Imelda Staunton

At 68 years old, Imelda Staunton has this physical status:

Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, born 9 January 1956, is an English stage and film actress.

Staunton began her career in repertory theatre in the 1970s before appearing in seasons at numerous theatres in the United Kingdom.

Staunton has performed in a number of plays and musicals in London, including three for Best Actress in a Musical (1991), Mrs. Lovett in Sweet (1991) and Madame Rose in Gypsy (2016), and one for Best Supporting Performance for her roles in both A Chorus of Disapproval (1985) and The Corn is Green (1985).

Her appearances on stage in The Beggar's Opera (1982), Uncle Vanya (1988), Guys and Dolls (1996), Entertaining Mr Sloane (2009) and Good People (2014) also received Olivier awards.

Staunton has been nominated for a total of 13 Olivier Awards. Staunton received critical acclaim for her role in Vera Drake, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and the Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup for Best Actress, in addition to being nominated for the Academy Award, the Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress.

Mrs. Blatherwick (2005), Dolores Umbridge in two of Harry Potter's films (2007-2010), and Hefina Headon in Pride (2014), for which she received a nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, among other actresses. Is it legal? She appeared on television in the sitcom Up the Garden Path (1990-1993). (1995–1998)

My Family and Other Animals, 2005, earned her a nomination for Best Actress, while Return to Cranford (2009) and The Girl (2012) received her BAFTA TV Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress.

She was also nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

Early life and education

Staunton was born in Archway, North London, the only child of Bridie (née McNicholas), a hairdresser, and Joseph Staunton, a labourer. They lived in Staunton's salon because of her mother's beauty. Her parents were first-generation Catholic immigrants from County Mayo, Ireland; her father was from Ballyvary, and her mother was from Bohola. Her mother was a singer who could not read music but who could play most songs by ear on the accordion or fiddle, and had appeared in Irish showbands.

Staunton took drama classes with her elocution tutor and appeared in school plays, including the role of Polly Peachum in The Beggar's Opera. She auditioned for drama schools and joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) at the age of 18. She also applied for the Central School of Speech and Drama and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, but she was rejected.

Personal life

Bessie, Staunton's daughter, and English actor Jim Carter, was born in 1993. They appeared in Cranford's BBC series Cranford in 2007, with Carter as Captain Brown and Bessie as a maid. They live in West Hampstead.

Molly, Staunton's dog, appeared as Chowsie the dog in Gypsy at the Chichester Festival Theatre from 6 October to 8 November. Staunton portrayed Mama Rose in the leading role.

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Acting career

Staunton debuted in 1976, spent six years in English repertory theatre, including a period at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter, where she appeared in Shaw's Saint Joan (1979). Lucy Lockit appeared in The Beggar's Opera (1982), which earned her Olivier Award nominations for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical and Most Promising Newcomer of the Year in Theatre. She appeared in two revivals of Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre in 1982, the first in 1982, when she saw her husband Jim Carter, and the second in 1996, when she appeared in Miss Adelaide and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

Staunton received her first Laurence Olivier Award in 1985 for her performances in The Corn Is Green and at The Old Vic and A Chorus of Disapproval at the National Theatre. Dorothy was also starring Dorothy in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1989 revival of The Wizard of Oz at the Barbican Centre, which brought her another Olivier award for Best Actress in a Musical. Staunton received her first Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Dorothy in Into the Woods, a London production (1990).

Staunton played mainly in stage appearances, including Sonya in Uncle Vanya (1988), Kath in Entertaining Mr Sloane (2004) and Good People (2014), for which she received Olivier nominations for Best Actress in a Play in the ensuing 20 years. She appeared in two productions at the Almeida Theatre, firstly in Frank McGuinness's There Came a Gypsy Riding premiere in 2007 and then in a revival of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance in 2011.

Staunton has appeared in two Chichester Festival Theatre productions since being cast in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd from 2011 to 2012, starring Michael Ball, before appearing as Rose in a revival of Gypsy between 2014 and 2015. Both shows were destined for critically and commercially acclaimed runs in London. Staunton received her second and third Olivier Awards for Best Actress in a Musical in 2013 and 2016.

Martha Staunton appeared in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, starring Conleth Hill, Luke Treadaway, and Imogen Poots at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London West End in 2017. On May 18, 2017, this performance was broadcast in National Theatre Live.

Staunton played Sally in Stephen Sondheim's Follies' 2017 National Theatre revival, alongside Janie Dee as Phyllis and Philip Quast as Ben. On the 16th of November 2017, the performance was broadcast live on the National Theatre Live initiative.

Staunton's first big-screen role came in 1986's film Comrades. She appeared in Antonia and Jane in 1991 and Peter's Friends, 1992. Performances in Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Deadly Advice (1993), and Sensibility (1995) appear in several films, including performances by Maya Boutt (1995), Twelfth Night (1996), Nanny McPhee (2005), and How About You (2005).

In 1998 for Shakespeare in Love, Staunton received a Screen Actor Guild Award for Best Performance by a Cast. For her role in Mike Leigh's Vera Drake's title role, she received Best Actress accolades at the European Film Awards, BAFTAs, and the Venice Film Festival in 2004. She received her first nomination for Best Actress, Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Female Actor in a Leading Role in the same role.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Staunton portrayed Dolores Umbridge, a feat that can be described as "coming close to stealing the show." At the London Film Critics Circle Awards, she was nominated in the "British Actress in a Supporting Role" category. Staunton reacted in Harry Potter's Dolores Umbridge in Part 1 of 2010.

Other film appearances include the 2008 film A Bunch of Amateurs, in which she appeared alongside Burt Reynolds, Derek Jacobi, and Samantha Bond, as well as Sonia Teichberg's character in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock (2009). Staunton played the Talking Flowers in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010), and he appeared in one of the leading roles in the 2011 ghost film The Awakening. In the Aardman film The Pirates, she portrayed Queen Victoria in 2012. Misfits, where she plays the main antagonist. She co-starred in Maleficent and the British comedy-drama Pride in 2014.

In late 2014, she appeared in Paddington, a film based on Michael Bond's Paddington Bear books. Aunt Lucy and Uncle Pastuzo were played by Staunton and her Harry Potter co-star Michael Gambon in Paddington, respectively.

Staunton would be one of the new cast members of Downton Abbey, which opened principal photography about the same time in August 2018.

If You See God, Tell Him, she appeared on television in 1993 with Richard Briers and Adrian Edmondson. Staunton appeared as Detective Burakov's wife in the 1995 HBO film Citizen X, which retold the hunt for and capture of Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. She has appeared in The Singing Detective (1986), Midsomer Murders, and the sitcom Is It Legal? (1995–98), as well as A Bit of Fry and Laurie, are among the many other items on the menu. On Mole's Christmas (1994), she was a voice artist. She appeared in Little Britain as Mrs. Mead, as well as in 2007 in Cranford, the five-part BBC series based on Mrs Gaskell's books. Grace Andrews appeared in the second series of Psychoville in 2011.

In 2011, she was the Face of the Interface in Doctor Who's critically acclaimed and recipient for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) episode. Alma Reville, Alfred Hitchcock's wife, was also featured in the HBO television film The Girl in 2012, which also starred Toby Jones and Sienna Miller. She was nominated for a BAFTA Television Award and a Primetime Emmy Award for her efforts.

Staunton has been starring in the Apple TV+ comedy series Trying since May 2020. The first season premiered on May 1st, and the second-season premieres on May 2021, with the show now renewed for a third season. It was revealed on January 31, 2020, that she would be portraying Queen Elizabeth II in the fifth season of the critically acclaimed Netflix series The Crown. Staunton reprised her role as the Queen on July 9, 2020, it was announced on July 9th that the series had been extended to a sixth and final season.

In "Courageous Kate" in Series 1 of Elephants to Catch Eels and as "Xanthippe" on radio, she appeared in the lead "Izzy Comyn" in the comedy Up the Garden Path (which later expanded to ITV with Staunton reprising the role).

Anna Massey appeared in Daunt and Dervish, the postwar II mystery film, and Patrick Barlow in The Patrick and Maud's The Patrick and Maurice Experience. In the five part (15 minutes each) "The Skool Days of Nigel Molesworth" for BBC Radio 4.

Staunton has narrated unabridged audio-book versions of many of Julia Donaldson's books, including The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child, The Monkey Puzzle, The Snail and the Whale, Stick Man and Zog, and other children's books. Show of Hands on Centenary: Words and Music of the Great War, an album of songs and poetry influenced by World War I, was produced in 2014.

Staunton is also a patron for the Milton Rooms, a new arts center in Malton, North Yorkshire, along with Bill Nighy, Jools Holland, and Kathy Burke.

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