| Brenda Bruce | |
| Birth Date: | 7 July 1919 |
| Birth Place: | Prestwich, Lancashire, England |
| Death Place: | London, England |
| Spouse: | |
| Children: | 3 |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 1938–1996 |
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 | WAAF Officer | Uncredited | |
| 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) |