Liz Smith

Liz Smith

Birth : 1921-12-11, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, UK

Death : 2016-12-24

History

Betty Gleadle (11 December 1921 – 24 December 2016), known by the stage name Liz Smith, was an English character actress, known for her roles in BBC sitcoms, including as Annie Brandon in I Didn't Know You Cared (1975–1979), the sisters Bette and Belle in 2point4 Children (1991–1999), Letitia Cropley in The Vicar of Dibley (1994–1996) and Norma Speakman ("Nana") in The Royle Family (1998–2000, 2006). She also played Zillah in Lark Rise to Candleford (2008) and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the 1984 film A Private Function.

Profile

Liz Smith
Liz Smith

Movies

The Royle Family: Behind the Sofa
Self
Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash discuss the creation of The Royle Family, with a look behind the scenes at the production of the show and interviews with the cast.
City of Ember
Granny
For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights. But Ember's once powerful generator is failing and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker. Now, two teenagers, in a race against time, must search Ember for clues that will unlock the ancient mystery of the city's existence, before the the lights go out forever.
Flick
Ma
Memphis cop Lieutenant McKenzie is called in to investigate a series of strange deaths and wierd sightings following the resurrection of a murder victim from the 1950s(a local boy) who is brought back to life in modern times and tries to find his teenage sweetheart who is now aged 62 and also to seek revenge for his death.
The Queen of Sheba
Norma Speakman
Tension mounts in the Royle household as the family contemplates the prospect of becoming fully laminated throughout. Dr Mahmoud prescribes new medication for Nana in the form of yellow tablets; coincidentally they turn out to be the same colour as the tablets that Joe was prescribed for the swelling when he got his bits stuck in his zip. Meanwhile, a mysterious ginger visitor reminds Nana of her favourite musical.
The Magic Flute
The Old Papagena
During World War I, in an unnamed country, a soldier named Tamino is sent by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina from the clutches of the supposedly evil Sarastro. But all is not as it seems.
Keeping Mum
Mrs. Parker
A pastor preoccupied with writing the perfect sermon fails to realize that his wife is having an affair and his children are up to no good.
Oliver Twist
Old Woman
Oliver Twist the modern filmed version of Charles Dickens bestseller, a Roman Polanski adaptation. The classic Dickens tale, where an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Mrs. Mulch (voice)
Cheese-loving eccentric Wallace and his cunning canine pal, Gromit, investigate a mystery in Nick Park's animated adventure, in which the lovable inventor and his intrepid pup run a business ridding the town of garden pests. Using only humane methods that turn their home into a halfway house for evicted vermin, the pair stumble upon a mystery involving a voracious vegetarian monster that threatens to ruin the annual veggie-growing contest.
Dead Cool
Liz
A story about modern family relationships, as seen through the eyes of 15 year-old David. Six years after his dad dies in a car crash, David's mum moves in with the new man in her life. As the two families come together - complete with teenage step brothers and sisters, a crushingly acerbic granny and one feisty, American self-help guru ex-wife - David has fantasies of his father's ghost returning to disrupt the new step-family and test its survival.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Grandma Georgina
A young boy wins a tour through the most magnificent chocolate factory in the world, led by the world's most unusual candy maker.
Nerone
Soothsayer
As a young boy, future emperor Nero witnesses the mad Emperor Caligula kill his father and exile his mother. While in exile in the pontine islands, Agrippina, his mother, sees a vision telling her that her son can become emperor, but she will have to die first. She accepts the proposal. Back in Rome, Nero, now being raised by emperor Claudius after Caligula's death, Agrippina returns. She poisons Claudius' food and Nero becomes emperor. At first, Nero cuts taxes and introduces successful programs and invades Brittania. Soon he meets a beautiful slave named Claudia Acte, and marries her, throwing off his engagement with Claudius' daughter, Claudia Octavia, telling her she can marry someone she will be happy with. Heartbroken, she arrives at an island and kills herself. Nero enjoys being married to Claudia Acte, but soon he gradually goes mad with power and sets fire to Rome.
A Good Thief
Lizzie
Rita witnesses a murder, and believing she and her family are now in danger, she goes on the run with her daughter Leah and her elderly neighbour Lizzie. In hiding from the police and the villains, Rita resorts to shoplifting in order to survive.
Donovan Quick
Granny
Quirky stranger Donovan (Colin Firth) blows into the Scottish village of Port Clyde. There, he rents a room with the Pannick family and ingratiates himself into their lives. Lucy (Katy Murphy) is the long-suffering matriarch of the clan, caring for her senile grandmother (Liz Smith) and mentally disabled brother, Sandy (David Brown). When the town cancels Sandy's train route to school, Donovan suggests starting their own bus line. They do, much to the consternation of local officials.
A Christmas Carol
Joyce
A modern version of the classic Dickens tale, in which Eddie Scrooge is a mean loan shark who sees the error of his ways.
A Christmas Carol
Mrs Dilber
Scrooge is a miserly old businessman in 1840s London. One Christmas Eve he is visited by the ghost of Marley, his dead business partner. Marley foretells that Scrooge will be visited by three spirits, each of whom will attempt to show Scrooge the error of his ways. Will Scrooge reform his ways in time to celebrate Christmas?
Tom's Midnight Garden
Mrs Willows
When Tom's brother Peter gets measles, he is sent to stay with his Uncle Alan and Aunt Gwen in a flat with no garden and an elderly landlady, Mrs Bartholomew, living upstairs. Because he may be infectious, he is not allowed to play outside and feels lonely. Without exercise he is less sleepy at night and when he hears the communal grandfather clock strangely strike 13, he investigates and finds the small back yard is now a large sunlit garden.
Alice in Wonderland
Miss Lory
Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit-hole into a whimsical Wonderland, where she meets characters like the delightful Cheshire Cat, the clumsy White Knight, a rude caterpillar, and the hot-tempered Queen of Hearts and can grow ten feet tall or shrink to three inches. But will she ever be able to return home?
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Espionage Escapades
Delfina
Sixteen-year-old Indiana Jones joins an international trio of spies plotting against their German counterparts in the neutral city of Barcelona. Then later the same year, Indiana is reassigned to Prague where he is to receive an important phone call.
Tube Tales
Older Lady (Horny)
Nine short stories based on the true experiences of London Underground passengers: "Mr. Cool" (Amy Jenkins, dir.); "Horny" (Stephen Hopkins); "Grasshopper" (Menhaj Huda); "My Father the Liar" (Bob Hoskins); "Bone" (Ewan McGregor); "Mouth" (Armando Iannucci); "A Bird in the Hand" (Jude Law); "Rosebud" (Gaby Dellal); "Steal Away" (Charles McDougall)
The Revengers' Comedies
Winnie
After saving each other from jumping off a bridge, Henry Bell and Karen Knightly plot to avenge the people who drove them to suicide. Henry will ruin the life of the woman who married Karen's boyfriend, while Karen will work as a secretary for the man who took Henry's job. Whether revenge will be sweet – or bittersweet – is anyone's guess.
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
Mrs Meakin
Gordon Comstock is a copywriter at an ad agency, and his girlfriend Rosemary is a designer. Gordon believes he is a genius, a marvelous poet and quits the ad agency, trying to live on his poems, but poverty soon comes to him.
Secrets & Lies
Woman with Cat
After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to a working class white woman, Cynthia.
Haunted
Old Gypsy Woman
Professor David Ash exposes false spiritulists and mediums. He is invited to Edbrook to resolve the fears and torments within its secretive family. Soon after arriving Ash begins to doubt his own senses, and watching the strange behaviour of its residents does not make his task any easier. In time, he finds there's more to Edbrook than even he can debunk.
Doggin' Around
Mrs. Thompson
The past catches up with an ageing American jazz pianist when he returns to the clubs of Lancashire and Yorkshire that he last visited 10 years previously.
Son of the Pink Panther
Marta Balls
The eighth and last of the Pink Panther series. The illegitimate son of Inspector Clouseau is on the case of the kidnapped Princess Yasmin.
Pretty Princess
regina madre
A princess from a Nordic European country is obligated to marry the boy her family chose. She escapes and discovers love in the arms of a beautiful swimming teacher.
Dakota Road
Joan Benson
A sensitive drama about a farm labourer's abused daughter who fantasises about the officers of the local U.S. Air Base to escape the guilt and hypocrisy of everyday life. But her dreams of glamour and excitement are shattered when she is seduced by a pilot, setting in motion a chain of events...
Nona
Anyula
British production of Argentinan Roberto Cossa's play, set in Argentina in 1982. Nona is an elderly woman who is causing a drain on the resources of her entire family, with her constant craving for food and demands, which everybody indulges, in spite of falling into prostitution and bankruptcy. Her two grandsons hit on the idea of marrying her off to an elderly man who runs a tobacconists and sweet kiosk, however, the latter believes that Chico is trying to hitch him up with the beautiful young Marta.
Night Of 100 Stars III
Self
A celebrity benefit for The Actors' Fund of America, featuring music, songs, dance and comedy.
Sing! Sesame Street Remembers Joe Raposo and His Music
Self
A television special broadcast on PBS in honor of composer, songwriter, pianist, television writer and lyricist Joe Raposo after he passed away.
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
Grace
The wife of an abusive criminal finds solace in the arms of a kind regular guest in her husband's restaurant.
Apartment Zero
Mary Louise McKinney
In a rundown area of Buenos Aires, at the dawn of the 1980s, Adrian LeDuc owns both a struggling movie theater and a shabby apartment building filled with eccentric, squabbling tenants. To make ends meet, Adrian takes in a roommate, Jack Carney, but soon begins to suspect that the quiet American is responsible for a series of political assassinations that are rocking the city.
Bert Rigby, You're a Fool
Mrs. Rigby
A musical about a miner who wants to break into show business.
Words of Love
Gran
2 February 1959. The Winter Dance party, Clear Lake, Iowa - another date on Buddy Holly's whistle-stop tour. Across the Atlantic, a schoolboy models his life on the rock 'n' roll star whose music and untimely death affected the lives of a generation.
We Think the World of You
Millie
An aimless young man, Johnny, is sent prison. He entrusts his beloved dog, Evie, to the care of his former lover and best friend, Frank. When he gets out of prison, he has to face difficulties at home. Added to this, is the fact that he may have to give up Evie to Frank.
High Spirits
Mrs. Plunkett
When Peter Plunkett's Irish castle turned hotel is about to be repossesed, he decides to spice up the attraction a bit for the 'Yanks' by having his staff pretend to haunt the castle. The trouble begins when a busload of American tourists arrive - along with some real ghosts.
Jake's Journey
Witch
A normal teenager is transported to a Monty Pythonesque medieval fantasy land where an odd, adamant knight takes him on a quest.
When We Are Married
Mrs Northrop
Three married couples discover that, through a legal technicality, they are, in fact, not actually married in the eyes of the law. This was the fifth television film version of this play by J.B. Priestley made by the BBC.
Little Dorrit
Mrs. Bangham
A drama based on the novel by Charles Dickens which tells the story of Arthur Clennam who is thrown into a debtor's prison. There he meets a young seamstress whose father has been imprisoned for twenty-five years. A film in originally released in two parts.
On the Palm
Mrs Slatterthwaite
Fledge needs a job. He'll take anything. And when Dawlish gives him strange errands to run, for cash in hand, strictly 'on the palm', it's a welcome change from the dole. Until he finds himself digging dirt on an old friend....
Harem
Mrs. Pendleton
A young British woman is kidnapped by an Arabian sheikh and held captive in his harem. At first she frantically tries to escape, but as they slowly get to know and appreciate each other the difference between captor and captive dissolves.
A Private Function
Mother
In the summer of 1947, Britain prepares to commemorate the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. To get around food-rationing laws, Dr. Charles Swaby, accountant Henry Allardyce and solicitor Frank Lockwood are fattening a black-market pig for the big day. Egged on by his wife, meek Gilbert Chilvers steals the swine, but the couple must conceal it from inspector Morris Wormold.
A Christmas Carol
Mrs. Dilber
A bitter old miser who makes excuses for his uncaring nature learns real compassion when three ghosts visit him on Christmas Eve.
Curse of the Pink Panther
Marta Balls
Inspector Clouseau disappears, and the Surete wants the world's second best detective to look for him. However, Clouseau's enemy, Dreyfus, rigs the Surete's computer to select, instead, the world's WORST detective, NYPD Sgt. Clifton Sleigh. Sleigh obtusely bungles his way past assassins and corrupt officials as though he were Clouseau's American cousin.
Fanny Hill
Mrs. Jones (uncredited)
Happily engaged to her handsome fiance, Charles, Fanny is soon hit with one misfortune after another until she is forced to become a prostitute to survive. This is the story, with many erotic asides, of her struggle to regain her pride in herself and find happiness in life once again.
Separate Tables
Miss Meacham
Two one-act plays explore love and loneliness. In "Table by the Window" an aging fashion model contrives a reunion with her ex-husband, a politician ruined by scandal, and their passion is rekindled. In "Table Number Seven" a meek woman harbors a secret love for a man accused of fraud and sex offenses, forcing her to take a stand for the first time in her life.
Trail of the Pink Panther
Martha Balls (archive footage)
The Pink Panther diamond is stolen once again from Lugash and the authorities call in Chief Inspector Clouseau from France. His plane disappears en-route. This time, famous French TV reporter Marie Jouvet sets out to solve the mystery and starts to interview everybody connected to Clouseau.
Mike Leigh: Making Plays
(Archive Material)
Writer and Director Mike Leigh discusses the techniques used to create his plays.
Britannia Hospital
Maisie
Britannia Hospital, an esteemed English institution, is marking its gala anniversary with a visit by the Queen Mother herself. But when investigative reporter Mick Travis arrives to cover the celebration, he finds the hospital under siege by striking workers, ruthless unions, violent demonstrators, racist aristocrats, an African cannibal dictator, and sinister human experiments.
The French Lieutenant's Woman
Mrs. Fairley
In this story-within-a-story, Anna is an actress starring opposite Mike in a period piece about the forbidden love between their respective characters, Sarah and Charles. Both actors are involved in serious relationships, but the passionate nature of the script leads to an off-camera love affair as well. While attempting to maintain their composure and professionalism, Anna and Mike struggle to come to terms with their infidelity.
The Monster Club
Villager
A vampire attacks a horror author on the street and then invites him to a nearby club as a gesture of gratitude, which turns out to be a meeting place for assorted creatures of the night. The vampire then regales him with three stories, each interspersed with musical performances at the club.
Sir Henry at Rawlinson End
Lady Phillipa of Staines
Sir Henry Rawlinson attempts to exorcise the ghost of his brother Humbert, who was accidentally killed in a drunken duck-shooting incident.
Murder Rap
Elfie
An Englishman's home is his castle, and Wallie aims to prove it.
Agatha
Flora
England, 1926. An American journalist looks for mystery writer Agatha Christie when she suddenly disappears without explanation, leaving no trace.
The Duellists
Fortune Teller
In 1800, as Napoleon Bonaparte rises to power in France, a rivalry erupts between Armand and Gabriel, two lieutenants in the French Army, over a perceived insult. For over a decade, they engage in a series of duels amidst larger conflicts, including the failed French invasion of Russia in 1812, and shifts in the political and social systems of Europe.
Spend Spend Spend
Keith's Granny
Based on the book "Spend, Spend, Spend" by Vivian Nicholson and Stephen Smith. Story of pools winner, Vivian Nicholson.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
TV-movie version of the Victor Hugo novel.
It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet
Based on James Herriot's books about life as a 1930s' veterinarian in Yorkshire, John Alderson plays the kindly doctor who ministers to animals in this enjoyable family film. Sequel to the 1975 film All Creatures Great and Small.
Keep an Eye on Albert
Mrs. Oxfam
Pubs, pigeons, weight-lifting - that's Terry's life, and his wife Glenda feels neglected. But now Terry's best mate, Albert, is on leave from the Merchant Navy, and Albert knows how to treat a lady. 'Fireworks assured,' says the wrestling poster.
It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow
Vi Bell
A recreation of a World War II incident which occurred in London's Bethnal Green underground station in 1943, in which 173 people died when a panicked crowd stampeded as they were hurrying down the steps to take refuge from an air raid.
Breath
Mrs. Pritchett
Nell tries hard to cope with her husband, family and friends - but her asthma creates problems. Everyone seems to be helpful - but are they? Is there something sinister about Mrs Pritchett , the new housekeeper, or is it Nell's imagination? Who knows where reality ends and fantasy begins?
Taking Leave
Confused Lady
Mike comes home on leave from Ulster. After six years in the Army he has to decide whether to sign up again or not. His parents want him to leave the army and come home, but the family flare-ups and bickerings are not conducive to helping him choose.
Jack Point
Mrs. Matthews
Rivalry at a local Gilbert and Sullivan Society over who will play Jack Point in the Silver Jubilee production. Rowland Matthews has always been the main star, but he is getting on, and the young Clive Bates is a strong rival.
Hard Labour
Mrs. Thornley
A quiet and put-upon house cleaner breaks her silence.
Bleak Moments
Pat's Mother
Moments from the uncompromisingly bleak existence of a secretary, her intellectually disabled sister, aloof and uneasy teacher boyfriend, bizarre neighbor and irritating workmate.
Leo the Last
Prince Leo, last in the line of rulers of a long-deposed monarchy on continental Europe and jaded with the frenetic search for kicks with the European jet-set, returns to his father's London town house for rest.