Brenda Bruce (7 July 1919 – 19 February 1996) was a British actress. She had a long and successful career in the theatre, radio, film and television.

Early life

Bruce was born in Prestwich, Lancashire in 1919, and started her acting career as a teenager on stage as a chorus girl.

Acting career

She was with the Birmingham Repertory Company (1936–39) and a long-time actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). She was the RSC's resident Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, playing the role in 1964, 1968, 1975 and 1995. She appeared as Irma in the RSC's production of Jean Genet's The Balcony in 1971.

In the 1950s she appeared on television in many dramas, and in a chat show Rich and Rich with her husband. She starred as Winnie in the 1962 British premiere of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, and in 1977 as Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime in Murder Most English.

Bruce played Aunt Dahlia in the 1990s production of Jeeves and Wooster with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Other roles include Tilda in the Doctor Who story "Paradise Towers", Bea in the rag trade drama Connie and in The Riff Raff Element. In 1964, she played Mary Lewis in Nightmare. In 1994, she starred in Honey for Tea, a short-lived sitcom.