Eleanor Bron

Infobox actor
name = Eleanor Bron


caption =
birthdate = 14 March, 1938
birthplace = Stanmore, Middlesex, London

Eleanor Bron (born 14 March, 1938 [International Who's Who 2007] ) is a British stage, film and television actress and authoress.

Early life & family

Bron was born in Stanmore, London of Eastern European Jewish descent; her father shortened the surname to "Bron" from "Bronstein" when founding Bron's Orchestral Service.cite news|last=Westbrook|first=Caroline|coauthors=|title=Gerry Bron interview|pages=|publisher=Something Jewish|date=2007-04-03|url=http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/2267_gerry_bron_interview.htm|accessdate=2007-04-24] She was educated at the North London Collegiate School and Newnham College, Cambridge.

Bron was married to the architect Cedric Price until his death in 2003. They had no children. Her brother is the veteran record producer Gerry Bron. [ [http://dmme.net/interviews/bron.html Interview with Gerry Bron] ]

Career

Early work

Bron began her career in the Cambridge Footlights revue of 1959, entitled "The Last Laugh", in which Peter Cook also appeared. The addition of a female performer to the Footlights was a departure, having been until that point all-male, with female characters portrayed in drag. As with many others of the British satire boom, participation in the Footlights was a springboard to a long career in British comedy. In the ensuing years she would write and perform in dozens of productions for television and radio, her earliest work including such programmes as "Where Was Spring"," Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life", and "My Father Knew Lloyd George".

Film appearances

Her film appearances include the role of Ahme in the Beatles film, "Help!", the doctor who grounds the Lothario played by Michael Caine in "Alfie", the unattainable Margaret Spencer in Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's film "Bedazzled", Hermione Roddice in Ken Russell's "Women in Love", and "The National Health". She appears in the film "Two for the Road" alongside Albert Finney, Audrey Hepburn and William Daniels. More recently she has appeared in the film adaptations of "A Little Princess", "The House of Mirth", "Black Beauty" and in "Wimbledon".

Television work

She plays, through flashback, the recurring character of Patsy's mother in the sitcom, "Absolutely Fabulous", an exuberantly horrible woman who "scattered bastard babies across Europe like a garden sprinkler". After giving birth, she would always say "Now take it away! And bring me another lover."

She also appeared as an art critic in a parody of an Andy Warhol documentary on the BBC sketch comedy show "French and Saunders", written by and starring Jennifer Saunders of "Absolutely Fabulous" and Dawn French of "The Vicar of Dibley".

She appeared in one episode ("Equal Opportunities") of the BBC series "Yes Minister", playing a senior civil servant in Jim Hacker's Department. Hacker plans to promote her to strike a blow for equal opportunities.

Bron appeared in a brief scene in the BBC science fiction television series "Doctor Who" serial "City of Death" alongside John Cleese as art critics in Denise Rene's art gallery in Paris. The pair are admiring the TARDIS, thinking it to be a piece of art, when the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward) rush into it and it dematerialises. Bron's character, believing this to be part of the work, states that it is "Exquisite, absolutely exquisite!"

Later, she had a more substantial guest role in another "Doctor Who" television serial, 1985's "Revelation of the Daleks". She has more recently also appeared in an audio drama based on "Doctor Who" by Big Finish Productions, ("Loups-Garoux"), in which she plays the part of wealthy heiress Ileana de Santos.

She collaborated with novelist and playwright Michael Frayn on the BBC programmes "Beyond a Joke" and "Making Faces".

tage appearances

In 1975 she appeared in the West End musical "The Card". Throughout the 1980s she appeared in Amnesty International's "Secret Policeman's Balls" live benefit shows, working alongside Peter Cook and Rowan Atkinson. In 2005 she appeared in the Liverpool Empire Theatre in the musical play "Twopence To Cross The Mersey". She appeared in the role of an abbess in Howard Brenton's play "In Extremis", staged in Shakespeare's Globe in 2007. She has also recently appeared in the dramatized version of Pedro Almodovar's film "All About My Mother" which opened at the Old Vic theatre in the late summer of 2007.

Bron also gave the premiere performance of "The Yellow Cake Revue", a series of pieces for voice and piano written in protest against uranium mining in the Orkney Islands by Peter Maxwell Davies.

Recent work

In 2001 and 2002 she has appeared in the BBC radio comedy sketch show, "The Right Time", along with Graeme Garden, Paula Wilcox, Clive Swift, Roger Blake and Neil Innes. Another notable radio appearance was in "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in the 2002 episode "The Madness of Colonel Warburton". In 2006 she narrated the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the Craig Brown book "1966 and All That".

Cultural influences

She is often credited as an inspiration for the name of the Beatles song "Eleanor Rigby". She is mentioned in the Yo La Tengo song "Tom Courtenay", in the line "dreaming 'bout Eleanor Bron, in my room with the curtains drawn...".

As a writer

She is the author of several books, including "Life and Other Punctures", an account of bicycling in France and Holland on an early Moulton bicycle; and "The Pillow Book of Eleanor Bron".

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0111376|name=Eleanor Bron
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/talent/b/bron_eleanor.shtml Eleanor Bron] at [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/ The bbc.co.uk Guide to Comedy]