Brenda Blethyn

ActorWriter Feb 20 (age 80) Ramsgate, Kent, England, UK 1953–2026 (73 year career)

6.5 avg rating

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 R…

Known For

Film

Pride & Prejudice

Mrs. Bennet

Film

Atonement

Grace Turner

Film

Secrets & Lies

Cynthia Rose Purley

Film

The Witches

Mrs Jenkins

Film

A River Runs Through It

Mrs. Maclean

Film

Pooh's Heffalump Movie

Mama Heffalump (voice)

Film

Saving Grace

Grace Trevethyn

Film

Vera

DCI Vera Stanhope

Filmography

Acting (97)

Movies (61)

Dragonfly

2025

as Elsie

6.9

Vera, Farewell Pet

2025

as Herself / Vera

Charlotte

2022

as Grossmama (voice)

6.3

Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen and Milkmen

2018

as Narrator

Ethel & Ernest

2016

as Ethel Briggs (voice)

Two Men in Town

as Emily Smith

Mary and Martha

as Martha

My Angel

as Headmistress

The Many Faces of... Michael Caine

2011

My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Duper Super Sleuths

2010

as Mama Heffalump (voice)

8.0

The Calling

2010

as Sister Ignatious

London River

as Elisabeth

Dead Man Running

as Mother

Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too

2009

as Mama Heffalump (voice)

Atonement

as Grace Turner

Clubland

as Jean

Mysterious Creatures

as Wendy Ainscow

Pride & Prejudice

as Mrs. Bennet

Pooh's Heffalump Movie

2005

as Mama Heffalump (voice)

On a Clear Day

as Joan

Beyond the Sea

as Polly Cassotto

Piccadilly Jim

as Nesta Pett

Belonging

as Jess Copplestone

A Way of Life

as Annette

The Sleeping Dictionary

as Aggie

Blizzard

as Aunt Millie

Bob the Builder: The Knights of Fix-A-Lot

2003

as Dr. Florence Mountfitchet (voice)

Pumpkin

as Judy Romanoff

Sonny

as Jewel

Lovely & Amazing

as Jane Marks

Undertaking Betty

as Betty Rhys-Jones

The Yellow Bird

as Mrs. Louise Tutwiler

Daddy and Them

as Julia Montgomery

On the Nose

as Mrs. Delaney

Saving Grace

as Grace Trevethyn

RKO 281

as Louella Parsons

Music from Another Room

as Grace Swan

Girls' Night

as Dawn Wilkinson

Inside the Golden Statue

as Self

In the Winter Dark

as Ida Stubbs

Little Voice

as Mari Hoff

Night Train

as Alice Mooney

Remember Me?

as Shirley

Secrets & Lies

as Cynthia Rose Purley

7.6

The Bullion Boys

1993

as Gwen

A River Runs Through It

as Mrs. Maclean

The Witches

as Mrs Jenkins

The Shawl

as Miss A

The Storyteller: A Story Short

1988

as The Storyteller's Wife

Claws

1987

as Sylvia

Floating Off

1983

as Janice

Henry VI Part 1

1983

as Joan La Pucelle

7.5

Mike Leigh: Making Plays

as Self

King Lear

as Cordelia

Say No to Strangers

as Policewoman

Grown-Ups

as Gloria

Bedroom Farce

as Kate

The Imitation Game

Fools

King of the Teds

as Nina

Strawberry Fields Forever

as Grannie Nellie

Television (36)

A Woman of Substance

as Older Emma Harle

Kate & Koji

as Kate

Playhouse Presents

as Nina

Vera

as DCI Vera Stanhope

Downton Abbey

as Vera

The Graham Norton Show

2007

as Self

7.2

War and Peace

2007

as Márja Dmitrijewna Achrosímowa

6.2

The One Show

2006

as Self - Guest

4.4

The New Adventures of Old Christine

as Angela Kimble

Between The Sheets

as Hazel Delany

V Graham Norton

as Self

Anne Frank: The Whole Story

2001

as Auguste Rottgen-van Pels

7.4

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

as Linnie Malcolm

So Graham Norton

as Self - Guest

The Frank Skinner Show

as Self

Outside Edge

GMTV

as Self

The Buddha of Suburbia

as Margaret Amir

HBO First Look

as self

Maigret

All Good Things

as Shirley Frame

Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story

as Ticki Tocquet

The Labours of Erica

The Storyteller

as Storyteller's Wife

This Morning

as Self

The Play on One

as Miss A

The Mysteries

as Mary Magdalene / Mary

Chance in a Million

1984

as Alison Little

6.7

Who Dares Wins

1984

as Various

Dalgliesh

as Angela Foley

Yes Minister

Tales of the Unexpected

1979

as Carol Hutchins

6.7

Rumpole of the Bailey

as Pauline

Playhouse

as Gloria

The Oscars

as Self

Golden Globe Awards

as Self - Winner

Crew (1)

Movies (1)

Clubland

2007

Writer

4.9