Miriam
Margolyes has appeared in several motion pictures, working with some of
Hollywood's top directors including Lawrence Kasdan in "I Love You To Death,"
John Schlesinger in "Pacific Heights" and "Cold Comfort Farm," Kenneth
Branagh in "Dead Again" and Martin Scorsese in "The Age of Innocence."
Her performance in the latter film earned her a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting
Actress. She also "appeared," albeit in voice only, in the Oscar-nominated
hit film, "Babe," as Babe's mother, as well as in the animated feature
"James and The Giant Peach." Other film credits include "Immortal Beloved,"
"The Good Father," "Little Shop of Horrors," "Yentl" and "Reds." Her portrayal
of Flora Finching in the Sands films production of "Little Dorrit" earned
her the L.A. Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress and
it was this role that brought the Britain-born actress to America. Recently,
she starred opposite Rupert Graves in Richard Spence's "Different for Girls,"
which was awarded Best Picture at the Montreal Film Festival.
She has also appeared in several BBC productions, including the popular "Blackadder" shows, "The History of Man," "Oliver Twist," "The Life and Loves of a She-Devil," "Freud," and "Old Flames." She portrayed Queen Victoria in the Channel Four production "Without Walls."
On the stage, Margolyes has appeared in such West End productions as "The Killing of Sister George," in the title role at the Ambassador Theatre; "Dickens' Women," at the Duke of York Theatre, for which she earned an Olivier nomination for Best Actress in an Entertainment; and the original production of "Cloud Nine," at the Royal Court Theatre. She reunited with Sir Peter Hall in his production of "She Stoops to Conquer," at the Queens Theatre, in London. In 1984, Margolyes produced and starred in "Gertrude Stein and a Companion," which won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival before moving to the Bush Theatre and Hamstead Theatre in London. Her production ultimately toured in America and Australia, earning awards from the Los Angeles Critics Association and a Best Actress nomination from the Melbourne "Age" newspaper in Australia.
Margolyes
has also brought her many talents to radio. Her virtuoso reading of Sue
Townsend's "The Queen & I" on the BBC Radio 4, in which she played
the entire British Royal Family, won her the Sony Best Radio Actress Award
in 1993. The audio cassette of her performance became a best-seller, earning
her a Silver Disc when the recording sold over 72,000 copies -- a world
record for a solo reading. She recently recorded the complete "Oliver Twist,"
again playing every character.