IRIS
A Memoir of Iris Murdoch
The Cast
This Page Last Updated: May 14, 2001
[cast listing drawn from the BBC Films Press Release]
Judi Dench |
Judi Dench as Iris Murdoch
Born Judith Olivia Dench and now often referred to as Dame Judi Dench her credits include performing in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company, five BAFTA wins, two Golden Globes and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Yet, her biggest coup to date is her OSCAR for an eight-minute performance in Shakespeare in Love.
She is best known to Americans for her role as M in the three most recent James Bond films where she starred with Pierce Brosnan. She has also starred in the loved British TV series, As Time Goes By. Other acclaimed performances include her turn as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown and her role in Chocolat.
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Kate Winslet |
Kate Winslet as young Iris
Kate Winslet was born in 1975 in Reading England where she was raised with 2 sisters and one brother in a family of acknowledged thespians. Her first role was in the church Nativity as Mary. As her first paid gig, dancing alongside the Sugar Monster. She has two Academy Award nominations to her name, a Screen Actors Guild Award, three Empire Awards, and a Grammy!
She starred in the to-date most successful film, Titanic, but was acclaimed for her first work in 1994 as a murderous teen in Heavenly Creatures. She also starred in Emma Thompson's award winning Sense and Sensibility.
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Jim Broadbent |
Jim Broadbent
as John Bayley
Jim Broadbent trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, graduating in 1972. His rich theatrical background includes: "The Recruiting Officer"; "Our Country's Good"; "Kafka's Dick" by Alan Bennett, and "The Government Inspector" at the Royal National Theatre, both for director Richard Eyre; "Goosepimples" and "Ecstasy" for Mike Leigh; and "Our Friends in the North" with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Jim has also enjoyed various stints in Television including: "Long Distance Information," Intensive Care," and "Gone to the Dogs". His film career is just as interesting with Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway, Mike Leigh's Topsy Turvy, and Baz Luhrman's newest Moulin Rouge to his credit.
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Hugh Bonneville |
Hugh Bonneville
as young John
Hugh Bonneville trained at Cambridge and always felt "there was always something within [him] that was going to be an actor". His theatre work "has taken in the RSC, the National, the Donmar Warehouse and has included work with such great directors as Sam Mendes, Peter Brook and Tim Supple."
He has enjoyed many roles in British television including a role alongside Kate's sister Beth Winslet in Scold's Bridle. His premeire film role was with Kenneth Branagh in Frankenstein as Schiller. He has also starred in Tomorrow Never Dies and Mansfield Park. Hugh is most recognizable as 'Bernie' in the recent blockbuster Notting Hill where he plays a bad book-keeper alongside Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. -- primary info from links below
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Penelope Wilton
Penelope Wilton's early stage work was at Nottingham Playhouse, the Edinburgh Lyceum, Chichester and Bristol Old Vic. She made her West End debut as Ralph Richardson's daughter in West of Suez. Her National Theatre debut was in The Philanderer, and she went on to play a series of leading roles there - in Pinter's Betrayal, Ayckbourn's Sisterly Feelings, Man and Superman, Much Ado About Nothing, Major Barbara, and Secret Rapture. At the Almeida she has appeared in The Deep Blue Sea and Heartbreak House, and at the Pinter Festival in three of that author's plays - Moonlight, Landscape and A Kind of Alaska. TV performances have ranged from the BBC Shakespeare productions of Othello and King Lear, to The Norman Conquests, The Borrowers, Talking Heads, and Wives and Daughters. Her films include Cry Freedom, Secret Rapture and Carrington. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company earlier this year to play the leading role in Chekov's play The Seagull. - from the Royal Chelsea Hospital
Penelope has worked with Judi Dench, Samuel West, and Richard Eyre previously. She is presently married to Ian Holm.
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Juliet Aubrey |
Juliet Aubrey
Juliet became an overnight BAFTA success with her role as Dorothea opposite Rufus Sewell in the wildly acclaimed 1994 Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Middlemarch. She had graduated from the London's Central School of Speech and Drama just a year before doing the role. She was interested in performing from an early age and was raised by her parents in Fleet, Hampshire. She has chosen her roles carefully and received much praise for them. Including Michael Winterbottom's Welcome to Sarajevo which was the official selection for Cannes in 1997.
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Samuel West |
Samuel West
Samuel West, son of British actor Timothy West, never intended to be an actor. Rather he preferred the sciences and went to Oxford University to study Physics. He quickly switched to English, and found himself drawn to acting during his time in the University. His first recognition was a BAFTA nomination for playing the ill-fated Leonard Bast in Howard's End. He was most recently seen in a small part in Notting Hill as her co-star on the film set.
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Timothy West |
Timothy West
As one of Britain's leading theater actors, TIMOTHY WEST is frequently seen in both the classical theater (with the Royal National Theater as Falstaff in "Henry IV," as Gloucester in the acclaimed "King Lear" with Ian Holm) and in the West End of London (as Juror Four in "Twelve Angry Men"). West has been seen in the feature films "Nicholas and Alexandra," "The Day of the Jackal," "Oliver Twist," "Hedda," "Joseph Andrews," "The Devil's Advocate," "Agatha," "Masada," "The Thirty-Nine Steps," "Rough Cut" and Richard Attenborough's "Cry Freedom."
On television he has appeared in varied roles, including a memorable Edward VII in the series "Edward the Seventh"; Winston Churchill in "Churchill and the Generals"; "The Monocled Mutineer," "The Good Doctor Bodkin Adams," "When We Are Married," "A Shadow on the Sun," "Beecham," "Why Lockerbie?," "Framed," "Hiroshima," "Eleven Men Against Eleven" and "Cuts." --Ever After Cast Page.
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Saira Todd |
Saira Todd
We couldn't find anything more than photos and mentions of her works on the Internet. From what I gathered she started in theatre and branched into TV. She has been part of several TV mini-series in the UK.
Saira's theatre credits include Dust at the Battersea Arts Centre and Snake in the Grass at the Old Vic. Her recent television credits include Lisa in Queer As Folk and Claire Friel in Holding On. She also starred in the films Bad Behavior, Bring Me Your Love, and Police 2020.
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Barbara Leigh-Hunt |
Barbara Leigh-Hunt
While still a student at the Old Vic, Barbara Leigh-Hunt made her first professional stage appearance. Leigh-Hunt subsequently appeared in Shakespearean productions in England, Europe and the U.S. The first of her handful of films was Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972), in which she played the "praying" rape/murder victim. That same year, she played Catherine Parr in Henry VIII and His Six Wives, and was seen on TV as the wife of naturalist Sir Richard Burton in Search for the Nile. Twelve years later, she hosted a British TV weekly, Playing Shakespeare. Though she has essayed virtually all the classic female roles from Portia to Saint Joan, when asked her favorite role, Leigh-Hunt invariably replies "the next one." Barbara Leigh-Hunt is married to actor Richard Pasco. -- Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Eleanor Bron |
Eleanor Bron
Statuesque British comic actress Eleanor Bron rose to fame on radio, stage and television as a member of The Establishment, a London revue troupe. Her gift for mimicry was generously showcased in her first film appearance as the Middle-Eastern cultist/spy in the Beatles' Help (1968). She was also effective as a pretentious American tourist in Two for the Road (1967) and as the less-than-bright waitress heroine in Bedazzled (1967). In the last two decades, Eleanor Bron has augmented her film work with one-woman stage presentations and various satirical British television weeklies. -- Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Her most recent appearance was alongside Gillian Anderson in House of Mirth as Mrs. Peniston (pictured).
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