Imelda Staunton

Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton OBE (born on January 9, 1956) is an Academy Award nominated English actress.

She is a three-time recipient of Britain's highest theatre honour, the Olivier Award, for roles in A Chorus of Disapproval (1985), The Corn Is Green (1985), and Into the Woods (1991). She began to receive international attention in 1993 for her performance as Margaret in the Kenneth Branagh production of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The same year she appeared on the small screen alongside Richard Briers and Adrian Edmondson in If You See God, Tell Him. On radio, she has appeared as the title role in the detective drama series Julie Enfield Investigates and the comedy Up the Garden Path which later moved to ITV with Staunton reprising the role, and Mrs. Blatherwick, the vile cook in Nanny McPhee.

Staunton shared a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Performance by a Cast in 1998 for Shakespeare in Love. In 2004, Staunton received the Best Actress honors at the European Film Awards, the BAFTAs, and the Venice Film Festival for her performance in Vera Drake, which also won Best Picture. For the same role, she received Best Actress nominations for the 2005 Golden Globes and Academy Awards.

She had a guest role, playing Mrs. Mead in Little Britain in 2005.

[edit] Personal life

She is married to the English actor, Jim Carter, and they have a daughter, Bessie.

Staunton was born in London, but is of Irish Catholic descent. Both of her parents hail from County Mayo, Ireland. Staunton publicly stated, while in the U.S. for the Academy Awards telecast in 2004, that despite her religious background she is pro-choice on abortion.