British actress (born 1946)
Brenda Blethyn
|
---|
Blethyn in 2014
|
Born
| Brenda Bottle
(
1946-02-20
)
20 February 1946
(age 78)
|
---|
Alma mater
| Guildford School of Acting
|
---|
Occupation
| Actress
|
---|
Years active
| 1976?present
|
---|
Spouses
|
Alan Blethyn
(
m.
1964;
div.
1973)
Michael Mayhew
(
m.
2010)
|
---|
Awards
| Full list
|
---|
Brenda Blethyn
OBE
(
nee
Bottle
; born 20 February 1946) is an English actress. Known for her
character work
and versatility,
[1]
[2]
she is the recipient of
various accolades
, including a
Golden Globe
, a
BAFTA
, and a
Cannes Film Festival Award
, as well as nominations for two
Academy Awards
and two
Primetime Emmys
. She was appointed
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
(OBE) for services to drama in 2003.
[3]
Blethyn pursued an administrative career before enrolling at the
Guildford School of Acting
in her late 20s. She subsequently joined the
Royal National Theatre
, gaining attention for her performances in plays such as
Benefactors
, for which she received an
Olivier
nomination in 1984. Blethyn made her screen debut in the
Mike Leigh
television film
Grown-Ups
(1980), and later won leading roles on the short-run sitcoms
Chance in a Million
(1984?1986) and
The Labours of Erica
(1989?1990). She made her feature film debut with a small part in
Nicolas Roeg
's
The Witches
(1990), followed by a supporting role in
Robert Redford
's
A River Runs Through It
(1992).
Blethyn experienced a career breakthrough with her portrayal of Cynthia Purley in the 1996 drama
Secrets & Lies
, for which she earned multiple awards, including
Best Actress
at
Cannes
, a
BAFTA
, a
Golden Globe
, and an Oscar nomination for
Best Actress
. She received a second Oscar nomination two years later, this time for
Best Supporting Actress
, for her portrayal of Mari Hoff in
Little Voice
(1998). Blethyn has since appeared in a range of mainstream and
independent features
, such as
Girls' Night
(1998),
Saving Grace
(2000),
Lovely & Amazing
(2001),
Pumpkin
(2002),
Beyond the Sea
,
A Way of Life
(both 2004),
Pride & Prejudice
(2005), and
Atonement
(2007).
Blethyn played Miriam Dervish on the
ITV
sitcom
Outside Edge
between 1994 and 1996, receiving a
British Comedy Award
. For her portrayal of Auguste van Pels in
Anne Frank: The Whole Story
(2001), she was nominated for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries
. She received a second Emmy nomination, this time for
Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
, for her portrayal of Caroline Cresswell on
season ten
of
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
(2008). She starred as Kate Abbott on the ITV sitcom
Kate & Koji
from 2020 to 2022.
Blethyn has played the
title role
, Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope, in the long-running ITV crime drama series
Vera
since 2011. In 2017, she was named Performer of the Year by the
Royal Television Society
for this role.
Early life
[
edit
]
Born in
Ramsgate
,
Kent
, Blethyn was the youngest of nine children in a
Roman Catholic
, working-class family. Her mother, Louisa Kathleen (nee Supple; 10 May 1904 ? 21 June 1992), was a housewife and former maid, who met Blethyn's father, William Charles Bottle (5 March 1894 ? 9 January 1985) in approximately 1922 while working for the same household in
Broadstairs
, Kent.
[4]
[5]
Bottle had previously worked as a
shepherd
, and spent six years in
British India
with the
Royal Field Artillery
immediately prior to returning home to Broadstairs to become the family's
chauffeur
.
[4]
Before
WWII
, he found work as a mechanic at the
Vauxhall
car factory
in
Luton
, Bedfordshire.
[4]
The family lived in poor circumstances at their maternal grandmother's home. It was, however, not until 1944, after an engagement of 20 years and the births of eight children, that the couple wed and moved into a small rented house in Ramsgate.
[4]
By the time Blethyn was born in 1946, her three eldest siblings, Pam, Ted and Bernard, had already left home.
[4]
Her parents were the first to introduce Blethyn to the cinema, taking her to the cinema weekly.
[6]
Blethyn originally trained at
technical college
and worked as a
stenographer
and
bookkeeper
for a bank. Towards the end of her first marriage, she opted to turn her hobby of
amateur dramatics
to her professional advantage. After studying at the
Guildford School of Acting
, she went onto the London stage in 1976, performing several seasons at the
Royal National Theatre
. The shows she participated in during the following three years included
Troilus and Cressida
,
Tamburlaine the Great
,
The Fruits of Enlightenment
opposite Sir
Ralph Richardson
,
Bedroom Farce
,
The Passion
and
Strife
.
[7]
Career
[
edit
]
1980s
[
edit
]
After winning the
London Critics' Circle Theatre Award
for Best Supporting Actress (for
Steaming
) in 1980, Blethyn made her screen debut, starring in the play
Grown Ups
as part of the
BBC
's
Playhouse
strand. Directed by
Mike Leigh
, their first collaboration marked the start of a professional relationship which would later earn both of them huge acclaim. Blethyn followed this with roles in
Shakespearean adaptations
for the BBC, playing Cordelia in
King Lear
and
Joan of Arc
in
Henry VI, Part 1
. She also appeared with
Robert Bathurst
and others in the popular
BBC Radio 4
comedy series
Dial M For Pizza
.
In the following years, Blethyn expanded her status as a professional stage actress, appearing in productions including
A Midsummer Night's Dream
,
Dalliance
,
The Beaux' Stratagem
and
Born Yesterday
. She was nominated for an
Olivier Award
for her performance as Sheila in
Benefactors
. Meanwhile, she continued with roles on British television, playing opposite
Simon Callow
as Tom Chance's frustrated fiancee Alison Little in three series of the sitcom
Chance in a Million
. She also had roles in comedies such as
Yes Minister
(1981),
Who Dares Wins
and a variety of roles in the
BBC Radio 4
comedy
Delve Special
alongside
Stephen Fry
and a role in the school comedy/drama
King Street Junior
.
In 1989, she starred in
The Labours of Erica
, a sitcom written for her by
Chance in a Million
writers Richard Fegen and
Andrew Norriss
. Blethyn played Erica Parsons, a single mother approaching her fortieth birthday who realises that life is passing her by. Finding her teenage diary and discovering a list of twelve tasks and ambitions which she had set for herself, Erica sets out to complete them before reaching the milestone.
1990?1996
[
edit
]
After 15 years of working in theatre and television, Blethyn made her big screen debut with a small role in 1990s dark
fantasy film
The Witches
. The film, based on the
same-titled book
by
Roald Dahl
, co-starred actresses
Anjelica Huston
and
Jane Horrocks
.
Witches
received generally positive reviews, as did Blethyn, whom Craig Butler of
All Media Guide
considered as a "valuable support" for her performance of the mother, Mrs Jenkins.
[8]
In 1991, after starring in a play in New York City, Blethyn was recommended to
Robert Redford
to audition for the soft-spoken mother role in his next project
A River Runs Through It
(1992). A
period drama
based on the
same-titled 1976 novel
by
Norman Maclean
, also starring
Craig Sheffer
and
Brad Pitt
, the film revolves around two sons of a
Presbyterian
minister?one studious and the other rebellious?as they grow up and
come of age
during the
Prohibition era
in the United States. Portraying a second generation immigrant of
Scottish heritage
, Redford required Blethyn to adopt a Western American accent for her performance, prompting her to live in
Livingston, Montana
, in preparation of her role.
[9]
Upon its release, the film, budgeted at US$19 million, became a financial and critical success, resulting in a US box office total of US$43.3 million.
[10]
Simultaneously Blethyn continued working on stage and in British television. Between 1990 and 1996, she starred in five different plays, including
An Ideal Husband
at the
Royal Exchange Theatre
, Manchester,
Tales from the Vienna Woods
and
Wildest Dreams
with the
Royal Shakespeare Company
and her American stage debut
Absent Friends
, for which eventually received a Theatre World Award for Outstanding New Talent. She played character parts in the BBC adaptation of
Hanif Kureishi
's
The Buddha of Suburbia
and the
ITV
cricketing comedy-drama series
Outside Edge
, based on the play by television writer
Richard Harris
. Blethyn also performed in a variety of episodes of
Alas Smith & Jones
and
Maigret
.
Blethyn's breakthrough came with
Mike Leigh
's 1996 drama
Secrets & Lies
. Starring alongside
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
, she portrayed a lower-class box factory worker, who after years once again comes in contact with her illegitimate grown-up black daughter, whom she gave up for
adoption
30 years earlier. For her improvised performance, Blethyn was praised with a variety of awards, including the
Best Actress Award
at the
1996 Cannes Film Festival
,
[11]
the British Academy Award, a
BAFTA
Award, a
Golden Globe
and an
Academy Award
nomination for Best Actress.
[12]
Upon its success, Blethyn later stated: "I knew it was a great film, but I didn't expect it to get the attention it did because none of his other films had and I thought they were just as good. Of course, I didn't know what it was about until I saw it in the cinema because of the way that he works?but I knew it was good. That it reached a wider audience surprised me." Besides critical acclaim
Secrets & Lies
also became a financial success; budgeted at an estimated $4.5 million, the film grossed an unexpected $13.5 million in its limited theatrical run in North America.
[13]
1997?1999
[
edit
]
The following year, Blethyn appeared in a supporting role in
Nick Hurran
's debut feature
Remember Me?
(1997), a middle class suburban farce revolving around a family whose life is thrown into chaos upon the arrival of an old university crush.
[14]
Forging another collaboration with the director, the actress was cast alongside
Julie Walters
for Hurran's next project, 1998's
Girls' Night
, a drama film about two sisters-in-law, one dying of cancer, who fulfil a lifelong dream of going to
Las Vegas, Nevada
, after an unexpected jackpot win on the
bingo
. Loosely based upon the real experiences by writer
Kay Mellor
, the production was originally destined for television until
Granada Productions
found backing from
Showtime
.
[14]
Premiered to a mixed response by critics at the 1998
Sundance Film Festival
, who noted it a "rather formulaic tearjerker [with] two powerhouse Brit actresses,"
[15]
Hurran won a Silver Spire at the
San Francisco International Film Festival
and received a
Golden Berlin Bear
nomination at the
Berlin International Film Festival
for his work.
[16]
In John Lynch's
Night Train
(1998), Blethyn played a timid spinster who strikes up a friendship with
John Hurt
's character, an ex-prisoner, who rents a room in her house while on the run from some nasty gangsters. A romantic drama with comedic and thrilling elements, the film was shot at several locations in Ireland, England and Italy in 1997, and received a limited release the following year.
[17]
The film received a mixed reception from critics. Adrian Wootton of
The Guardian
called it "an impressive directorial debut [that] mainly succeeds because [of] the talents of its lead actors". The film was nominated for a Crystal Star at the Brussels International Film Festival.
[18]
In the same year, Blethyn also starred in James Bogle's film adaption of
Tim Winton
's 1988 novel
In the Winter Dark
(1998).
Blethyn's last film of 1998 was
Little Voice
opposite
Jane Horrocks
and
Michael Caine
.
[19]
Cast against type, she played a domineering yet needy fish factory worker, who has nothing but contempt for her shy daughter and lusts after a local showbiz agent.
[20]
A breakaway from the kind at heart roles Blethyn had previously played, it was the character's antipathy that attracted the actress to accept the role of Mari: "I have to understand why she is the way she is. She is a desperate woman, but she also has an optimistic take on life which I find enviable. Whilst I don't approve of her behaviour, there is a reason for it and it was my job to work that out."
[20]
Both Blethyn's performance and the film received rave reviews, and the following year, she was again Oscar nominated, this time for
Best Supporting Actress
for her performance.
2000?2003
[
edit
]
Blethyn's first film of 2000 was the indie comedy
Saving Grace
with
Craig Ferguson
. Blethyn played a middle-aged newly widowed woman who is faced with the prospect of financial ruin and turns to growing
marijuana
under the tutelage of her gardener to save her home. Her performance in the film received favourable reviews;
Peter Travers
wrote for
Rolling Stone
: "It's Blethyn's solid-gold charm [that] turns
Saving Grace
into a comic high."
[21]
The following year, Blethyn received her third Golden Globe nomination for her role in the film, which grossed an unexpected $24 million worldwide.
[22]
That same year, she also had a smaller role in the
short comedy
Yes You Can
.
In 2001, Blethyn signed on to star in her own
CBS
sitcom,
The Seven Roses
, in which she was to play the role of a widowed innkeeper and matriarch of an eccentric family. Originally slated to be produced by two former executive producers of
Frasier
, plans for a pilot eventually went nowhere due to early casting conflicts.
[23]
Afterwards, Blethyn accepted a supporting role as
Auguste van Pels
in the
ABC
mini series
Anne Frank: The Whole Story
based on the
book
by
Melissa Muller
, for which she garnered her first
Emmy Award
nomination.
[24]
Following this, Blethyn starred in the films
Daddy and Them
,
On the Nose
, and
Lovely & Amazing
. In
Billy Bob Thornton
's
Daddy and Them
, she portrayed an English neurotic
psychologist
, who feels excluded by the American clan she married into due to her nationality. The film scored a generally positive reception but was financially unsuccessful, leading to a
direct-to-TV release
stateside.
[25]
In Canadian-Irish comedy
On the Nose
, Blethyn played the minor role of the all-disapproving wife of Brendan Delaney, played by
Robbie Coltrane
.
[26]
Her appearance was commented as "underused" by Harry Guerin, writer for
RTE Entertainment
.
[26]
Blethyn depicted an affluent but desperate and distracted matriarch of three daughters in
Nicole Holofcener
's
independent drama
Lovely & Amazing
, featuring
Catherine Keener
,
Emily Mortimer
and
Jake Gyllenhaal
.
[27]
The film became Blethyn's biggest box-office success of the year with a worldwide gross of $5 million only,
[28]
and earned the actress mixed reviews from professional critics.
[27]
[29]
She also did the UK voice of Dr. Florence Mountfitchet in the
Bob the Builder
special, "The Knights of Can-A-Lot".
In 2002, Blethyn appeared with
Christina Ricci
in the
dark comedy
Pumpkin
, a financial disaster.
[30]
The film opened to little notice and grossed less than $300,000 during its North American theatrical run.
[31]
Her performance as the overprotective wine-soaked mother of a disabled teenage boy generated Blethyn mostly critical reviews.
Entertainment Weekly
writer Lisa Schwarzbaum called her "challenged, unsure [... and] miscast."
[32]
Her following film, limitedly-released
Nicolas Cage
's
Sonny
, saw similar success. While the production was panned in general,
[33]
the actress earned mixed reviews for her performance of an eccentric ex-prostitute and mother, as some critics such as Kevin Thomas considered her casting as "problematic [due to] caricatured acting."
[34]
Blethyn eventually received more acclaim when she accepted the lead role in the
dark comedy
Plots with a View
. Starring alongside
Alfred Molina
, the pair was praised for their "genuine chemistry."
[33]
A year after, Blethyn co-starred with
Bob Hoskins
and
Jessica Alba
in historical
direct-to-video
drama
The Sleeping Dictionary
. The film earned her a DVDX Award but received mixed critics, as did
Blizzard
, a
Christmas movie
in which Blethyn played the eccentric character of Aunt Millie, the narrator of the film's story.
[35]
2003 ended with the mini series
Between the Sheets
, in which Blethyn starred as a woman struggling with her own ambivalent feelings towards her husband and sex.
[36]
2004?2007
[
edit
]
Blethyn co-starred as
Bobby Darin
's mother Polly Cassotto in
Beyond the Sea
, a 2004 biographical film about the singer. The film was a financial disappointment: budgeted at an estimated US$25 million, it opened to little notice and grossed only $6 million in its North American theatrical run.
[37]
Margaret Pomeranz
of
At the Movies
said that her casting was "a bit mystifying".
[38]
Afterwards, Blethyn starred in
A Way of Life
, playing a bossy and censorious mother-in-law of a struggling young woman, played by
Stephanie James
, and in the television film
Belonging
, starring as 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.
[39]
Blethyn received a Golden FIPA Award and a BAFTA nomination for the latter role.
[39]
In early 2005, Blethyn appeared in the indie-drama
On a Clear Day
alongside
Peter Mullan
. In the film, she played the character of Joan, a
Glasgow
housewife, who secretly enrolls in bus-driving classes after her husband's dismissal. Her performance in the film received positive reviews; ABC writer MaryAnn Johanson wrote: "It's Blethyn, who wraps the movie in a cosy, comfortable, maternal hug that reassures you that it will weather its risk-taking with aplomb [...]."
[40]
The film became a minor success at the international box-office chart, barely grossing $1 million worldwide,
[41]
but was awarded a
BAFTA Scotland Award
for Best Film and Screenplay.
[42]
A major hit for Blethyn came with
Joe Wright
's
Pride & Prejudice
, a 2005 adaptation of the same-titled novel by
Jane Austen
.
[43]
Starring alongside
Keira Knightley
and
Donald Sutherland
, Blethyn played
Mrs. Bennet
, a fluttery mother of five sisters who desperately schemes to marry her daughters off to men of means. During promotion of the film, she noted of her portrayal of the character: "I've always thought she had a real problem and shouldn't be made fun of. She's pushy with a reason. As soon as
Mr. Bennet
dies, all the money goes down the male line; she has to save her daughters from penury."
[44]
With both a worldwide gross of over US$121 million and several Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations,
[45]
the film became a critical and commercial success,
[43]
spawning Blethyn another
BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
.
[45]
In 2007, she appeared in the independent Australian coming-of-age comedy
Clubland
. Playing a character that was created specifically with her in mind, Blethyn portrayed a bawdy comedian with a sinking career faced with the romantic life of her young son, played by
Khan Chittenden
.
[46]
The film was released in Australia in June 2007, and selected for screening at the prestigious
Sundance Film Festival
where it was picked up by
Warner Independent Pictures
for a $4 million deal and gained glowing reviews.
[47]
Los Angeles Times
film critic Carina Chocano wrote, "the movie belongs to Blethyn, who takes a difficult, easily misunderstood role and gracefully cracks it open to reveal what's inside."
[48]
The following year, she was nominated for an
Australian Film Institute Award
and an
Inside Film Award
for her performance.
[45]
Also in 2007, Blethyn reunited with Joe Wright on
Atonement
, an adaptation from
Ian McEwan
's critically acclaimed
novel of the same name
. On her role of a housekeeper in a cast that also features
Keira Knightley
,
Saoirse Ronan
and
James McAvoy
, Blethyn commented: "It's a tiny, tiny part. If you blink you'll miss me."
[49]
The film garnered generally positive reviews from film critics and received a
Best Picture nomination at the 2008 Academy Awards
.
[50]
[51]
A box office success around the globe, it went on to gross a total of $129 million worldwide.
[52]
Blethyn also appeared as Marja Dmitrijewna Achrosimowa in a supporting role in the internationally produced 2007 miniseries
War and Peace
by
RAI
, filmed in Russia and Lithuania.
[53]
2008?2010
[
edit
]
In 2008, Blethyn made her American
small screen
debut with a guest role on
CBS
sitcom
The New Adventures of Old Christine
, playing the neurotic mother to
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
' character in the
fourth season
episode "Guess Who's Not Coming to Dinner."
[54]
The same year, she appeared in a single
season ten
episode of the
NBC
legal drama
series
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
. Her performance of a sympathetic fugitive of domestic violence and rape that killed her first husband in self-defense earned Blethyn another
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress ? Drama Series
nomination.
[55]
Blethyn again provided the voice of
Mama Heffalump
in the animated
Disney
direct-to-video animated sequel
Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too
(2009).
Blethyn's first film in two years,
Rachid Bouchareb
's
London River
opened at the
59th Berlin International Film Festival
in 2009 where it won a Special Mention by the Ecumenical Jury.
[56]
[57]
In the film, for which Blethyn had to learn French, she portrays a mother waiting for news of her missing child after the
London bombings of July 2005
, striking up a friendship with a
Muslim
man, whose child has also disappeared.
[57]
Blethyn, who had initially felt sceptical and reticent about the film due to its background, was originally not available for filming but Bouchareb decided to delay filming to work with her.
[58]
Upon release, the film received favourable reviews, particularly for its "dynamite acting".
[59]
Mike Scott from
The Times-Picayune
commented "that Blethyn's performance is nuanced [...] it's that performance?at turns sweet, funny and heartbreaking?that ultimately draws viewers in and defies them to stop watching".
[60]
Also in 2009, Blethyn played a
Benedictine nun
in
Jan Dunn
's film
The Calling
, also starring
Joanna Scanlan
and
Pauline McLynn
. Dunn's third feature film, it tells the story of Joanna, played by
Emily Beecham
, who after graduating from university, goes against her family and friends when she decides to join a closed order of nuns. Released to film festivals in 2009, the independent drama was not released to UK cinemas until 2010, when it was met with mixed to negative reviews by critics, some of which declared it "half
Doubt
, half
Hollyoaks
".
[61]
Blethyn however, earned positive reviews for her performance;
The Guardian
writer Catherine Shoard wrote that "only she, really, manages to ride the rollercoaster jumps in plot and tone."
[62]
Her last film of 2009 was
Alex De Rakoff
's crime film
Dead Man Running
alongside
Tamer Hassan
,
Danny Dyer
, and
50 Cent
, in which she portrayed the wheelchair-using mother of a criminal who is taken hostage. The film received universally negative reviews from film critics, who deemed it to be full of "poor performances, stiff dialogue, [and] flat characters".
[63]
2011?present
[
edit
]
In May 2011, Blethyn began playing the title role in
ITV
's crime drama series,
Vera
as the
North of England
character Vera Stanhope, a nearly retired detective chief inspector obsessive about her work and driven by her own demons, based on the novels of
Ann Cleeves
. Initially broadcast to mixed reviews, it has since received favourable reviews, with Chitra Ramaswamy from
The Guardian
writing in 2016: "Blethyn is the best thing about
Vera
[...] She has the loveliest voice, at once girlish and gruff. Her face is kind but means business. Not many actors can pull off shambolic but effective but Blethyn can do it with a single, penetrating glance from beneath that hat."
[64]
Averaging 7.8 million people per episode in the United Kingdom,
Vera
became one of the most watched British dramas of the 2010s.
[64]
Blethyn received the
2017 RTS North East & Border Television Award
for her performance and has continued to portray Vera as of 2024
[update]
in 13 series of the show.
[65]
Blethyn's only film of 2011 was the
Christmas drama
My Angel
, written, directed and produced by Stephen Cookson. Also starring
Timothy Spall
,
Celia Imrie
and
Mel Smith
, it tells the story of a boy, played by Joseph Phillips, looking for an
angel
to save his mother after an accident. Shot in
Northwood
for less than £2 million,
My Angel
scooped best film, newcomer, director and screenplay, plus best actor and actress for Blethyn and Spall at the
Monaco International Film Festival
.
[66]
In 2012 Blethyn starred opposite singer
Tom Jones
and actress
Alison Steadman
in the short film
King of the Teds
, directed by
Jim Cartwright
, as part of
Sky Arts
Playhouse Presents
series. She played an old flame who gets in touch with a former boyfriend by
Facebook
, introducing tensions and doubts from 40 years before.
[67]
In March 2013 Blethyn costarred with
Hilary Swank
in the
BBC
movie
Mary and Martha
.
[68]
Based on a screenplay by
Richard Curtis
and directed by
Phillip Noyce
, it involves two very different women, who both lose their sons to
malaria
. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with Linda Stasi from
The New York Post
writing that "while Swank and Blethyn make everything they're in more remarkable for their presence, the movie plays more like a based-on-fact
Lifetime
flick than an HBO work of fiction."
[69]
Also in 2013 Blethyn began voicing the supporting character of Ernestine Enormomonster in two seasons of the children's animated television series
Henry Hugglemonster
, based on the 2005 book
I'm a Happy Hugglewug
by Niamh Sharkey.
[70]
In 2014 Blethyn reteamed with filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb for the French-American drama film
Two Men in Town
(2014), a remake of the
1973 film
. Shot in
New Mexico
along with
Forest Whitaker
and
Harvey Keitel
, Blethyn portrays a parole officer in the
Western
film.
[71]
Whilst critical reception towards the film as a whole was lukewarm, Sherilyn Connelly from
The Village Voice
remarked that Blethyn "is wonderful as an all-too-rare character, a middle-aged woman who holds her own in a position of authority over violent men."
[67]
In January 2015, Blethyn was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 19th Capri Hollywood International Film Festival.
[72]
In 2016 Blethyn lent her voice to the British animated
biographical film
Ethel & Ernest
, based on the
graphic memoir of the same name
that follows
Raymond Briggs
' parents through their period of marriage from the 1920s to their deaths in the 1970s.
[73]
The film earned favorable reviews from critics, who called it "gentle, poignant, and vividly animated" as well as "a warm character study with an evocative sense of time and place."
[74]
Blethyn received a nomination in the Best Voice Performance category at the British Animation Awards 2018.
[75]
From 2020 to 2022, she went on to play Kate Abbott, the cafe-owner in
Kate and Koji
who developed strong friendships with two asylum-seeking doctors
Jimmy Akingbola
in Series 1 and Okorie Chukwu in Series 2.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Blethyn married Alan James Blethyn, a
graphic designer
she met while working for
British Rail
, in 1964. The marriage ended in 1973.
[76]
[77]
Blethyn kept her husband's surname as her professional name. British art director Michael Mayhew has been her partner since 1975,
[78]
and the couple married in June 2010.
[79]
Blethyn was appointed
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
(OBE) for services to drama in the
2003 New Year Honours
.
[3]
Filmography
[
edit
]
Film
[
edit
]
Television
[
edit
]
Selected theatre credits
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
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. Retrieved
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.
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- ^
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.
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Archived
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- ^
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Archived
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- ^
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The Witches
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- ^
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.
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.
Star-News
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. Retrieved
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2014
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.
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. 15 October 2002. Archived from
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(11 December 2000).
"
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.
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.
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.
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cite web
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link
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.
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.
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.
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. Archived from
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Archived from
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[2]
[
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]
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box offive"
.
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.
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On a Clear Day
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.
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.
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.
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- ^
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.
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Teeth
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.
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. AccessMyLibrary.com
. Retrieved
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.
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- ^
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. CTV. 5 October 2006
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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. Berlin International Film Festival. Archived from
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on 7 October 2009
. Retrieved
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.
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.
- ^
Mears, Olwen (25 September 2009).
"Brenda Blethyn 'learned French in two months' for latest film"
.
e!tb.com
. Archived from
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
"London River (2011)"
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.
- ^
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"
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.
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- ^
Parkinson, David (10 April 2010).
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.
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- ^
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.
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.
- ^
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.
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. Retrieved
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.
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.
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. 12 January 2020
. Retrieved
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2020
.
- ^
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.
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. Retrieved
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2011
.
- ^
Bryant, Miranda (15 December 2011).
"Six awards for Blethyn and Spall film"
.
London Evening Standard
. Retrieved
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2013
.
- ^
a
b
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.
Walesonline.co.uk
. 5 May 2012
. Retrieved
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2020
.
- ^
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2019
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- ^
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.
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2013
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.
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.
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.
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
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"
.
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.
- ^
Keating, Sara (15 October 2006).
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.
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. London
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
Paton, Maureen (23 August 2013).
"Interview Brenda Blethyn: My family values"
.
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2021
.
- ^
Gilbert, Gerard (23 April 2011).
"Brenda Blethyn turns TV detective in Vera"
.
The Independent
. London.
External links
[
edit
]
Awards for Brenda Blethyn
|
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|
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Best First Novel
| |
---|
Best Contemporary Novel
| |
---|
Best Novel
| |
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Best Historical Novel
| |
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Best Non-Fiction
| |
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Best Short Story
| |
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Best Young Adult Mystery
| |
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Best Children/
Young Adult Fiction
| |
---|
Malice Domestic Award
for Lifetime Achievement
| |
---|
Malice Domestic
Poirot Award
| |
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|
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1946?1975
| |
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1976?2000
| |
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2001?present
| |
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|
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1943?1975
| |
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1976?2000
| |
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2001?present
| |
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|
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International
| |
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National
| |
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Artists
| |
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People
| |
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Other
| |
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