Brenda Bruce | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 7 July 1919 (some sources cite 17 July 1919) |
| Died | 19 February 1996 (aged 76) London, England, U.K. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1938–1996 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
Brenda Bruce OBE (7 July 1919[1][2] – 19 February 1996) was an English actress.[3] She was focused on the theatre, radio, film and television.
Bruce was born in Prestwich, Lancashire in 1919, and started her acting career as a teenager on stage as a chorus girl.[4] She appeared with the Birmingham Repertory Company (1936–39) and was a long-time actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).[5] 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.[4] 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.[5] McCallin died in 1977.
She died in London on 19 February 1996 from undisclosed causes, aged 76.[5]
| Stage | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Play | Role | Notes | |
| 1949 | Love in Albania | Susan Lawn | St James's Theatre | |
| 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 | |
| 1980 | Romeo and Juliet | Nurse | Royal Shakespeare Theatre | |
| Radio | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Play | Role | Notes |
| 1965 | Host Planet Earth | Clare Stewart | BBC Light Programme |
| 1977 | Cry God for Harry! | Doll Tearsheet | BBC Radio 4 |
| 1983 | When the Wind Blows | Hilda | BBC Radio 4 |
| 1983 | A Mad World, My Masters | Courtesan's Mother | BBC Radio 3 |
| 1986 | Too Long an Autumn | Maisie May | BBC Radio 4 |
| 1987 | Kiss of Life | Dot | BBC Radio 4 |
| 1992 | The Boy with the Cart | Mother | BBC Radio 4 |
| 1993 | A Perfect Spy | Miss Dubber | BBC Radio 4 |
| Film & Television | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1938 | Laugh with Me | Rose Dinwiddy | TV movie |
| The Wooing of Anne Hathaway | Katharine Hathaway | TV movie | |
| 1943 | Millions Like Us | Brenda | Uncredited |
| 1944 | They Came to a City | One of couple on hillside | |
| 1945 | I Live in Grosvenor Square | 1st Girl in Guard's Van | |
| 1946 | Night Boat to Dublin | Lily Leggett | |
| I See a Dark Stranger | American Waitress | Uncredited | |
| Piccadilly Incident | Sally Benton | ||
| 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 Presents | Emily | "Man Who Heard Everything" |
| 1958 | Law and Disorder | Mary Cooper | |
| Behind the Mask | Elizabeth Fallon | ||
| Mary Britten, M.D. | Mary Britten | 13 episodes | |
| 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 | TV movie | |
| 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 | 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 | Uncredited |
| 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 | 5 episodes |
| That'll Be the Day | Doreen | ||
| Play for Today | Madge | "Jingle Bells" | |
| 1974 | Bedtime Stories | Gertie | "Hansel and Gretel" |
| Dial M for Murder | Kath | "Recording Angel" | |
| Alice Through the Looking Glass | The White Queen | TV movie | |
| Swallows and Amazons | Mrs Dixon | ||
| 1975 | All Creatures Great and Small | Miss Harbottle | TV movie |
| 1976 | Ubu roi | Ma Ubu | TV movie |
| Crown Court | Angela Stacey | "A Matter of Honour" | |
| 1977 | The Man in the Iron Mask | Queen Anne of Austria | TV movie |
| Murder Most English | Lucy Teatime | 4 episodes | |
| Centre Play | Auntie Kathleen | "Auntie Kathleen's Old Clothes" | |
| 1978 | Armchair Thriller | Sister Elizabeth | "Quiet as a Nun" |
| The Devil's Crown | Matilda | 2 episodes | |
| 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 Fifth" | |
| 1983 | The Mad Death | Miss Stonecroft | three-part BBC television serial |
| The Home Front | Mrs Place | 6 episodes | |
| BBC Television Shakespeare | First Witch | "Macbeth" | |
| Farmers Arms | Mrs Casson | TV movie | |
| 1984 | Weekend Playhouse | Margaret | "Winter Break" |
| Crown Court | Angela Stacey | "Oddball" | |
| 1985 | Connie | Bea | 10 episodes |
| Steaming | Mrs Meadows | ||
| 1986 | Screen Two | June Swift | "Time After Time" |
| David Copperfield | Betsey Trotwood | 7 episodes | |
| 1987 | Doctor Who | Tilda | "Paradise Towers" |
| The Secret World of Polly Flint | Granny Porter | 3 episodes | |
| London Embassy | Madge Cowrie | "Tomb with a View" | |
| 1988 | The Tenth Man | Madame Mangeot | |
| Little Dorrit | Duchess | ||
| Worlds Beyond | "Home" | ||
| Menace Unseen | Norma Trisk | 3 episodes | |
| 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 | ||
| Theatre Night | Old Woman | "Bingo: Scenes of Money and Death" | |
| Screen Two | June Swift | "Circles of Deceit" | |
| The Fool | |||
| Antonia and Jane | Therapist | ||
| 1991 | December Bride | Martha Gilmartin | |
| Lovejoy | Mrs Jaglom | "Bin Diving" | |
| The New Statesman | Beryl | "Keeping Mum" | |
| 4 Play | Sarah | "Finding Sarah" | |
| 1992 | Goodbye Cruel World | Marjory | 3 episode |
| Growing Rich | Mrs Baker | 2 episode | |
| 1993 | The Riff Raff Element | Granny Grogan | TV movie |
| Splitting Heirs | Mrs Bullock | ||
| Riders | Granny Maxwell | TV movie | |
| CASUAL+Y | Carrie Springett | "The Final Word" | |
| Harnessing Peacocks | Amy Tremayne | TV movie | |
| 1994 | Men of the World | Mrs Daff | 3 episode |
| Honey for Tea | Mary Harris | 2 episodes | |
| 1995 | Performance | Grandmother | "The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd" |
| 1996 | The Vet | Kath Paley | "Stormy Weather" (final appearance) |
