MIRIAM MARGOLYES

'Miriam Margolyes' OBE (born May 18, 1941) is a British character actress.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Acting career

Personal life

Filmography

Television

Theatre

Documentary

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Born in Oxford, England to Ruth (Walters), a real estate investor, and Joseph Margolyes, a physician.^[1] She grew up in a Jewish family^[2] of Belarusian origin, and attended the local Oxford High School. She then attended Newnham College, Cambridge where she began acting in her 20s, in productions by the Gay Sweatshop company and also appeared in productions of the Cambridge Footlights. She is one of Britain's most sought after supporting players, and has appeared in a number of successful feature films.

Acting career

Originally, it was her work as a voice artist that brought her into the public consciousness. She voiced the female rabbit character in the animated commercials for Cadbury's Caramel, and performed most of the supporting female characters in the dubbed Japanese action TV series, ''Monkey''.
Margolyes' first major role in a film was as a character called Elephant Ethel, and she has since become a familiar face in the world of film and television.
Margolyes received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Flora Finching in the 1988 movie ''Little Dorrit''. On American television, she headlined the short-lived 1992 CBS sitcom ''Frannie's Turn''. In 1993 she won a Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA for her role as Mrs Mingott, the only comic relief in Martin Scorsese's ''The Age Of Innocence'', a performance that jump-started her career. Margolyes then began to be noticed by a much younger audience when she starred as Aunt Sponge in ''James And The Giant Peach''; she also did the voice of the Glow Worm in the same movie. Then she starred as another well-known character from a book: Professor Sprout in ''Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets''.
Margolyes was recently seen alongside Geoffrey Rush and Charlize Theron in ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers'', and (as Dolly de Vries) with Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons and Michael Gambon in ''Being Julia''. Margolyes also featured as ''Dorcas'' the housekeeper in ''Ladies in Lavender'' with Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, and cropped up in a guest role in ITV mystery drama ''Marple'', a new series transmitted in the UK in 2004, which featured Geraldine McEwan in the title role.
She has iconic status within the world of comedy for her remarkably tasteless performance as the Spanish Infanta alongside Rowan Atkinson in ''Blackadder'', and also for portraying a riotously naughty version of Queen Victoria in ''Blackadder's Christmas Carol''. She recently starred in the original cast of the London production of ''Wicked'' as Madame Morrible opposite Idina Menzel.
She is soon to tour Australia in her one woman show "Dickens' Women" beginning in September 2007. Margolyes also featured in the British comedy Jam and Jerusalem, which stars Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French and Joanna Lumley.

Personal life

Margolyes keeps her personal life private, but she has not seen any reason to keep it a secret that she is a lesbian, or as she playfully says "deliberately never been married or had children". She took time out of her career to look after her ill mother, and spent quarter of a million pounds on full time care for her father. She is a campaigner for a respite care charity.
She appeared on British Television show 'University Challenge', whilst at Cambridge University. As part of a BBC documentary ''University Challenge: The Story so Far'' she claimed that during her appearance, she swore live on air after getting a question wrong, becoming the first person to say the word 'fuck' on British Television (but that no recording of the incident survives to confirm this).

Filmography

★ ''Yentl'' (1983) - Sarah

★ '' Little Shop of Horrors (1986 film)

★ ''A Little Princess'' (1986)

★ ''Little Dorrit'' (1988) - Flora

★ ''The Age of Innocence'' (1993) - Mrs. Mingott

★ ''Immortal Beloved'' (1994) - Nanette Streicherová

★ ''Balto'' (1995) - Grandma Rosie

★ ''The Thief and the Cobbler'' (1995) - the voice of the Maiden from Mombassa (original version only; the character was never heard at all in the re-edited versions and another actor was never available all in the re-edited versions)

★ ''Cold Comfort Farm'' (1996) - Mrs. Beetle

★ ''Different for Girls'' (1996) - Pamela

★ ''Babe'' and '' - the voice of Fly the Sheepdog

★ ''James and the Giant Peach'' - Aunt Sponge, and the voice of the Glowworm

★ ''William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet'' (1996) - The Nurse

★ ''Vanity Fair'' (1998) - Miss Crawley

★ ''End Of Days'' (1999) - Mabel

★ ''Magnolia'' (1999) - Faye Barringer

★ ''Sunshine'' (1999) - Rose Sonnenschein

★ ''Cats & Dogs'' (2001) - Sophie

★ ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' (2002) - Professor Sprout

★ ''Ladies in Lavender'' (2004)

★ ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers'' (2004) - Peg Sellers -note this film was shown in theatres in the UK - it aired on cable television on the HBO network in the US

★ ''Happy Feet'' (2006)

Television

★ ''A Kick Up the Eighties'' (1981)

★ ''Dawn French's Girls Who Do Comedy'' Three part TV series(2006)

★ ''Jam and Jerusalem'' (2006) - Joyce Midge

★ ''Blackadder'' - Infanta Maria Escalosa of Spain

★ ''Blackadder II'' - Lady Whiteadder

★ ''Blackadder's Christmas Carol'' - Queen Victoria

★ ''Take a Letter, Mr. Jones'' - Maria

★ ''Frannie's Turn'' (1992) - Frannie Escobar

Theatre

★ ''Wicked'' (2006) as Madame Morrible - Apollo Victoria Theatre, London

Documentary

★ ''Dickens in America'' - writer/presenter

References

1. http://www.filmreference.com/film/1/Miriam-Margolyes.html
2. http://www.gmb.org.uk/Shared_ASP_Files/UploadedFiles/DDD81B34-BD5C-4BA4-B6B3-F1D06E022C21_MiriamMargolyes.pdf

External links

★

★ Miriam Margolyes personal website

★ Dickens' Women Tour Website