Brenda Bruce
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| Brenda Bruce | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 July 1918 Manchester, England |
| Died | 19 February 1996 (aged 77) London, England |
| Spouse | Roy Rich, Clement McCallin |
Brenda Bruce (7 July 1918 – 19 February 1996) was a British actress. She had a long and successful career in the theatre, radio, film, and television.
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[edit] Early life
Brenda Bruce was born in Manchester. Bruce started her acting career as a teenager on stage as a chorus girl.
[edit] Acting career
She was with the Birmingham Repertory Company (1936–1939) and a long-time actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). She was the RSC's resident Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, playing the role in 1964, 1968, 1975, and 1995. She also appeared as Irma in the RSC's production of Jean Genet's The Balcony in 1971.
In the 1950s she appeared on television in many dramas, and in a chat show Rich and Rich with her husband. She starred as Winnie in the 1962 British premiere of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, and in 1977 as Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime in "Murder Most English".
Brenda Bruce played P. G. Wodehouse's character Aunt Dahlia in the 1990s production of Jeeves and Wooster with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Other roles include Tilda in the Doctor Who story "Paradise Towers", Bea in the rag trade drama Connie, and in the The Riff Raff Element. In 1964, she also had the important role of Mary Lewis in Nightmare. In 1994, she starred in Honey for Tea, a short-lived sitcom.
[edit] Awards
- In 1962 she was given the Society of Film and Television Arts Television Awards 1962.
- She was named Best Actress in 1963 by BAFTA British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.
[edit] Filmography
| Film & Television | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1938 | Laugh with Me | Rose Dinwiddy | |
| The Wooing of Anne Hathaway | Katharine Hathaway | ||
| 1943 | Millions Like Us | Brenda | |
| 1945 | They Came to a City | One of couple on hillside | |
| I Live in Grosvenor Square | Girl in Guard's Van | ||
| 1946 | Night Boat to Dublin | Lily Leggett | |
| Piccadilly Incident | Sally Benton | ||
| I See a Dark Stranger | American Waitress | ||
| Carnival | Maudie Chapman | ||
| 1947 | While the Sun Shines | Mabel Crum | |
| When the Bough Breaks | Ruby Chapman | ||
| 1948 | My Brother's Keeper | Winnie Foreman | |
| 1949 | Marry Me | Brenda Delamere | |
| Don't Ever Leave Me | Miss Smith | ||
| 1951 | Two on the Tiles | Janet Lawson | |
| 1953 | The Final Test | Cora | |
| The Motorola Television Hour | "Westward the Sun" | ||
| 1954 | Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents | Emily | "Man Who Heard Everything" |
| 1958 | Behind the Mask | Elizabeth Fallon | |
| Law and Disorder | Mary | ||
| "Mary Britten, M.D. | Mary Britten | ||
| 1960 | Peeping Tom | Dora | |
| 1961 | Sunday Night Theatre | May Sommers | "Nearer to Heaven" |
| Sunday Night Theatre | Elaine | "The Wrong Side of the Park" | |
| 1962 | Armchair Theatre | "Girl in a Bird Cage" | |
| ITV Play of the Week | Millie Crocker Harris | "A Lily in Little India" | |
| Zero One | Sarah Elkinson | "Stoneface" | |
| The Winter's Tale | Paulina | ||
| Sunday Night Theatre | Ethel Gibbons | "This Happy Breed" | |
| 1963 | Armchair Theatre | "The Monkey and the Mohawk" | |
| Dr. Finlay's Casebook | Bridie Bell | "The Face Saver" | |
| 1964 | Nightmare | Mary Lewis | |
| 1965 | The Uncle | Addie Morton | |
| Armchair Theatre | Ellen | "The Lodger" | |
| Thirty-Minute Theatre | Pat Pendleton | "Give the Clown His Supper" | |
| 1966 | The Wednesday Play | Betty Bradshaw | "Way Off Beat" |
| ITV Play of the Week | Millie Crocker Harris | "The Browning Version" | |
| Knock on Any Door | "The First Day of Spring" | ||
| Knock on Any Door | "The Dear Ones" | ||
| 1967 | The Girl | Miss Cashcart | |
| The Wednesday Play | Mollie | "Death of a Teddy Bear" | |
| Softly, Softly | Hilda Berry | "An Eye for an Eye" | |
| 1968 | Sherlock Holmes (1965 TV series) | Saunders | "The Dancing Men" |
| Late Night Horror | Mary Pearl | "William and Mary" | |
| The First Lady | Mary Tunnicliffe | "Mrs. Whatever" | |
| The Gamblers | Gertie | "Give and Take" | |
| 1969 | The Virgin Soldiers | Nursing Sister | |
| The Wednesday Play | Ma | "Happy" | |
| 1971 | A Family at War | Mrs Thomas | "Happy Returns" |
| Budgie | Janey Baib | "Sunset Mansions or Whatever Happened to Janey Baib?" | |
| 1972 | Country Matters | Mrs Holland | "The Mill" |
| Thirty-Minute Theatre | The Wife | "Not Counting the Savages" | |
| The Man from Haven | Mary Balfour | ||
| 1973 | Cheri | Charlotte | |
| That'll Be the Day | Doreen | ||
| Play for Today | Madge | "Jingle Bells" | |
| 1974 | Bedtime Stories | Gertie | "Hansel and Gretel" |
| Dial M for Murder (tv series) | Kath | "Recording Angel" | |
| Alice Through the Looking Glass | The White Queen | ||
| Swallows and Amazons | Mrs Dixon | ||
| 1975 | All Creatures Great and Small | Miss Harbottle | |
| 1976 | Ubu roi | Ma Ubu | |
| Crown Court | Angela Stacey | "A Matter of Honour" | |
| 1977 | Murder Most English | Lucy Teatime | |
| Centre Play | Auntie Kathleen | "Auntie Kathleen's Old Clothes" | |
| The Man in the Iron Mask | Queen Anne of Austria | ||
| 1978 | Armchair Thriller | Sister Elizabeth | "Quiet as a Nun" |
| The Devil's Crown | Matilda | ||
| Play for Today | Mrs Hackett | "A Touch of the Tiny Hacketts" | |
| Play of the Month | Lady Bountiful | "The Beaux' Stratagem" | |
| Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm | Aunt Miranda | ||
| 1979 | BBC Television Shakespeare | Mistress Quickly | "The First Part of King Henry the Fourth, with the life and death of Henry surnamed Hotspur" |
| BBC Television Shakespeare | Mistress Quickly | "The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, including his death and the coronation of King Henry the Fift" | |
| 1983 | The Mad Death | Miss Stonecroft | three-part BBC television serial |
| The Home Front | Mrs Place | ||
| BBC Television Shakespeare | First Witch | "Macbeth" | |
| Farmers Arms | Mrs Casson | ||
| 1984 | Weekend Playhouse | Margaret | "Winter Break" |
| Crown Court | Angela Stacey | "Oddball" | |
| 1985 | Connie | Bea | |
| Steaming | Mrs Meadows | ||
| 1986 | Screen Two | June Swift | "Time After Time" |
| David Copperfield (1986 TV serial) | Betsy Trotwood | ||
| 1987 | Doctor Who | Tilda | "Paradise Towers" |
| The Secret World of Polly Flint | Granny Porter | ||
| London Embassy | Madge Cowrie | "Tomb with a View" | |
| 1988 | The Tenth Man | Madame Mangeot | |
| Little Dorrit | Duchess | ||
| Worlds Beyond | "Home" | ||
| Menace Unseen | Norma Trisk | ||
| The Return of the Antelope | Mrs Henshaw | "Travelling Companions" | |
| 1990 | Jeeves and Wooster | Aunt Dahlia Travers | "The Hunger Strike", "Brinkley Manor" |
| Bergerac | Karen Markham | "In Love And War" | |
| Back Home | Lady Beatrice Langley | ||
| Screenplay | Therapist | "Antonia and Jane" | |
| Theatre Night | Old woman | "Bingo: Scenes of Money and Death" | |
| Screen Two | June Swift | "Circles of Deceit" | |
| 1991 | The New Statesman | Beryl | "Keeping Mum" |
| Lovejoy | Mrs Jaglom | "Bin Diving" | |
| December Bride | Martha Gilmartin | ||
| 4 Play | Sarah | "Finding Sarah" | |
| 1992 | Growing Rich | Mrs Baker | |
| Goodbye Cruel World | Marjory | ||
| Harnessing Peacocks | Amy Tremayne | ||
| 1993 | Splitting Heirs | Mrs Bullock | |
| Riders | Granny Maxwell | ||
| The Riff Raff Element | Granny Grogan | ||
| CASUAL+Y | Carrie Springett | "The Final Word" | |
| 1994 | Men of the World | Mrs Daff | |
| Honey for Tea | Mary Harris | ||
| 1995 | Performance | Grandmother | "The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd" |
| 1996 | The Vet | Kath Paley | "Stormy Weather" |
[edit] Theatre
| Stage | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Play | Role | Notes |
| 1962 | Happy Days | Winnie | Royal Court Theatre |
| Woman in a Dressing Gown | The Vaudeville Theatre | ||
| 1967 | Little Murders | Aldwych Theatre | |
| 1970 | The Balcony | Irma | Aldwych Theatre |
[edit] Radio
| Radio | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Play | Role | Notes |
| Too Long an Autumn | |||
| 1965 | Host Planet Earth | Clare Stewart | BBC Radio |
| 1983 | When the Wind Blows[disambiguation needed  ] |
BBC Radio 4 | |
[edit] Personal life
She was married twice, to television personality Roy Rich and to actor Clement McCallin. She had a son who died in childhood of asthma.[citation needed]
[edit] Death
She died in London 19 February 1996, aged 77, of undisclosed causes.
[edit] External links
- Brenda Bruce at the Internet Movie Database
- Performances in the Theatre Archive University of Bristol
- BBC Guide to Comedy, Brenda Bruce
- TimeOut London, Brenda Bruce Filmography
- Independent Obituary
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