Brenda Bruce

Bruce was born in Prestwich, Lancashire in 1919, and started her acting career as a teenager on stage as a chorus girl.[5] She appeared with the Birmingham Repertory Company (1936–39) and was a long-time actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).[4] She was the RSC's resident Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, playing the role in 1964, 1968, 1975 and 1995.[6] She appeared as Irma in the RSC's production of Jean Genet's The Balcony in 1971.[7] In the 1950s she appeared on television in many dramas, and in a chat show Rich and Rich with her husband.[5] She starred as Winnie in the 1962 British premiere of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days,[8] and in 1977 as Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime in Murder Most English.[9]

Bruce played Aunt Dahlia in the 1990s production of Jeeves and Wooster with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.[10] Other roles include Tilda in the Doctor Who story "Paradise Towers",[11] Bea in the rag trade drama Connie[12] and Granny Grogan in The Riff Raff Element.[13] Among her film roles were Peeping Tom, where she played a prostitute murdered in the opening scene, and in 1964, she played Mary Lewis in Nightmare.[14] In 1994, she starred in Honey for Tea, a short-lived sitcom.[15]

She was married and widowed twice, first to television personality Roy Rich, with whom she had two daughters, and second to actor Clement McCallin, with whom she adopted a son. McCallin died in 1994.[4]

She died in London on 19 February 1996 from undisclosed causes, aged 76. She was survived by her two daughters.[4]

• In 1962 she was given the Society of Film and Television Arts Television Awards 1962.[16]
• She was named Best Actress in 1963 by BAFTA British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.[17]
• She was awarded an OBE in the 1985 New Year Honours.

• Brenda Bruce at IMDb
• Performances in the Theatre Archive University of Bristol
• Brenda Bruce filmography, timeout.com