Elizabeth Jean Spriggs -Manson (née Williams) was an English character actress. Her roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company included Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Gertrude in Hamlet and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. In 1978, she won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for Arnold Wesker's Love Letters on Blue Paper. Her best known role in film was as Mrs. Jennings in Sense and Sensibility (1995), for which she received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her other films include Richard's Things (1980), Impromptu (1991), Paradise Road (1997) and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001).

Filmography

• 2009Is Anybody There? — Prudence
• Jericho — Ellen Jericho
• Love Soup — Penny's Mother (voice)
• 2004The Queen of Sheba's Pearls
• The Royal — Dolly Smith
• Nice Guy Eddie — Vera McMullen
• Shackleton — Janet Stancombe Wills
• 2001Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone — The Fat Lady
• 2000For My Baby — Olga Jenikova
• Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)
• 2000The Sleeper — Cath
• 1999A Christmas Carol — Mrs. Riggs
• 1999Alice in Wonderland — Duchess
• 1999The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Adventures in the Secret Service — Schultz
• Wives and Daughters — Mrs Goodenough
• 1998The Barber of Siberia — Perepiolkina
• Midsomer Murders — Iris Rainbird, Ursula Gooding
• 1997Paradise Road — Mrs. Roberts
• 1996The Secret Agent — Winnie's Mother
• 1996The Snow Queen's Revenge — Brenda (voice)
• 1995Sense and Sensibility — Mrs. Jennings
• 1994A Pinch of Snuff — Annabelle Andover
• Martin Chuzzlewit — Mrs Gamp
• Middlemarch — Mrs. Cadwallader
• Takin' Over the Asylum — Grandma
• 1993The Hour of the Pig — Madame Langlois
• 1993The Last Vampyre — Eileen Mason
• Anglo Saxon Attitudes — Inge Middleton
• Heartbeat — Rene Kirby, Mrs. Andrews
• 1992The Old Devils — Dorothy Morgan
• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles — Schultz
• 1991Impromptu — Baroness Laginsky
• Performance — Mistress Quickly
• Soldier Soldier — Mrs. Henwood
• Jeeves and Wooster — Aunt Agatha
• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit — May
• 1990Survival of the Fittest — Eileen Blackett
• Agatha Christie's Poirot — Mrs. Leadbetter
• Screen One — Eileen Blackett
• Tales from the Crypt — Mrs. Trask
• Young Charlie Chaplin — Madge Kendal
• 1987Doctor Who: Paradise Towers — Tabby
• Simon and the Witch — The Witch
• 1987The Devil's Disciple — Mrs. Dudgeon
• The Ruth Rendell Mysteries — Eva Peterlee
• Watching — Aunty Peggy
• Casualty — Barbara Thomas
• Lovejoy — Daphne Shotley
• 1985Parker — Mrs. Epps
• 1985The Thirteenth Day of Christmas — Evelyn Smith
• Theatre Night — Mrs. Dudgeon
• Time for Murder — Evelyn Smith
• 1984Sakharov — Nobel Presenter
• Sherlock Holmes — Mrs Mason
• 1984The Cold Room — Frau Hoffman
• 1983Those Glory Glory Days — School Mistress
• 1982An Unsuitable Job for a Woman — Miss Markland
• 1982Intensive Care — Alice Duckworth
• Objects of Affection — Cora
• 1982Our Winnie — Cora
• Shine on Harvey Moon — Nan
• 1982Spider's Web — Mildred Peake
• 1982The Haunting of Cassie Palmer — Mrs. Palmer
• 1982The Merry Wives of Windsor — Mistress Quickly
• Bergerac — Mary Lou Costain
• 1981Fothergill — Middle Class Woman
• 1981Lady Chatterley's Lover — Lady Eva
• 1981The Cause — Olive James
• 1981The Kindness of Mrs Radcliffe — Mrs Radcliffe
• Cribb — Mrs Gurney
• 1980Fox — Connie Fox
• Fox — Connie Fox
• 1980Richard's Things — Mrs. Sells
• 1980The Dybbuk — Frade
• 1980The Enigma — Miss Parsons
• 1979Afternoon Off — Miss Beckinsale
• 1979Julius Caesar — Calphurnia
• Tales of the Unexpected — Aunt May, Martha
• The BBC Television Shakespeare — Mistress Quickly
• 1977Able's Will — Sarah
• BBC2 Play of the Week — Sarah
• 1976Love Letters on Blue Paper — Sonia Marsden
• Victorian Scandals — Hannah Cullwick
• Prometheus: The Life of Balzac
• 1974Leeds United! — Maggie
• Playhouse — Miss Parsons, Middle-Class Woman, Mrs. Radcliffe
• Village Hall — Maggie Snape
• Black and Blue — Eleanor Hawkes
• 1973Rust — Eleanor Hawkes
• Second City Firsts — Zena Pool
• Play for Today — Sonia Marsden, Olive James, Alice Duckworth, Maggie
• 19693 Into 2 Won't Go — Marcia
• 1968All's Well That Ends Well — Widow
• The Expert — Mrs. Kyneston
• 1968Work Is a 4-Letter Word — Mrs Murray
• BBC Play of the Month — Maud Lowder
• Theatre 625
• Doctor Who — Maddy, Tabby
• Festival — Lampito
• Armchair Theatre — Writer

Appearances as themselves (1)

• 2007James Ellis: An Actor's Life — Herself