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Alison Steadman

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Alison Steadman
Steadman during a recording of You'll Have Had Your Tea for BBC Radio 4 in 2006
Born (1946-08-26) 26 August 1946 (age 78)
Liverpool, Lancashire, England, UK
OccupationActress
Years active1971–present
SpouseMike Leigh (m. 1973–2001; divorced)
PartnerMichael Elwyn
ChildrenToby Leigh
Leo Leigh

Alison Steadman, OBE (born 26 August 1946) is an English actress. She was made an OBE in the 2000 New Year Honours. In a 2007 Channel 4 poll, the "50 Greatest Actors" voted for by other actors, she was ranked No. 42.[1]

Steadman made her professional stage debut in 1968 at Lincoln's Theatre Royal. She established her career in the Mike Leigh directed TV plays Nuts in May in 1976 and Abigail's Party in 1977, a role she had originated on stage earlier the same year. She was married to Leigh for 28 years. Steadman won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for the 1990 Mike Leigh film Life Is Sweet. In 1993, she won the Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.[2] She has also twice been nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress, for the 1986 TV film The Singing Detective and in 2001 for the TV series Fat Friends (2000-2005). Other television roles include Pride and Prejudice (1995) and Gavin & Stacey (2007-2010). Steadman's other films include A Private Function (1984), Clockwise (1986) Shirley Valentine (1989), Topsy Turvy (1999) and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004).

Early life

Steadman was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, the youngest of three sisters, the daughter of Marjorie (née Evans), who died of cancer,[3] and George Percival Steadman,[4] who worked for Plessey, an electronics firm, as a production controller.

Education

Steadman was educated at Childwall Valley High School for Girls, a state grammar school in the Liverpool suburb of Childwall, followed by East 15 Acting School, to which she secured a place in the autumn of 1966 and where she first met Mike Leigh, during her second year.[5]

Life and career

Stage work

Having left the East 15 Acting School in Loughton, Essex, Steadman worked in various regional repertory theatres, starting at Lincoln, where her first role was that of the seductive schoolgirl Sandy in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She created the role of the monstrous Beverly in Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party, which she reprised with the original cast on television. Steadman won an Olivier Award for The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, and also appeared in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Hotel Paradiso, and others in locations as diverse as the Royal Court, the Theatre Royal,[disambiguation needed] the Old Vic, the Hampstead Theatre, the Nottingham Playhouse, the Everyman Liverpool and the National Theatre. She starred as Elmire in the 1983 RSC production of Molière's Tartuffe, which was adapted for BBC television. [citation needed] In 2010, Steadman was cast as Madame Arcati in a revival of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, which was scheduled for a national tour from November 2010 to March 2011.[6]

Film

Steadman has appeared in many films, including P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang, A Private Function, Champions, Clockwise, Stormy Monday, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Shirley Valentine, Wilt, Life Is Sweet, Blame It on the Bellboy, Topsy Turvy and Confetti.

Television

Steadman's television work includes Fat Friends as Betty, Grumpy Old Women, Stressed Eric, Let Them Eat Cake, The Singing Detective, No Bananas, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years as Pauline Mole, opposite James Bolam in the television film The Missing Postman and Pride and Prejudice as Mrs. Bennet. In 1991 she also appeared as Lauren Patterson in Gone to the Dogs, which was then followed up by Gone to Seed.

Television productions directed by Leigh in which she has appeared include Nuts in May, Hard Labour and Abigail's Party. She also appeared in the BBC comedy The Worst Week of My Life. In 2007, she featured in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about her Welsh family history, with roots in Trefarclawdd and Ruabon.

From 2007 to 2009, Steadman appeared in the BBC comedy Gavin & Stacey as Pamela. She was also in Fanny Hill on BBC Four in 2007.

Steadman starred with Myra Frances in Girl, a 1974 BBC play in the Second City Firsts series, performing the first lesbian kiss on British television.[7] In 2014, she will appear in an episode of The Secrets.[citation needed]

Radio

On radio, Steadman's talent for mimicry and character voices was given full rein in shows such as Week Ending, Castle's on the Air and The Worst Show on the Wireless, in both the latter of which she played the over-protective mother to Eli Woods' long-suffering Bunty/Precious. From 1982 to 1984, she joined Eli Woods and Eddie Braben (Morecambe and Wise's scriptwriter) in the UK radio show The Show with No Name for thirteen episodes, in what can be described as an updated version of Round the Horne comedy sketch show. More recently, since 2002, Steadman has starred as Mrs Naughtie in the series Hamish and Dougal. In December 2009, she starred in the late Mike Stott's 'My Mad Grandad' on BBC Radio 4.[8]

Personal life

In Manchester in 1972, shooting his television film Hard Labour, director Leigh drove over to Liverpool to see Ted Whitehead's play The Foursome, (Steadman was in the Liverpool Everyman cast) and asked Steadman to be in his film. "During the preparation of the film, Mike and Alison, as they both say, 'got together.' "[9] They married in 1973 and had two sons, Toby, in February 1978 and Leo, in August 1981.[10] The couple separated in 1995 and divorced in 2001.

Steadman's present partner is Michael Elwyn[11] and the couple live in Highgate, London.[12]

Steadman was one of the celebrities, including Tom Hiddleston, Jo Brand, E. L. James and Rachel Riley, to design and sign her own card for the UK-based charity Thomas Coram Foundation for Children. The campaign was launched by crafting company Stampin’ Up! UK and the cards were auctioned off on eBay during May 2014.[13]

Awards and recognition

References

  1. ^ "The Stage Talk". The Stage. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  2. ^ "Alison Steadman" Liverpool John Moores University Honorary Fellowship Award speech July 2010. Retrieved 7 June 2011
  3. ^ Marie Curie Cancer Care advertisement, broadcast February 2011
  4. ^ Film Reference bio
  5. ^ Michael Coveney, The World according to Mike Leigh, p.90
  6. ^ Bamigboye, Baz (16 July 2010). "From Spooks to a seance". Daily Mail (Associated Newspapers).
  7. ^ "Alison Steadman: Britain's lady-in-waiting", The Sunday Times, 30 November 2008
  8. ^ "My Mad Grandad", BBC, 28 December 2009
  9. ^ Coveney, p.90
  10. ^ Michael Coveney, p.18
  11. ^ Alison Steadman. "The Alison Steadman Page". Pandp2.home.comcast.net. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  12. ^ [1][dead link‍]
  13. ^ Rebecca Pocklington (6 May 2014). "Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Jo Brand and more celebrities design and sign cards for UK's first children's charity". Mirror Online. Retrieved 7 May 2014.

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