Advanced search

One of England's most versatile character actors, Jim Broadbent was born on May 24, 1949, in Lincolnshire, the youngest son of furniture maker Roy Laverick Broadbent and sculptress Doreen "Dee" (Findlay) Broadbent. Jim attended a Quaker boarding school in Reading before successfully applying for a place at an art school. His heart was in acting, though, and he would later transfer to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). Following his 1972 graduation, he began his professional career on the stage, performing with the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and as part of the National Theatre of Brent, a two-man troupe which he co-founded. In addition to his theatrical work, Broadbent did steady work on television, working for such directors as Mike Newell and Stephen Frears. Broadbent made his film debut in 1978 with a small part in Jerzy Skolimowski's The Shout (1978). He went on to work with Frears again in The Hit (1984) and with Terry Gilliam in Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985), but it was through his collaboration with Mike Leigh that Broadbent first became known to an international film audience. In 1990 he starred in Leigh's Life Is Sweet (1990), a domestic comedy that cast him as a good-natured cook who dreams of running his own business. Broadbent gained further visibility the following year with substantial roles in Neil Jordan's The Crying Game (1992) and Mike Newell's Enchanted April (1991), and he could subsequently be seen in such diverse fare as Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Widows' Peak (1994), Richard Loncraine's highly acclaimed adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III (1995) and Little Voice (1998), the last of which cast him as a seedy nightclub owner. Appearing primarily as a character actor in these films, Broadbent took center stage for Leigh's Topsy-Turvy (1999), imbuing the mercurial W.S. Gilbert with emotional complexity and comic poignancy. Jim's breakthrough year was 2001, as he starred in three critically and commercially successful films. Many would consider him the definitive supporting actor of that year. First he starred as Bridget's dad (Colin Jones) in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), which propelled Renée Zellweger to an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Next came the multiple Oscar-nominated film (including Best Picture) Moulin Rouge! (2001), for which he won a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA award for his scene-stealing performance as Harold Zidler. Lastly, came the small biopic Iris (2001), for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as devoted husband John Bayley to Judi Dench's Iris Murdoch, the British novelist who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. The film hit home with Jim, since his own mother had passed away from Alzheimer's in 1995.

Jennifer Saunders was born July 6, 1958 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, to Jane, a biology teacher, and Robert Thomas Saunders, an RAF pilot. She attended Central School of Speech and Drama where she met her comedy partner Dawn French. Like many of the early 80s groundbreaking "alternative" comedians she began her career as comedienne/actress/writer with Dawn French at "The Comedy Store" in London, where she met fellow comedians Adrian Edmondson (later her husband), Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Alexei Sayle and Peter Richardson, who later opened his own club, "The Comic Strip", where these comedians quickly formed a regular format.

The Comic Strip team were transferred to television screens with great success as they all starred alongside each other in The Comic Strip Presents (1982). After The Comic Strip she starred in a few episodes of The Young Ones (1982), Girls on Top (1985) and Happy Families (1985). Afterwards she and Dawn French wrote a TV show of their own, French and Saunders (1987), which was an immense success due to the double act's genius writing, brilliant acting performances and hilarious spoofs of world famous blockbusters and bands.

It was in one of the episodes of "French and Saunders" that the audience had the pleasure of watching a sketch about an uptight daughter and a crazy, neurotic mother that became a comedy classic sitcom. When the BBC next asked Saunders to write something, she just couldn't come up with any ideas, so she decided to expand on that sketch, making it more outrageous and therefore funnier - Absolutely Fabulous (1992) was born.

Perhaps by coincidence Saunders had created one of the most loved, funny, and creative TV Shows in BBC history. Three series were made, in 1995 the show was put on hold until Saunders began writing again and came back with a fourth series in 2001. She is always ready for charity as well, she has been doing "Comic Relief" with a lot of her comedy companions ever since 1986. Jennifer Saunders, one of the most loved TV faces in Britain, will hit the screens with her fifth series of Absolutely Fabulous in 2003.

Sheridan Smith was born on 25 June 1981 and grew up in Epworth. While Sheridan was growing up, her parents, Colin and Marilyn, performed as a Country and Western duo called The Daltons and it wasn't long before Sheridan got into it. She was dancing from the age of 4 and singing with her parents when she was about 7. At 14 she made her professional debut in the production of Annie, playing the lead role. She then went on to star in many big stage roles such as: The Go-Between, Little Red Riding Hood in the 1998 Donmar Warehouse production of Into The Woods, Talullah in National Youth Theatre's production of Bugsy Malone, Doll the Moll in Tin Pan Ali, Mrs Hardcastle in The Kissing Dance or She Stoops To Conquer, Pendragon and Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz.

Sheridan appeared on Blue Peter, Newsround, Children in Need, Olivier Awards and Theatreland with the NYMT (National Youth Music Theatre) of which she was a member.

Sheridan's first TV appearance came in 1999 when she played Matilda in ITV's Dark Ages (1999). Since then Sheridan has made many guest appearances, including roles in Wives and Daughters, Anchor Me, Peaches, Hawk, Heartbeat, Doctors, Where the Heart Is (1997), Holby City, Blood Strangers, Fat Friends, The Royal, Mile High and The Bill.

She is perhaps best known for her roles in The Royle Family (1998) from 1999-2000 were she played Emma, Anthony Royle's (Ralf Little) girlfriend, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (2001), again playing Ralf's girlfriend, and Rudi in three series of Gavin & Stacey (2007).

Sheridan lives in London with flatmate Jason. Her brother Damien is a member of the band Indie Manned.

Dame Joan Ann Plowright, the Baroness Olivier, is one of the most distinguished actors of her generation. She may be best remembered as the third wife and widow of Laurence Olivier, generally considered the greatest anglophone actor of the 20th Century, but she had a distinguished career of her own on stage and screen spanning six decades.

Born in Brigg, Lincolnshire on October 28, 1929, she received her training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and made her professional stage debut at Croydon in 1948. Her London debut came in 1954, and two years later, she joined George Devine's English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre, which would change her life just as the drama at the Royal Court revolutionized the English theater.

The Royal Court's 1956 production of John Osborne's 'Look Back In Anger' was a watershed in English theatrical history, ushering in the 'Angry Young Man" era in British cultural life. In 1957, Plowright first co-starred with her future husband Olivier in the Royal Court's production of Osborne's The Entertainer (1960) when she took over the role of Archie Rice's daughter Jean Rice when the play transferred to a commercial venue in the West End. She recreated the role in Tony Richardson's 1960 film of the play.

To escape the notoriety from Olivier's divorce from Vivien Leigh, Plowright and Olivier went to New York, where they appeared on Broadway, he in Becket (1964) and she in A Taste of Honey (1961). For her performance as Josephine, which Rita Tushingham played in the movie version, she won a 1961 Tony Award as Best Actress in a Play. (She had first appeared on Broadway in a twin bill of Eugène Ionesco's "The Chairs" and "The Lesson" in January 1958, a month before she appeared with Olivier in "The Entertainer".) When his divorce from Leigh came through, they were married in March 1961 in New York with Richard Burton as Larry's best man.

From 1963 onward, she was a member of the National Theatre, which was headed by Olivier. Plowright created a distinguished stage career and was acclaimed when she began appearing more frequently in movies and television starting in the the 1980s. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, the female equivalent of a knighthood, in the 2004 Queen's New Year Honours.

Plowright divorced her first husband, the actor Roger Gage, to marry Olivier in 1961 and they had three children, Richard Kerr Olivier, Tamsin Olivier and Julie Kate Olivier.

Eliza Butterworth was born on 24 July 1993 in Lincolnshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Last Kingdom (2015), The Pod Generation (2023) and The North Water (2021).

Patricia was educated at St Helen's Boarding School at Northwood, Middlesex then spent 4 years in training to become a teacher but her dream of acting was stronger and she won a place at LAMDA. One of her first roles was in 'Say Who You Are' at the Gateway Theatre at Chester. She was performing in a pub theatre when she was spotted by John Mortimer who picked her for Rumpole's counterpart in the tv series Rumpole of the Bailey then later she was Lady Diana Cooper in Edward and Mrs Simpson Other tv work includes Jemma Shore Investigates, The Naked Civil Servant and Holding the Fort while in the theatre she was in The Mitford Girl. and her first major film was Betrayal while on stage she was in The Mitford Girl in1981. She's married to music producer Peter Owen, has 2 step daughters, Frances and Louise and is god parent to Anthony Andrews' children, Her parents, Eric and Marion Hodge managed hotels.

Sheila Gish was born on 23 April 1942 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Highlander (1986), Mansfield Park (1999) and Highlander: Endgame (2000). She was married to Denis Lawson and Roland Curram. She died on 9 March 2005 in Camden, London, England, UK.

Turgoose is from Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire. He attended Wintringham School of the same town whilst filming This Is England (2006) and The The Innocence Project (2006)

Turgoose's mother Sharon died in 2005; This Is England is dedicated to her memory.

He has three older brothers, born Karl, Matthew and Jamie in descending order of age.

Kevin Doyle is an English actor. He was born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England in 1961. He is better known as the perpetually unlucky butler-turned-footman Molesley in Downton Abbey (2010). He has appeared in shows such as Happy Valley (2014), Scott & Bailey (2011), and the 2016 ITV TV Mini-Series Paranoid (2016). He lives in West Yorkshire with his partner Olwen May.

Robert Webb was born on 29 September 1972 in Lincolnshire, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for That Mitchell and Webb Look (2006), Peep Show (2003) and Back (2017). He has been married to Abigail Burdess since 2006. They have two children.

Michele Dotrice was born on 27 September 1948 in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Not Now, Comrade (1976), Vanity Fair (1998) and Jane Eyre (1970). She was previously married to Edward Woodward.

Amanda trained at R.A.D.A. She has appeared at the Royal Court, the RNT, the RSC, the Almeida, in the West End and on Broadway. Her television work includes A Very British Scandal, The Girl Before, The Outlaws, and Gangs of London. She was nominated for Outstanding Newcomer in 2003 at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards, and won the Clarence Derwent Award for her performance in "Eastward Ho!" for the RSC at the Gielgud Theatre.

Bushy-browed, latterly bearded English actor and comedian, the son of Gordon John Alderton (1909-1969) and his wife Ivy (née Handley, 1906-2002). Having forgone early ambitions of becoming an architect, Alderton worked as a driving instructor before deciding to take up acting as a profession. In 1961, he graduated from RADA on a scholarship. This was immediately followed by his first theatrical performance with the Theatre Royal Repertory Company in York. Four years later, he debuted on the London stage in Bill Naughton's play Spring and Port Wine (his role of Harold Crompton, one of the sons, was played in the later film version by Rodney Bewes).

Alderton first came to prominence on screen as Dr. Richard Moone in the medical soap Emergency-Ward 10 (1957) (starring alongside his first wife, Jill Browne). As Britain's first twice-weekly serial, it already claimed 16 million viewers by the time Alderton joined the cast. After 1963, and for the next few years, he toiled in relatively unremarkable supporting roles in films and on television. However, near the end of the decade, he was able to make his breakthrough in the sitcom Please Sir! (1968), becoming BAFTA award-nominated as naïve, stammering novice teacher Bernard 'Privet' Hedges, assigned the school's most unruly class of sixteen-year olds. He reprised this role for the feature film of that name but eventually left the series after changes to the cast led to a decline in ratings. Please, Sir!'s less popular spin-off, The Fenn Street Gang (1971), followed the later exploits of the former students. The show was axed after two seasons.

Alderton attracted further audience attention in the BBC sitcom My Wife Next Door (1972) (opposite Hannah Gordon) and in ITV's cult period drama Upstairs, Downstairs (1971), as the moustachioed chauffeur Thomas Watkins, a character the actor himself described as "a conniving, thieving, chauvinistic baddie." The series also featured Alderton's second wife, actress Pauline Collins, with whom he went on to co-star in a succession of other TV shows, including the sitcoms No, Honestly (1974) and Thomas and Sarah (1979), as well as the bucolic drama Forever Green (1989). They also appeared together in Wodehouse Playhouse (1974), based on the 'Mr. Mulliner' short stories. Alderton, perfectly cast, essayed an assortment of wildly eccentric comic characters, including the timid curate Augustus Mulliner, the stammering George Mulliner, conjurer Mortimer Rackstraw (aka The Great Boloni), Hollywood producer Jacob Schnellenhammer, tiresome smart Alec and golf tragic Smallwood Bessemer and verbose politician Clifford Gandle.

Alderton was afforded a rare starring turn on the big screen as 1930's Yorkshire veterinarian James Herriot in It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (1976). He was soon back to television comedy with The Upchat Line (1977), in which he played the homeless, womanising bounder Mike Upchat, a congenital liar, who spent most of his time seeking out attractive members of the opposite sex to provide him with accommodation for the night and a warm body to lie next to. Much of the action revolved around Mike's inevitable problems with irate husbands, outraged parents or jealous boyfriends. The notion of casting Alderton as a scoundrel had been floated as early as 1969, when director Richard Lester got the nod (and the finances) from United Artists to film the exploits of George MacDonald Fraser's arch cad Harry Flashman. Lester and comedy writer Frank Muir had already earmarked Alderton to play the eponymous anti-hero, deeming him 'young, tall, athletic, a good rider and an excellent comedy actor'. Alas, a management change at United Artists caused the project to be cancelled. Muir later wrote "If ever it was a case of the right actor finding the right part and then losing it through no fault of his own with was John."

Through the eighties and nineties Alderton continued to appear in a variety of roles, including as Estragon in Waiting for Godot on stage at the National Theatre, as the headmaster of a school for maladjusted children in the film Clockwork Mice (1995) and as the overbearing, greedy rental property landlord Christopher Casby in the superb BBC Dickens adaptation of Little Dorrit (2008). He was nominated as 'supporting actor of the year' in the 25th London Film Critics Circle Awards for his role in the film Calendar Girls (2003).

He also narrated and voiced all the characters for the children's animated series Fireman Sam (1987) during the first four seasons. Alderton's final screen credit was in 2010.

Liz Smith found fame as an actress at an age when most people are considering retirement. It was a long road to eventual stardom, during which she struggled to raise a family after a broken marriage. She became best known for her roles in The Vicar of Dibley (1994) and The Royle Family but her talents encompassed serious drama too. And while she made something of a name playing slightly dotty old ladies, the real Liz Smith was far removed from these on-screen personas. She was born Betty Gleadle in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. Her early life was not happy. Her mother died in childbirth when she was just two years old and her father abandoned her when he remarried. "My father was a bit of a sod, really. He just went off with loads of women and then married one who said he had to cut off completely from his prior life and that meant me." She started going to the local cinema with her grandfather when she was four and she quickly gained a fascination for acting.

By the age of nine, she was appearing in local dramatic productions, often playing the part of elderly ladies. World War Two thwarted her plans and she joined the WRNS because, as she later told the BBC's Desert Island Discs, she loved the cut of the naval uniform. She continued appearing in plays and entertainments while serving in the Royal Navy. She met her future husband Jack Thomas while she was stationed in India and the couple married at the end of the war. Her grandmother had left her enough money to buy a house in London. Smith later remembered that she had picked it at random from a magazine and bought it without crossing the threshold.

But what had been an idyllic marriage failed shortly after the family moved to Epping Forest in Essex and she was left to bring up her two children alone. With money tight, she worked in a number of jobs including delivering post and quality control in a plastic bag factory. But her love for acting remained and she began buying the theatrical magazine, The Stage, and sending her photograph to casting agents. Eventually she became part of a group studying method acting under a teacher who had come to the UK from America.

She performed at the Gate Theatre in west London and spent many years in repertory, as well as spells as an entertainer in Butlins holiday camps. In 1970, she was selling toys in London's Regent Street when she got a call from the director Mike Leigh to play the downtrodden mother in his film Bleak Moments. Leigh cast her again in Hard Labour, part of the BBC's Play for Today series, a role that allowed her to shine. She received critical acclaim as the middle-aged housewife who endures a life of domestic drudgery, constantly at the beck and call of her demanding husband and daughter.

It was the breakthrough she had sought for years and, as she later recalled: "I never went back to grotty jobs again." She was seldom off the screen over the next 20 years, with appearances in a number of TV programmes including Last of the Summer Wine, The Sweeney, The Duchess of Duke Street and The Gentle Touch. She was cast as Madame Balls in the 1976 film The Pink Panther Strikes Again, but her scenes were left on the cutting-room floor. However, she did appear in the role six years later in The Curse of the Pink Panther. In 1984 she received a Bafta for Best Supporting Actress when she played Maggie Smith's mother in the film A Private Function.

Two years later she appeared as Patricia Hodge's alcoholic mother in the BBC drama The Life and Loves Of A She Devil. It was a part, she said, that she really enjoyed as it gave her the chance to wear more glamorous outfits than her usual roles required. And she was able to dress up again for her next film appearance, this time in the role of Grace in Peter Greenaway's film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. She was still much in demand at the beginning of the 1990s, appearing in the sitcom 2point4 Children and in the series Lovejoy and Bottom.

In 1994 she became a household name with her portrayal of Letitia Cropley in the series The Vicar of Dibley (1994). The character was famous for her idiosyncratic recipes such as parsnip brownies and lard and fish paste pancakes, but was killed off in 1996. Two years later Liz Smith starred as Nana in The Royle Family, a sitcom that ran for nearly four years. She took the part again in 2006 in a special edition in which Nana died. Typically, she attributed her success to Caroline Aherne's scripts rather than her own talent.

"They were great roles," she later remembered. "I was so lucky that things did come my way then." Unlike some actors, she watched recordings of her own performances looking for ways in which she could improve her acting. She continued to appear in feature films, playing Grandma Georgina in Tim Burton's 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and she was the voice of Mrs Mulch in Wallace & Gromit -The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. In 2006 she published her autobiography Our Betty and moved into a retirement home in north London but continued acting. She appeared in the BBC's Lark Rise to Candleford, finally announcing her retirement in 2008 at the age of 87. It was a belief in her own talent that drove Liz Smith on when her life was at a low ebb. "All I wanted was a chance," she told the BBC. "It was wonderful when it did happen."

Smith died on Christmas Eve 2016. She was 95.

Kelly Adams was born on 16 October 1979 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Bronson (2008), Holby City (1999) and Hustle (2004). She has been married to Chris Kennedy since February 2011.

Jonathan Kerrigan (born 14 October 1972 in Lincolnshire) is an English actor well known for various leading roles on TV including In The Club, Casualty, Heartbeat, Merseybeat, and Reach For The Moon. Films include 55 Steps, Diana, FLiM, The Somnambulists, The Best Possible Taste. He is also a musician and has composed for both television and film.

Ronni Ancona was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, England, UK. Ronni is an actor and writer, known for Penelope (2006), Big Impression (1999) and The Trip to Italy (2014). Ronni has been married to Gerard J Hall since 2004. They have three children.

Eleanor David was born on 30 November 1955 in Lincolnshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982), Topsy-Turvy (1999) and 84 Charing Cross Road (1987).

Julia Deakin was born in 1952 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Hot Fuzz (2007), Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Scoop (2006).

Neil McCarthy was born on 26 July 1932 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Where Eagles Dare (1968), Zulu (1964) and Clash of the Titans (1981). He died on 6 February 1985 in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, England, UK.

British character actor with radio and stage experience from 1951. Studied at University College in London and learned acting at the Old Vic Theatre School. Toured South Africa in 1952 and subsequently appeared in many Shakespearean roles in Stratford-upon-Avon. Busy television actor from the late 1950's, popular as ruthless tycoon John Wilder in The Plane Makers (1963). Also noted for his voice-overs for Winston Churchill in two documentary features.

James Bradshaw was born on 20 March 1976 in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Endeavour (2012), Close to the Enemy (2016) and Primeval (2007).

John Quayle was born on 21 December 1938 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Line of Beauty (2006), Target (1977) and Nanny (1981).

Ian Lawman was born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, UK.

Peter Collinson was born on 1 April 1936 in Lincolnshire, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for The Italian Job (1969), The Long Day's Dying (1968) and Up the Junction (1968). He was married to Lisa Shane and Ann Collinson. He died on 16 December 1980 in Los Angeles, California, USA.