Anita Dobson

At 75 years old, Anita Dobson has this physical status:

Anita Dobson (born 29 April 1949) is an English stage, film, and television actress as well as a singer.

She is best known for her appearances in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 1985 to 1988.

With "Anyone Can Fall in Love," a song based on EastEnders' theme tune, she debuted at number four in the United Kingdom Singles Chart in 1986. Dobson's other television appearances include the 1989 ITV sitcom Split Ends.

She was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress in Frozen's National Theatre production.

Mama Morton appeared in the West End in the musical Chicago (2003) and Gertrude in Hamlet (2005), and she made her RSC debut in The Merry Wives of Windsor's 2012 revival.

Darkness Falls (1999) and London Road (2015) were two of her film appearances.

Early life

Dobson was born in Stepney, London. She studied at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Personal life

Dobson married Brian May on November 18, 2000. They first met in 1986. She is a member of the Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America.

Both of her husbands had tested positive for COVID-19 in December 2021, but they were recovering.

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Career

Dobson appeared in several films in the early 1980s, including the Jim Davidson sitcom Up the Elephant and Round the Castle (1983). She is best known for her appearance in BBC1 soap opera EastEnders as the show's emotionally battered and alcoholic landlady Angie Watts, a role she played from 1985 to 1988.

Dobson was not the first person to be cast as Angie – Jean Fennell, another actress, had already started filming when it was decided that her appearance did not "gel" with the original concept of the character, and Dobson was portrayed in the role. Dobson worked closely with actress Leslie Grantham, the Queen Victoria's landlord, who portrayed her adult husband 'Dirty Den Watts,' while playing Angie Watts, alcoholic landlady of the Queen Vic. 30,000 million viewers tuned in on Christmas Day in 1986, giving the soap its highest ever episode rating, which has yet to be surpassed by any other soap in the United Kingdom.

Since leaving EastEnders in 1988, BBC executives had made several calls for her to return, but she later replied, "Why tarnish the stunning creation that was Angie Watts?" Executives eventually decided she could not be allowed to return, and Angie Watts' character died off-screen and was carried home to be buried by her on-screen daughter Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), who had returned to the show the previous year.

Dobson has appeared in many television, film, and theatre roles, including BBC sitcoms Red Dwarf, Rab C. Nesbitt, and her own sitcom series Split Ends (1989), which lasted for just one series after leaving EastEnders Dobson. She has appeared in several BBC dramas, including Dangerfield (1995), Ghosts (1999), Sunburn (1999), and Hotel Babylon (2004), among others, as well as the films Sweet Revenge (1998) and Darkness Falls (1999). In the Sky production entitled The Stretch and Five's Horror film Urban Gothic (2000), she has also reunited with fellow EastEnder Leslie Grantham.

In 2005, Dobson appeared in the radio Doctor Who serial Blood of the Daleks, and was on the ITV1 police drama The Bill. Dobson has appeared in episodes in October 2000, July 2009, July 2011, and October 2017; she also appeared in two guest roles in Casualty's sister series, Holby City, in September 2003 and December 2014. Dobson appeared in the film London Road in 2015 and appeared alongside Simon Callow in the Gold comedy series The Rebel in 2016.

When she was surprised by Michael Aspel in 2002, she was interviewed on This Is Your Life.

Dobson has also performed as a guitarist, with varying degrees of success. She reached No. 1 in August 1986 when she reached No. 4 on the charts. "Anyone Can Fall in Love," a song based on EastEnders' theme music that was written by Simon May, currently ranks 4 on the UK Singles Chart. Brian May, a Queen guitarist who later became her husband, produced the album. She has also released a number of other singles and albums with modest chart success.

Dobson appeared in repertory at Salisbury Playhouse in 1980; the 1981 Raymond Keeffe musical Chorus Girls and Hazel Fletcher in the short-lived musical Budgie with Adam Faith; and on stage, Dobson appeared in a revival of Shaw's Pygmalion. She appeared in the revived Tom Stoppard musical Rough Crossing and appeared in My Lovely Shayna Maidel as a holocaust survivor. She appeared in the West End musical Chicago as Mama Morton.

Following a UK tour in fall 2005, Dobson appeared as Gertrude in the English Touring Theatre performance of Hamlet at the New Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End.

Dobson appeared as Mistress Quickly in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor in 2012.

Dobson appeared as Madame Morrible in London's musical Wicked from September 2016 to January 2017.

Anita is the product of a tour guide on The Roof at the Playhouse Theatre in June 2019, with Trevor Nunn playing Yente and Maria Freidman as Golde until the production's closure on November 2nd.

Dobson will be the protagonist of the 2011 series of Strictly Come Dancing on September 6, 2011. It was revealed on the launch of her ninth series that she would be partnered by Latin specialist Robin Windsor. Robin Windsor was forced to miss a week due to a back injury. Anita Dobson, as a result, rehearsed and danced the Cha Cha Cha Cha Cha and the Swingathon with Brendan Cole.

Dobson received the Pye Award for Outstanding Female Personality for her time on EastEnders as Angie Watts.

For her role in Frozen at the Royal National Theatre in Cottesloe, Dobson was nominated for a 2003 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress.

Dobson was named Companion of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in 2007.

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