Portal:South East England/Selected biography/17

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Brenda Blethyn OBE (born 20 February 1946) is an English Golden Globe winning and Academy Award-nominated film, stage, television and voice actress, and writer.

Blethyn performs predominantly in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from comedies and dramas to historical films and crimes. She is best known for her films released in the 1990s and 2000s, including Secrets & Lies (1996), Little Voice (1998), Saving Grace (2000), and Pride & Prejudice (2005).

Born Brenda Ann Bottle in Ramsgate, Kent, Blethyn is the youngest of nine children of a working-class Roman Catholic family from Ramsgate, Kent, England. Her father, William Charles Bottle, was an engineer, and her mother, Louisa Kathleen Supple, was a homemaker. The family lived in modest circumstances, influenced by after-war rationing in England. Her late parents were the first to introduce Blethyn to the cinema, as they took their youngest child to the movies weekly.