Miriam Margolyes
All you want to know about Miriam Margolyes
| Miriam Margolyes | |||||||
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 Margolyes reading at an event for the charity Sense, 2006 |
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| Born | 18 May 1941 Oxford, England |
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| Occupation | Actress | ||||||
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Miriam Margolyes OBE (born May 18, 1941) is a BAFTA Award-winning British and character actress and voice artist. She is one of Britain's most sought after supporting players, and has appeared in a number of successful feature films.
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Biography
Early life
Margolyes was born in Oxford, England, the daughter of Ruth (née Walters), a real estate investor, and Joseph Margolyes, a physician.[1] She grew up in a Jewish family,[2] a descendant of immigrants from Belarus. She attended the local Oxford High School and later Newnham College, Cambridge. There, she began acting in her 20s, and also appeared in productions of the Cambridge Footlights (a comedy troup).
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. She also worked with the theatre company Gay Sweatshop.
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 is also known for iconic comedic roles, such as playing the Spanish Infanta alongside Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder, as Lady Whiteadder in Blackadder II and also for portraying Queen Victoria in Blackadder's Christmas Carol.
In 2007 she toured Australia in her one woman show Dickens' Women beginning in September. Margolyes also featured in the British comedy Jam and Jerusalem, which stars Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French and Joanna Lumley.
She recently starred in the original cast of the London production of Wicked as Madame Morrible opposite Idina Menzel, a role she reprised on Broadway, taking over from Carole Shelley on January 22, 2008. She left the Broadway Company on June 1, 2008 and she was replaced by understudy Kathy Santen.
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"[citation needed]. She took time out of her career to look after her ill mother, and spent a quarter of a million pounds on full time care for her father[citation needed]. She is a campaigner for a respite care charity, Crossroads.[3][4] She also supports Sense, a charity for deafblind people.[5]
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[citation needed], becoming the first person to say the word "fuck" on British Television (but that no recording of the incident survives to confirm this).
She intends to become an Australian citizen.[3]
Filmography
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Notes
- 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)
- 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
Theatre
- The Importance of Being Earnest (BAM Harvey Theatre, New York) - Miss Prism
- Wicked (Apollo Victoria, London / Gershwin Theatre, New York) - Madame Morrible
- The Way of the World (Sydney Theatre Company)
- The Vagina Monologues (Arts Theatre, London)
- Romeo and Juliet (Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles)
- Fiddler on the Roof (Number One Tour) - Matchmaker
- Canterbury Tales (Bristol Old Vic) - Wife of Bath
- Kennedy's Children (Arts Theatre, London)
- Threepenny Opera (Piccadilly Theatre, London) - Whore
- The White Devil (Old Vic, London)
- Cloud Nine (Joint Stock / Royal Court)
- Flaming Bodies (ICA) - Psychiatrist
- 84 Charing Cross Rd (Colchester) - Helen Hanff
- Gertrude Stein and a Companion (International Tour) - Gertrude Stein
- Man Equals Man (Almeida Theatre, London) - Widow Begbick
- Orpheus Descending (Haymarket Theatre, London) - Vee Talbot
- Dickens' Women (Duke of York's Theatre and Hampstead Theatre, London)
- Blithe Spirit (Melbourne Theatre Company, Australia)
Documentary
- Dickens in America - writer/presenter
Awards and Nominations
- Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for Services to Drama 2001[6]
- Winner: Theatregoer's Choice Awards 2007 Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Madam Morrible in Wicked
- Winner: Audiofile's Earphones Award 2001 for A Christmas Carol
- Winner: Prix Jeunesse Best Children's Programme (0-6 fiction) 2000 for The First Snow of Winter
- Winner: The Talkies Performer Of The Year 1997 for Oliver Twist
- Winner: Sony Radio Awards Best Actress On Radio 1993 for The Queen and I
- Winner: BAFTA Best Supporting Actress 1993 for The Age of Innocence
- Nominated: Olivier Award for Best Entertainment 1991 for Dickens' Women
- Winner: LA Critics Circle 1989 Best Supporting Actress for Little Dorrit (shared with Geneviève Bujold)
References
- ^ Miriam Margolyes Biography (1941-)
- ^ http://www.gmb.org.uk/Shared_ASP_Files/UploadedFiles/DDD81B34-BD5C-4BA4-B6B3-F1D06E022C21_MiriamMargolyes.pdf
- ^ a b Late Night Live - 10September2007 - Miriam Margolyes and Dickens' Women
- ^ http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/current/audioonly/lnl_20070910.mp3
- ^ Sense | Celebrity supporters | Miriam Margolyes
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 56430, page 11, 31 December 2001. Retrieved on 4 August 2008.
External links
- Miriam Margolyes at the Internet Movie Database
- Miriam Margolyes personal website
- Dickens' Women Tour Website
- Women in Comedy
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Miranda Richardson for Damage |
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1993 for The Age of Innocence |
Succeeded by Kristin Scott Thomas for Four Weddings and a Funeral |
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