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.

Filmography

• A Woman of Substance — Older Emma Harte
• 2025Dragonfly — Elsie
• 2022Charlotte — Grossmama (voice)
• Kate & Koji — Kate Abbott
• 2018Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen and Milkmen — Narrator
• 2016Ethel & Ernest — Ethel Briggs (voice)
• 2014Two Men in Town — Emily Smith
• 2013Mary and Martha — Martha
• Playhouse Presents — Nina
• 2011My Angel — Headmistress
• 2011The Many Faces of... Michael Caine
• Vera — DCI Vera Stanhope
• 2010My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Duper Super Sleuths — Mama Heffalump (voice)
• 2010The Calling — Sister Ignatious
• 2009Dead Man Running — Mother
• 2009London River — Elisabeth
• 2009Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too — Mama Heffalump (voice)
• 2007Atonement — Grace Turner
• 2007Clubland — Jean, Writer
• War and Peace — Márja Dmitrijewna Achrosímowa
• 2006Mysterious Creatures — Wendy Ainscow
• The New Adventures of Old Christine — Angela Kimble
• 2005On a Clear Day — Joan
• 2005Pooh's Heffalump Movie — Mama Heffalump (voice)
• 2005Pride & Prejudice — Mrs. Bennet
• 2004A Way of Life — Annette
• 2004Belonging — Jess Copplestone
• 2004Beyond the Sea — Polly Cassotto
• 2004Piccadilly Jim — Nesta Pett
• Between The Sheets — Hazel Delany
• 2003Blizzard — Aunt Millie
• 2003Bob the Builder: The Knights of Can-A-Lot — Dr. Florence Mountfitchet (voice)
• 2003The Sleeping Dictionary — Aggie
• 2002Lovely & Amazing — Jane Marks
• 2002Pumpkin — Judy Romanoff
• 2002Sonny — Jewel
• 2002The Wild Thornberrys Movie — Mrs. Fairgood (voice)
• 2002The Yellow Bird — Mrs. Louise Tutwiler
• 2002Undertaking Betty — Betty Rhys-Jones
• Anne Frank: The Whole Story — Auguste Rottgen-van Pels
• 2001Daddy and Them — Julia Montgomery
• 2001On the Nose — Mrs. Delaney
• 2000Saving Grace — Grace Trevethyn
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — Linnie Malcolm
• 1999RKO 281 — Louella Parsons
• 1998Girls' Night — Dawn Wilkinson
• 1998In the Winter Dark — Ida Stubbs
• 1998Little Voice — Mari Hoff
• 1998Music from Another Room — Grace Swan
• 1998Night Train — Alice Mooney
• 1997Remember Me? — Shirley
• 1996Secrets & Lies — Cynthia Rose Purley
• Outside Edge — Miriam Dervish
• The Buddha of Suburbia — Margaret Amir
• 1993The Bullion Boys — Gwen
• 1992A River Runs Through It — Mrs. Maclean
• Maigret
• All Good Things — Shirley Frame
• 1990The Witches — Mrs Jenkins
• Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story — Ticki Tocquet
• Screen One — Gwen
• The Labours of Erica
• 1989The Shawl — Miss A
• The Play on One — Miss A
• The Storyteller — Storyteller's Wife
• 1988The Storyteller: A Story Short — The Storyteller's Wife
• 1987Claws — Sylvia
• Sunday Premiere — Sylvia
• The Mysteries — Mary Magdalene / Mary
• Chance in a Million — Alison Little
• Weekend Playhouse — Jean Saunders
• Who Dares Wins — Various
• Dalgliesh — Angela Foley
• Death of an Expert Witness — Angela Foley
• 1983Floating Off — Janice
• 1983Henry VI Part 1 — Joan La Pucelle
• 1982King Lear — Cordelia
• 1981Say No to Strangers — Policewoman
• 1980Bedroom Farce — Kate
• 1980Grown-Ups — Gloria
• 1980Sheppey — Miss Grange
• 1980The Imitation Game
• Yes Minister
• Tales of the Unexpected — Carol Hutchins
• Rumpole of the Bailey — Pauline
• Playhouse — Gloria
• Fools
• King of the Teds — Nina
• Strawberry Fields Forever — Grannie Nellie

Appearances as themselves (14)

• 2025Vera, Farewell Pet — Herself / Vera
• The Graham Norton Show — Self
• The One Show — Self - Guest
• 2004The Best of So Graham Norton — Self (archive footage)
• V Graham Norton — Self
• 1998Inside the Golden Statue — Self
• So Graham Norton — Self - Guest
• The Frank Skinner Show — Self
• GMTV — Self
• HBO First Look — self
• This Morning — Self
• 1982Mike Leigh: Making Plays — Self
• The Oscars — Self
• Golden Globe Awards — Self - Nominee, Self - Presenter, Self - Winner