister Ignatious
- 2010 My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Duper Super Sleuths
as Mama Heffalump (voice)
- 2009 Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too
as Mama Heffalump (voice)
- 2009 London River
as Elisabeth
- 2009 Dead Man Running
as Mother
- 2007
- 2007 Clubland
as Jean
- 2007 Atonement
as Grace Turner
- 2006 Mysterious Creatures
as Wendy Ainscow
- 2006
- 2005 Pride & Prejudice
as Mrs. Bennet
- 2005 On a Clear Day
as Joan
- 2005 Pooh's Heffalump Movie
as Mama Heffalump (voice)
- 2004 Beyond the Sea
as Polly Cassotto
- 2004 A Way of Life
as Annette
- 2004 Piccadilly Jim
as Nesta Pett
- 2004 Belonging
as Jess Copplestone
- 2003
- 2003 Blizzard
as Aunt Millie
- 2003 Bob the Builder: The Knights of Can-A-Lot
as Dr. Florence Mountfitchet (voice)
- 2003 The Sleeping Dictionary
as Aggie
- 2002 The Wild Thornberrys Movie
as Mrs. Fairgood (voice)
- 2002 Undertaking Betty
as Betty Rhys-Jones
- 2002 Sonny
as Jewel
- 2002 Lovely & Amazing
as Jane Marks
- 2002 Pumpkin
as Judy Romanoff
- 2002 The Yellow Bird
as Mrs. Louise Tutwiler
- 2001 Daddy and Them
as Julia Montgomery
- 2001 On the Nose
as Mrs. Delaney
- 2001
- 2000 Saving Grace
as Grace Trevethyn
- 1999 RKO 281
as Louella Parsons
- 1999
- 1998 Little Voice
as Mari Hoff
- 1998 In the Winter Dark
as Ida Stubbs
- 1998 Girls' Night
as Dawn Wilkinson
- 1998 Music from Another Room
as Grace Swan
- 1998 Night Train
as Alice Mooney
- 1997 Remember Me?
as Shirley
- 1996 Secrets & Lies
as Cynthia Rose Purley
- 1994
- 1993
- 1993 The Bullion Boys
as Gwen
- 1992 A River Runs Through It
as Mrs. Maclean
- 1992
- 1991
- 1990 The Witches
as Mrs Jenkins
- 1989
- 1989
- 1989 The Shawl
as Miss A
- 1989
- 1988 The Storyteller: A Story Short
as The Storyteller's Wife
- 1988
- 1988
- 1987 Claws
as Sylvia
- 1986
- 1985
- 1984
- 1984
- 1984
- 1983 Floating Off
as Janice
- 1983
- 1983
- 1983 Henry VI Part 1
as Joan La Pucelle
- 1982 King Lear
as Cordelia
- 1981 Say No to Strangers
as Policewoman
- 1980 Grown-Ups
as Gloria
- 1980 Bedroom Farce
as Kate
- 1980 Sheppey
as Miss Grange
- 1980
- 1980
- 1979
- 1975
- 1974
Behind the camera (1)
- 2007 Clubland
Writer
Talk shows and appearances (14)
- 2025
- 2007 The Graham Norton Show
1 episode
- 2006 The One Show
1 episode
- 2004
- 2002 V Graham Norton
1 episode
- 1998 So Graham Norton
1 episode
- 1998
- 1995 The Frank Skinner Show
2 episodes
- 1993 GMTV
1 episode
- 1992 HBO First Look
1 episode
- 1988 This Morning
1 episode
- 1982
- 1953 The Oscars
2 episodes
- 1944 Golden Globe Awards
3 episodes