My favourite British actresses
by baltric | created - 04 Dec 2013 | updated - 8 months ago | Public
1. Jacqueline Bisset
Actress | Bullitt
Jacqueline Bisset has been an international film star since the late '60s. She received her first roles mainly because of her stunning beauty, but over time she has become a fine actress respected by fans and critics alike. Bisset has worked with directors John Huston, François Truffaut, George ...
2. Barbara Steele
Actress | La maschera del demonio
The most beautiful star of the greatest horror masterpiece of Italian film, Black Sunday (1960): Barbara Steele was born on December 29, 1937 in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England. Barbara is loved by her fans for her talent, intelligence, and a dark mysterious beauty that is unique; her face epitomizes...
3. Honor Blackman
Actress | Goldfinger
One of four children, Blackman was born in London's East End, to Edith Eliza (Stokes), a homemaker, and Frederick Thomas Blackman, a statistician employed with the Civil Service. She received elocution lessons for her 16th birthday (at her own request), and later attended the Guildhall School of ...
4. Diana Rigg
Actress | Last Night in Soho
British actress Dame Diana Rigg was born on July 20, 1938 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England. She has had an extensive career in film and theatre, including playing the title role in "Medea", both in London and New York, for which she won the 1994 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
Rigg made her ...
5. Helen Mirren
Actress | The Queen
Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. ...
6. Emma Thompson
Actress | Sense and Sensibility
Emma Thompson was born on April 15, 1959 in Paddington, London, into a family of actors - father Eric Thompson and mother Phyllida Law, who has co-starred with Thompson in several films. Her sister, Sophie Thompson, is an actor as well. Her father was English-born and her mother is Scottish-born. ...
7. Brenda Blethyn
Actress | Pride & Prejudice
After forty years of hard work on stage and both television and film, there are not many other actresses who deserved the success, recognition and stardom which Brenda Blethyn has now achieved.
Born in 1946 in Ramsgate, Kent, England, she started her career at British Rail in the 1960s. Saving money...
8. Amanda Redman
Actress | Sexy Beast
Amanda Redman was born on August 12, 1957 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Sexy Beast (2000), New Tricks (2003) and Mike Bassett: England Manager (2001). She has been married to Damian Schnabel since September 4, 2010. She was previously married to Robert Glenister...
9. Kate Winslet
Actress | Titanic
Ask Kate Winslet what she likes about any of her characters, and the word "ballsy" is bound to pop up at least once. The British actress has made a point of eschewing straightforward pretty-girl parts in favor of more devilish damsels; as a result, she's built an eclectic resume that runs the gamut...
10. Judi Dench
Actress | Skyfall
Dame Judi Dench was born Judith Olivia Dench in York, England, to Eleanora Olive (Jones), who was from Dublin, Ireland, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor from Dorset, England. She attended Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has performed with the ...
11. Keira Knightley
Actress | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Keira Christina Knightley was born March 26, 1985 in the South West Greater London suburb of Richmond. She is the daughter of actor Will Knightley and actress turned playwright Sharman Macdonald. An older brother, Caleb Knightley, was born in 1979. Her father is English, while her Scottish-born ...
12. Hayley Atwell
Actress | Captain America: The First Avenger
Born in London, England, Hayley Elizabeth Atwell has dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and the United States. An only child, Hayley was named after actress Hayley Mills. Her parents, Alison (Cain) and Grant Atwell, both motivational speakers, met at a London workshop of Dale Carnegie's ...
13. Jane Birkin
Actress | Evil Under the Sun
Jane Birkin was born on December 14, 1946 in London, England, UK. She was an actress and director, known for Evil Under the Sun (1982), Blow-Up (1966) and Death on the Nile (1978). She was married to John Barry. She died on July 16, 2023 in Paris, France.
14. Kelly Reilly
Actress | Pride & Prejudice
Jessica Kelly Siobhán Reilly (born July 18, 1977) is an English actress. Her performance in After Miss Julie at the Donmar Warehouse made her a star of the London stage and earned her a nomination for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress of 2003. Reilly was born and brought up in Chessington, ...
15. Charlotte Riley
Actress | In the Heart of the Sea
Charlotte Riley is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Catherine Earnshaw in ITV's adaptation of Wuthering Heights (2009).
Riley was born in Grindon, County Durham. In 2004, she won the Sunday Times' Playwriting Award for "Shaking Cecilia", which she co-wrote with Tiffany Wood.
She ...
16. Shirley Eaton
Actress | Goldfinger
Long before Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty and company showed up in 1980s TV households, Hollywood had, in effect, its own original "Golden Girl"...literally...in the form of stunning British actress Shirley Eaton. Although she found definitive cult stardom in 1964 with her final golden moment in a ...
17. Elizabeth Taylor
Actress | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was considered one of the last, if not the last, major star to have come out of the old Hollywood studio system. She was known internationally for her beauty, especially for her violet eyes, with which she captured audiences early in her youth and kept the world hooked ...
18. Audrey Hepburn
Actress | Breakfast at Tiffany's
Audrey Hepburn was born as Audrey Kathleen Ruston on May 4, 1929 in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium. Her mother, Baroness Ella Van Heemstra, was a Dutch noblewoman, while her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, was born in Úzice, Bohemia, to English and Austrian parents.
After her parents' divorce, ...
19. Kelly Macdonald
Actress | No Country for Old Men
Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald was born and raised in Glasgow. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she was raised by her mother, a sales executive in the garment industry. She has one brother, David. As a hobby, she acted in an amateur theatrical club, which she enjoyed a great deal. ...
20. Christina Chong
Actress | Johnny English Reborn
Christina Chong is an international television and film actress who stars in the CBS series "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" as series regular 'La'an Noonien-Singh,' alongside Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn. The series expanded on the iconic franchise, with six new crew members on the USS Enterprise...
21. Lindsay Duncan
Actress | Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Lindsay Duncan was born on November 7, 1950 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. She is an actress, known for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), About Time (2013) and Under the Tuscan Sun (2003). She is married to Hilton McRae. They have one child.
22. Elizabeth Hurley
Actress | Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Elizabeth Jane Hurley was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, to Angela Mary (Titt), a teacher, and Roy Leonard Hurley, an army major. Wanting to be a dancer, Hurley went to ballet boarding school at 12, but soon returned home. When it came time to go to college, Hurley won a scholarship to the London ...
23. Annabelle Wallis
Actress | The Mummy
Annabelle Wallis is an English actress best known for her roles as Jane Seymour in Showtime's period drama The Tudors, Grace Burgess in the BBC drama Peaky Blinders, and for the films Annabelle (2014), and The Mummy (2017). She was born in Oxford, but spent much of her childhood in Portugal, ...
24. Polly Walker
Actress | Rome
Polly Alexandra Walker was born on May 19, 1966 in Warrington, Cheshire, England. She graduated from Ballet Rambert School in Twickenham, began her career as a dancer, but an injury at age 18 forced her to change direction. She started at London's Drama Centre to the Royal Shakespeare Company, ...
25. Natalie Dormer
Actress | Game of Thrones
Natalie Dormer born February 11, 1982 is an English actress. She is best known for her roles as Anne Boleyn on the Showtime series The Tudors (2007-10), as Margaery Tyrell on the HBO series Game of Thrones (2012-14), Irene Adler on the CBS series Elementary (2013-15), and as Cressida in the ...
26. Kristin Scott Thomas
Actress | Gosford Park
The acclaimed Cornish actress Dame Kristin Scott Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall, to Deborah (Hurlbatt) and Lieutenant Commander Simon Scott Thomas. Her father was a pilot for the British Royal Navy and died in a flying accident in 1964. Her stepfather, Lt. Cdr Simon Idiens, was also a pilot, ...
27. Emily Watson
Actress | Gosford Park
Emily Watson was born and raised in London, the daughter of Katharine (Venables), an English teacher, and Richard Watson, an architect. After a self-described sheltered upbringing, Watson attended university for three years in Bristol, studying English literature. She applied to drama school and ...
28. Joanna Lumley
Actress | Absolutely Fabulous
Joanna Lumley was born on 1 May, 1946 in Kashmir, India, to British parents, Thya Beatrice Rose (Weir) and James Rutherford Lumley. Her father was a major in the Gurkha Rifles, and she spent most of her early childhood in the Far East where her father was posted.
An aspiring actress, she first came ...
29. Helena Bonham Carter
Actress | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Helena Bonham Carter is an actress of great versatility, one of the UK's finest and most successful.
Bonham Carter was born May 26, 1966 in Golders Green, London, England, the youngest of three children of Elena (née Propper de Callejón), a psychotherapist, and Raymond Bonham Carter, a merchant ...
30. Peggy Cummins
Actress | Gun Crazy
Peggy Cummins was an Irish actress, appearing in several films between 1940 and 1961. Her best known role was that of trigger-happy bank robber Annie Laurie Starr in the film "Gun Crazy".
In December, 1925, Cummins was born under the name of "Augusta Margaret Diane Fuller" in Prestatyn, Denbighshire...
31. Naomi Watts
Actress | Mulholland Dr.
Naomi Ellen Watts was born on September 28, 1968 in Shoreham, England to Myfanwy Edwards "Miv" (Roberts), an antiques dealer and costume/set designer, and Peter Watts (Peter Anthony Watts), Pink Floyd's road manager. Her maternal grandfather was Welsh. Her father died when she was seven and she ...
32. Felicity Jones
Actress | Rogue One
Felicity Rose Hadley Jones is an English actress and producer. Jones started her professional acting career as a child, appearing at age 12 in The Treasure Seekers (1996). She went on to play Ethel Hallow for one series in the television show The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College. ...
33. Jemima West
Actress | The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Jemima West was born on August 11, 1987 in Paris, France. She is an actress, known for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013), The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) and The Borgias (2011).
34. Jenna Coleman
Actress | Victoria
Jenna Coleman is best known for her BAFTA-nominated performance as Clara in 'Doctor Who' and for playing the title role in ITV's Emmy-nominated series 'Victoria'. She was most recently seen in a lead role as Marie-Andrée Leclerc in the dark crime drama 'The Serpent' for BBC and Netflix opposite ...
35. Ophelia Lovibond
Actress | Guardians of the Galaxy
Ophelia Lucy Lovibond is an English actress. She grew up in Shepherd's Bush, London, in a single-parent family. She was a scholarship student at Latymer Upper School. She also attended the Young Blood theatre company, a drama club for youth, in Hammersmith. She attended the University of Sussex to ...
36. Lesley-Anne Down
Actress | North and South
Lesley-Anne Down was born on March 17, 1954 and raised in London, England. With the help of her father, she began modeling at age 10, acting in commercials, and winning several beauty contests. By the time she was 15, Down had completed four films and was voted "Britain's Most Beautiful Teenager". ...
37. Nigella Lawson
Actress | Modern Family
Nigella Lawson was born on January 6, 1960 in Wandsworth, London, England, UK. She is a writer and producer, known for Modern Family (2009), Nigella Express (2007) and Nigella's Amsterdam Christmas (2023). She was previously married to Charles Saatchi and John Diamond.
38. Imogen Poots
Actress | Vivarium
British actress Imogen Poots was born in Hammersmith, London, England, the daughter of English-born Fiona (Goodall), a journalist, and Trevor Poots, a Northern Ireland-born television producer. She was educated at Bute House Preparatory School for Girls, Queen's Gate School for Girls and Latymer ...
39. Amber Rose Revah
Actress | The Punisher
Amber Rose Revah is an British actress of Kenyan-Indian and European (Polish, Italian & Spanish decent) heritage. Amber Rose started her film career in the award-winning LGBT film 'I Can't Think Straight' whilst finishing her Bachelor of Arts at University. Amber Rose was then offered a role ...
40. Jane Asher
Actress | Death at a Funeral
Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946) is an English actress, author and entrepreneur, who achieved early fame as a child actress, and has worked extensively in film and TV throughout her career.
She has appeared in TV shows and films such as The Masque of the Red Death (1964), Alfie (1966), Deep End (1970)...
41. Alexandra Roach
Actress | Anna Karenina
Alexandra Roach was born in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire in Wales and was already a veteran of the Welsh television soap 'Pobol Y Cwm' by her early teens. In 2003 whilst studying for her GCSE exams at the local comprehensive school she learned that she had beaten out players in national soaps to win ...
42. Andrea Lowe
Actress | Sherwood
Andrea Lowe was born in Arnold, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. Andrea is an actor, known for Sherwood (2022), Without Sin (2022) and DCI Banks (2010).
43. Olivia Colman
Actress | The Favourite
Olivia Colman was born on January 30, 1974 in Norwich, Norfolk, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for The Favourite (2018), Tyrannosaur (2011) and The Lost Daughter (2021). She has been married to Ed Sinclair since August 2001. They have three children.
44. Emily Mortimer
Actress | Mary Poppins Returns
British actress Emily Kathleen Anne Mortimer was born in Hammersmith, London, England, to writer and barrister Sir John Mortimer and his second wife, Penelope (née Gollop). She was educated at St Paul's Girls' School in West London, and it was whilst there she began acting. Mortimer moved on from ...
45. Vanessa Redgrave
Actress | Coriolanus
On January 30, 1937, renowned theatre actor Michael Redgrave was performing in a production of Hamlet in London. During the curtain call, the show's lead, Laurence Olivier, announced to the audience: "tonight a great actress was born". This was in reference to his co-star's newborn daughter, ...
46. Rachel Weisz
Actress | The Constant Gardener
Rachel Hannah Weisz was born on 7 March, 1970, in London, U.K., to Edith Ruth (Teich), a psychoanalyst, and George Weisz, an inventor. Her parents both came to England around 1938. Her father is a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and her mother, from Vienna, was of Italian and Austrian Jewish heritage. ...
47. Julie Walters
Actress | Billy Elliot
For decades, British actress and comedienne Dame Julie Walters has served as a sturdy representation of the working class with her passionate, earthy portrayals on England's stage, screen and television. A bona fide talent, her infectious spirit and self-deprecating sense of humor eventually ...
48. Jean Simmons
Actress | Guys and Dolls
Demure British beauty Jean Simmons was born January 31, 1929, in Crouch End, London. As a 14-year-old dance student, she was plucked from her school to play Margaret Lockwood's precocious sister in Give Us the Moon (1944). She had a small part as a harpist in the high-profile Caesar and Cleopatra (...
49. Tilda Swinton
Actress | We Need to Talk About Kevin
The iconoclastic gifts of the highly striking and ferociously talented actress Tilda Swinton have been appreciated by art house crowds and international audiences alike. After her stunning Oscar-winning turn as a high-powered corporate attorney in the George Clooney starring and critically-lauded ...
50. Sally Hawkins
Actress | The Shape of Water
Sally Cecilia Hawkins was born in 1976 in Lewisham hospital, London, England, to Jacqui and Colin Hawkins, authors and illustrators of children's books. She is of English and Irish descent. Hawkins was brought up in Greenwich, in southeast London. She attended James Allen's Girls' School in Dulwich...
51. Miranda Richardson
Actress | The Crying Game
Miranda Richardson was born in Southport, Lancashire, England on March 3, 1958, to Marian Georgina (Townsend) and William Alan Richardson, a marketing executive. She has one sister, eight years her senior. Her parents and sister are not involved in the performing arts. At an early age she performed...
52. Sarah Miles
Actress | Ryan's Daughter
Sarah Miles is an English actress whose career flourished during the Swinging Sixties and in the early Seventies. The high point of her career came when her husband, screenwriter Robert Bolt, adapted "Madame Bovary" into a story set during the 1916 Easter Rebellion in Ireland. Directed by David Lean...
53. Lacey Turner
Actress | EastEnders
Lacey Turner was born on March 28, 1988 in Hendon, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for EastEnders (1985), Our Girl (2013) and Our Girl (2013). She has been married to Matt Kay since September 2, 2017. They have two children.
54. Lesley Manville
Actress | Phantom Thread
Lesley Manville was born on March 12, 1956 in Brighton, East Sussex, England. She is a multi award-winning actress of theatre, film, and television, and has worked extensively with director Mike Leigh. She is known for Another Year (2010), All or Nothing (2002), Topsy-Turvy (1999) and Secrets &...
55. Georgina Rich
Actress | Black Mirror
Georgina Rich is known for Black Mirror (2011), Malpractice (2023) and Radioactive (2019).
56. Sylvia Syms
Actress | The Queen
London-born Sylvia May Laura Syms hit major film appeal at a relatively young age. Born on January 6, 1934, she was educated at convent schools before receiving dramatic training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She made her stage debut in a production of "The Apple Cart" in 1954.
A repertory ...
57. Suzy Kendall
Actress | To Sir, with Love
A doe-eyed, honey-blond actress of extraordinary beauty, Suzy Kendall was one of the most popular British actresses of the 1960s. Yet, she never really sought the spotlight and accepted fame only reluctantly. Born as Freida Harrison, her goal was actually to be a clothing designer and, in fact, she...
58. Hazel Court
Actress | The Curse of Frankenstein
Born in Birmingham, England, Hazel Court carried on a love affair with the world of movies and make-believe that made her a leading student at her hometown's School of Drama and later helped her land a contract with the J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Graduating from bits to supporting roles to leads,...
59. Charlotte Rampling
Actress | 45 Years
Tessa Charlotte Rampling was born 5 February 1946 in Sturmer, England, to Isabel Anne (Gurteen), a painter, and Godfrey Lionel Rampling, an Olympic gold medalist, army officer, and colonel, who became a NATO commander. She was educated at Jeanne d'Arc Académie pour Jeunes Filles in Versailles, ...
60. Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Actress | Without a Trace
Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste is an English actress. She is known for her role in the 1996 comedy-drama film Secrets & Lies, for which she received acclaim and earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award in the same category. ...
61. Eve Myles
Actress | Torchwood
Eve Myles was born on July 26, 1978 in Ystradgynlais, Wales, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Torchwood (2006), Dragon Age II (2011) and Keeping Faith (2017). She has been married to Bradley Freegard since May 18, 2013. They have two children.
62. Lea Brodie
Actress | North Sea Hijack
Lea Brodie was born on April 11, 1951. She is an actress, known for North Sea Hijack (1980), Warlords of the Deep (1978) and The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1982).
Tell Your Friends