Elizabeth Spriggs received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility.
14 Facts About Elizabeth Spriggs
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Elizabeth Spriggs's first marriage at 21 was a disaster and, in what she called "the most painful decision of my life", she left her husband and young daughter to pursue her acting dream.
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Elizabeth Spriggs wrote to a repertory company in Stockport, Cheshire, asking for a job and was taken on.
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Elizabeth Spriggs worked with many companies, including in Birmingham and Bristol, before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962.
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Elizabeth Spriggs was a regular performer with the RSC under Peter Hall until 1976, playing many important Shakespearean roles, including Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, an acclaimed Gertrude in Hamlet opposite David Warner, Calpurnia in Julius Caesar, Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and a witty Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.
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Elizabeth Spriggs featured in RSC productions of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance, Shaw's Major Barbara and Dion Boucicault's comedy London Assurance, playing Lady Gay Spanker alongside Donald Sinden.
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In 1978, Elizabeth Spriggs won the Society of West End Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress for Arnold Wesker's Love Letters on Blue Paper, playing the wife of a dying trade union leader who recalls their early life together.
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Elizabeth Spriggs did not work regularly on television until the mid-1970s.
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Elizabeth Spriggs was in Frederic Raphael's The Glittering Prizes, starred as Eleanor Pressett in the BBC drama We, the Accused, played Connie, the head of a battling South London family in the thirteen-part drama Fox, was Martha in Tales of the Unexpected and was the formidable Nan in the ITV comedy series Shine on Harvey Moon.
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Elizabeth Spriggs appeared in three plays by Alan Bennett: Afternoon Off, Intensive Care and Our Winnie.
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Elizabeth Spriggs played Calpurnia and Mistress Quickly for the BBC's Shakespeare series, appeared in Doctor Who in the 1987 Sylvester McCoy serial Paradise Towers, and was the titular witch in the Children's BBC series Simon and the Witch.
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Elizabeth Spriggs continued to work on television, in series like Heartbeat, Midsomer Murders and Poirot.
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Elizabeth Spriggs was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1998, when she was surprised by Michael Aspel at Shepperton Studios.
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Elizabeth Spriggs's early film appearances included Work Is a Four-Letter Word and Three into Two Won't Go, both directed by Peter Hall.