1. Brenda Blethyn was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to drama in 2003.
40 Facts About Brenda Blethyn
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Brenda Blethyn subsequently joined the Royal National Theatre, gaining attention for her performances in plays such as Benefactors, for which she received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Actress of the Year in a New Play.
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Brenda Blethyn made her Broadway debut in the revival of the Marsha Norman play 'Night Mother.
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Brenda Blethyn made her feature film debut with a small part in Nicolas Roeg's The Witches.
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Brenda Blethyn was Oscar-nominated for her role in Little Voice.
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Brenda Blethyn made her screen debut in the Mike Leigh television film Grown-Ups.
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Brenda Blethyn's mother, Louisa Kathleen, was a housewife and former maid who had met Blethyn's father, William Charles Bottle in approximately 1922 while working for the same household in Broadstairs, Kent.
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Brenda Blethyn's parents introduced Blethyn to film, taking her to the cinema weekly.
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Brenda Blethyn trained at technical college and worked as a stenographer and bookkeeper for a bank as a young adult.
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Brenda Blethyn followed this with roles in Shakespearean adaptations for the BBC, playing Cordelia in King Lear and Joan of Arc in Henry VI, Part 1.
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Brenda Blethyn appeared with Robert Bathurst and others in the popular BBC Radio 4 comedy series Dial M For Pizza.
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Brenda Blethyn was nominated for an Olivier Award for her performance as Sheila in Benefactors.
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Brenda Blethyn played Erica Parsons, a single mother approaching her fortieth birthday who realises that life is passing her by.
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In 1991, after starring in a play in New York City, Brenda Blethyn was recommended to Robert Redford to audition for the soft-spoken mother role in his next project A River Runs Through It.
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Simultaneously Brenda Blethyn continued working on stage and in British television.
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Brenda Blethyn played character parts in the BBC adaptation of Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia and the ITV cricketing comedy-drama series Outside Edge, based on the play by television writer Richard Harris.
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In John Lynch's Night Train, Brenda Blethyn played a timid spinster who strikes up a friendship with John Hurt's character, an ex-prisoner, who rents a room in her house while on the run from some nasty gangsters.
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Brenda Blethyn starred in James Bogle's film adaption of Tim Winton's 1988 novel In the Winter Dark.
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Brenda Blethyn is a desperate woman, but she has an optimistic take on life which I find enviable.
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Brenda Blethyn played a middle-aged newly widowed woman who is faced with the prospect of financial ruin and turns to growing marijuana under the tutelage of her gardener to save her home.
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In 2001, Brenda Blethyn signed on to star in her own CBS sitcom, The Seven Roses, in which she was to play the role of a widowed innkeeper and matriarch of an eccentric family.
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In Canadian-Irish comedy On the Nose, Blethyn played the minor role of the all-disapproving wife of Brendan Delaney, played by Robbie Coltrane.
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Brenda Blethyn's appearance was commented as "underused" by Harry Guerin, writer for RTE Entertainment.
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Brenda Blethyn did the UK voice of Dr Florence Mountfitchet in the Bob the Builder special, "The Knights of Can-A-Lot".
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In 2002, Brenda Blethyn appeared with Christina Ricci in the dark comedy Pumpkin, a financial disaster.
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The film earned her a DVDX Award but received mixed critics, as did Blizzard, a Christmas movie in which Brenda Blethyn played the eccentric character of Aunt Millie, the narrator of the film's story.
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Brenda Blethyn co-starred as Bobby Darin's mother Polly Cassotto in Beyond the Sea, a 2004 biographical film about the singer.
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Brenda Blethyn received a Golden FIPA Award and a BAFTA nomination for the latter role.
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In early 2005, Brenda Blethyn appeared in the indie-drama On a Clear Day playing Joan, a Glasgow housewife, who secretly enrolls in bus-driving classes after her husband's dismissal.
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Also in 2007, Brenda Blethyn reunited with Joe Wright on Atonement, an adaptation from Ian McEwan's critically acclaimed novel of the same name.
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Brenda Blethyn appeared as Marja Dmitrijewna Achrosimowa in a supporting role in the internationally produced 2007 miniseries War and Peace by RAI, filmed in Russia and Lithuania.
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Also in 2009, Brenda Blethyn played a Benedictine nun in Jan Dunn's film The Calling, starring Joanna Scanlan and Pauline McLynn.
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In May 2011, Brenda Blethyn began playing the title role in ITV's crime drama series, Vera as the North of England character Vera Stanhope, a nearly retired detective chief inspector obsessive about her work and driven by her own demons, based on the novels of Ann Cleeves.
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Not many actors can pull off shambolic but effective but Brenda Blethyn can do it with a single, penetrating glance from beneath that hat.
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In 2012 Brenda Blethyn starred opposite singer Tom Jones and actress Alison Steadman in the short film King of the Teds, directed by Jim Cartwright, as part of Sky Arts Playhouse Presents series.
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Brenda Blethyn played an old flame who gets in touch with a former boyfriend by Facebook, introducing tensions and doubts from 40 years before.
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In March 2013, Brenda Blethyn costarred with Hilary Swank in the BBC movie Mary and Martha.
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Brenda Blethyn married Alan James Brenda Blethyn, a graphic designer she met while working for British Rail, in 1964.
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Brenda Blethyn was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to drama in the 2003 New Year Honours.
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Brenda Blethyn was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to drama in 2003.