Lesley Manville

Biography:

Lesley Manville was born in Brighton, East Sussex, to Norma (known as Jean), a former ballet dancer, and Ron Manville, a taxi driver. She grew up in Hove and was the youngest of three daughters. She trained as a soprano singer from the age of eight and won the Sussex under-18 singing championship twice. Manville started acting during her teenage years, appearing in shows like King Cinder. At 15, she was accepted into the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

She declined Arlene Phillips’s offer to join the dance troupe Hot Gossip and instead studied improvisation with Julia Carey at Italia Conti. Her professional stage debut came in 1972 with the West End musical I and Albert, directed by John Schlesinger. She funded her first apartment by acting in Emmerdale Farm from 1974 to 1976, appearing in 80 episodes.

Manville carved out a name for herself in theatre from 1978, performing in new plays at venues like the RSC Warehouse and Royal Court Theatre. She met director Mike Leigh in 1979 while he was seeking actors skilled in improvisation.

In the 1980s, she performed in notable plays at the Royal Court including Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1981), Top Girls (1982), and Serious Money (1987), also starring in the US Off-Broadway run of Top Girls in 1983. At the RSC, she played roles in As You Like It (1985) and Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1985–86).

Her film debut came in 1985 with Dance with a Stranger, followed by roles in Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and High Season (both 1987). On stage, she worked in The Cherry Orchard at the Aldwych Theatre in 1989 under Sam Mendes, and Three Sisters at the Royal Court in 1990.

She starred in the first season of Ain’t Misbehavin’ in 1994, and earned Royal Television Society Award nominations for her roles in Other People’s Children (2000) and Bodily Harm (2002).

Her television work includes major roles in Holding On (1997), Real Women (1998–99), The Cazalets (2001), North & South (2004), Cranford (2007), and Poirot: Cards on the Table (2006).

Since 2005, she has acted in National Theatre productions like His Dark Materials, The Alchemist, and Her Naked Skin. At The Old Vic, she starred in All About My Mother (2007) and Six Degrees of Separation (2010). In 2009, she portrayed Margaret Thatcher in The Queen on Channel 4.

Manville has collaborated extensively with Mike Leigh, appearing in films such as High Hopes (1988), Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), Vera Drake (2004), Mr. Turner (2014), and notably All or Nothing (2002) and Another Year (2010), winning the London Film Critics’ Circle Award for both.

For Another Year, she received awards and nominations including the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress and BAFTA, British Independent, and European Film Award nominations. She also earned a BAFTA nod and won Best Actress at the Movies for Grownups Awards in 2011.

She received an Olivier nomination for Grief (2011), and in 2014, she won both the Olivier and Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for her performance in Ghosts. She also acted in Romeo and Juliet (2013) and Maleficent (2014).

In 2015, she starred with Stellan Skarsgård in River, earning a 2016 BAFTA nomination. She later led the BBC sitcom Mum, receiving BAFTA nominations in 2017 and 2019. In Harlots (2017), she portrayed Lydia Quigley, a powerful brothel madam in Georgian England.

Her role in Phantom Thread (2017) as Cyril Woodcock earned her Academy Award and BAFTA nominations. In Let Him Go (2020), she played a fearsome matriarch opposite Diane Lane and Kevin Costner. That same year, she was cast as Princess Margaret in the final seasons of The Crown.

In 2021, she was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her contributions to drama and charity.

In 2022, she starred in Magpie Murders and played the title role in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, earning a Golden Globe nomination for her performance.

In January 2023, it was announced that she would play Cynthia Winehouse in the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black (2024). In 2024, she portrayed Jocasta in Oedipus at Wyndham’s Theatre, winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress.

Her early romantic partner was actor Peter Duncan, whom she met at Italia Conti. She later married actor Gary Oldman; they separated in 1989, three months after the birth of their son Alfie (born 1988). She also married actor Joe Dixon. In 2007, she was living in East Grinstead with her son.

Manville’s older sister Brenda died of a brain tumour, and Brenda’s husband and daughters succumbed to Huntington’s disease.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Manville performed a monologue in support of the Equity Benevolent Fund.

She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2015 before being promoted to CBE in 2021.

In February 2024, she appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, choosing songs like Eva Cassidy’s “Over the Rainbow,” Dusty Springfield’s “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” and Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love.”