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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
January 9, 1956
Place of Birth
Archway, London, England, UK
Also Known As
- Ιμέλντα Στόντον
- Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton
- 艾美达·斯丹顿
Imelda Staunton
2.5 Popularity
Biography
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton (born January 9, 1956) is an English actress and singer. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Staunton began her career in repertory theatre in 1976 and appeared in various theatre productions in the United Kingdom. Staunton has performed in a variety of plays and musicals in London throughout her career, winning four Laurence Olivier Awards; three for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for her roles in the musicals Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, and Gypsy, and one for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Play for her work in both A Chorus of Disapproval and The Corn is Green. Her other stage appearances include The Beggar's Opera, The Wizard of Oz, Uncle Vanya, Guys and Dolls, Entertaining Mr Sloane, and Good People. She has been nominated for 13 Olivier Awards. On film, Staunton starred in Antonia and Jane; in several supporting roles in Kenneth Branagh's comedy Peter's Friends, his adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing; Ang Lee's adaptation of Sense and Sensibility; and the costume romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love. She drew critical acclaim for her performance in the title role in Mike Leigh's Vera Drake, for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and the Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup for Best Actress, in addition to being nominated for Best Actress by the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. She later gained a wider audience for her portrayal as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films The Order of the Phoenix and The Deathly Hallows - Part 1. She continued supporting roles in Nanny McPhee, reunited with Leigh in Another Year, and the film continuation of Downton Abbey. She portrayed human rights activist Hefina Headon in the historical film Pride, and starred in the British comedy Finding Your Feet. She also provided voice acting roles for the films Chicken Run, Arthur Christmas, and Paddington. On television, Staunton starred in the sitcoms Up the Garden Path and Is it Legal?. Her performance in My Family and Other Animals earned her a nomination for the International Emmy Award for Best Actress, while her roles in Return to Cranford and The Girl earned her BAFTA TV Award nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. For the latter, she was also nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. She portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in the final two seasons of The Crown.
Known For
0.0
Narrator (voice)
Testimony
2025
0.0
Mrs Peggy Warren
National Theatre Live: Mrs. Warren's Profession
2025
5.8
Isabel
& Sons
2025
6.8
Aunt Lucy (voice)
Paddington in Peru
2024
7.0
Bunty (voice)
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
2023
6.8
Mrs Umney (voice)
The Canterville Ghost
2023
2.7
Self
Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
2022
8.0
Self
Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends
2022
7.2
Maud Bagshaw
Downton Abbey: A New Era
2022
8.0
Narrator
Victorian Britain on Film
2021
Credits
Testimony
as Narrator (voice)
2025
0.0
National Theatre Live: Mrs. Warren's Profession
as Mrs Peggy Warren
2025
0.0
& Sons
as Isabel
2025
5.8
Paddington in Peru
as Aunt Lucy (voice)
2024
6.8
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
as Bunty (voice)
2023
7.0
The Canterville Ghost
as Mrs Umney (voice)
2023
6.8
Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
as Self
2022
2.7
Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends
as Self
2022
8.0
Downton Abbey: A New Era
as Maud Bagshaw
2022
7.2
Victorian Britain on Film
as Narrator
2021
8.0
🎬
Sense and Sensibility: 25th Anniversary Reunion
as Self
2021
0.0
🎬
The Gruffalo and Me: The Remarkable Julia Donaldson
as reader
2020
10.0
🎬
The Magical World of Julia Donaldson
as Self - Readings
2020
6.0
Amulet
as Sister Claire
2020
5.3
Alan Bennett's Talking Heads
as Irene Ruddock
2020
7.6
Trying
as Penny
2020
7.7
The Far Traveller
as Narrator
2020
7.5
Flesh and Blood
as Mary Bennett
2020
6.1
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
as Knotgrass
2019
7.3
🎬
A Confession As Told By ITV News
as Imelda Staunton - Self / Karen Edwards
2019
0.0
Downton Abbey
as Maud Bagshaw
2019
7.1
A Confession
as Karen Edwards
2019
7.0
Finding Your Feet
as Sandra Abbott
2017
7.1
National Theatre Live: Follies
as Sally Durant Plummer
2017
8.0
Paddington 2
as Aunt Lucy (voice)
2017
7.5
Harry Potter: A History Of Magic
as Narrator
2017
7.3
National Theatre Live: Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
as Martha
2017
6.2
Little Bird
as First Officer Simpkins
2017
9.0
The Crown
as Queen Elizabeth II
2016
8.2
Jim Carter: Lonnie Donegan and Me
as Self
2016
0.0
Gypsy
as Rose
2015
7.8
That Day We Sang
as Enid
2014
6.8
🎬
Victoria Wood - That Musical We Made
as Self
2014
0.0
Paddington
as Aunt Lucy (voice)
2014
7.1
Pride
as Hefina
2014
7.7
Maleficent
as Knotgrass
2014
7.1
Lily's Driftwood Bay
as Rowena Rabbit (voice)
2014
4.0
Mouse and Mole at Christmas Time
as Shrew (voice)
2013
6.0
The Girl
as Alma Reville Hitchcock
2012
6.1
London: The Modern Babylon
as Spoken Quotations (voice)
2012
6.3
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
as Queen Victoria (voice)
2012
6.5
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
as Mrs. Lovett
2012
0.0
The Story of Musicals
as Self – Narrator (voice)
2012
0.0
Arthur Christmas
as Mrs Santa (voice)
2011
6.8
The Awakening
as Maud Hill
2011
6.4
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
as Dolores Umbridge
2010
7.7
White Other
as Lynne McDermott
2010
6.0
Another Year
as Janet
2010
7.0
Psychoville Halloween Special
as Grace Andrews
2010
0.0
🎬
The Michael Ball Show
as Self
2010
0.0
Alice in Wonderland
as Talking Flowers (voice)
2010
6.6
Taking Woodstock
as Sonia Teichberg
2009
6.2
Psychoville
2009
6.8
🎬
Adapting Austen
as Self
2009
0.0
A Bunch of Amateurs
as Mary
2008
5.7
Big & Small
2008
7.7
Three and Out
as Rosemary Cassidy
2008
5.5
Clay
as Mary Doonan
2008
5.2
Cranford
as Miss Pole
2007
8.2
How About You...
as Hazel Nightingale
2007
6.2
Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out
as Self
2007
0.0
Guilty Hearts
as Naomi
2007
5.5
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
as Dolores Umbridge
2007
7.7
The Graham Norton Show
as Self
2007
7.2
Freedom Writers
as Margaret Campbell
2007
7.9
The Wind in the Willows
as Barge Lady
2006
5.8
🎬
Live! Girls! Present Dogtown
2006
0.0
Shadow Man
as Ambassador Cochran
2006
4.3
The One Show
as Self
2006
4.4
Bill Douglas: Intent on Getting the Image
as Herself
2006
8.8
My Family and Other Animals
as Mother
2005
6.3
ShakespeaRe-Told
2005
7.5
Nanny McPhee
as Mrs. Blatherwick
2005
6.7
Fingersmith
as Mrs. Sucksby
2005
7.2
Doctor Who
as Interface (voice)
2005
7.6
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
as Self
2005
6.7
Vera Drake
as Vera Drake
2004
7.2
Bright Young Things
as Lady Brown
2003
6.2
Little Britain
as Mrs. Mead
2003
7.1
I'll Be There
as Dr. Bridget
2003
5.3
Strange
as Reverend Mary Truegood
2003
6.5
Blackball
as Bridget
2003
5.2
Cambridge Spies
as The Queen
2003
6.2
The Virgin of Liverpool
as Sylvia Conlon
2003
2.3
Crush
as Janine
2002
5.6
Murder
as DCI Billie Dory
2002
3.3
🎬
Ready
as Naomi
2002
0.0
Another Life
as Ethel Graydon
2001
5.5
Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings
as Mrs. Cottisloe
2000
6.5
Rat
as Conchita Flynn
2000
5.9
Chicken Run
as Bunty (voice)
2000
6.8
David Copperfield
as Mrs. Micawber
1999
7.1
Jack and the Beanstalk
as Dilly (voice)
1999
6.6
Shakespeare in Love
as Nurse
1998
6.8
The Ugly Duckling
as Scruffy (voice)
1997
5.6
Midsomer Murders
as Christine Cooper
1997
7.5
Remember Me?
as Lorna
1997
4.0
Twelfth Night
as Maria
1996
6.9
The Adventures of Toad
as Voice
1996
0.0
The Snow Queen's Revenge
as Elspeth / Rowena (voice)
1996
5.5
The Wind in the Willows
as Mother Squirrel
1995
6.0
The Adventures of Mole
as Voice
1995
6.0
Sense and Sensibility
as Charlotte Jennings Palmer
1995
7.4
Is It Legal?
1995
5.5
🎬
The Pen
1995
0.0
🎬
Look at the State We're In!
as Councillor Johnson
1995
0.0
Citizen X
as Mrs. Burakov
1995
7.2
The Snow Queen
as Ivy / Angorra
1995
6.3
Mole's Christmas
as (voices)
1994
4.8
Deadly Advice
as Beth Greenwood
1994
4.2
If You See God, Tell Him
as Muriel Spry
1993
6.7
Frank Stubbs Promotes
as Susan
1993
6.0
Don't Leave Me This Way
as Bridget Bennet
1993
7.0
Much Ado About Nothing
as Margaret
1993
6.9
Roots
as Jenny Beales
1992
0.0
Peter's Friends
as Mary Charleston
1992
6.6
A Masculine Ending
as Bridget Bennet
1992
0.0
Performance
as Jenny Beales
1991
6.0
They Never Slept
as The Producer
1991
0.0
Yellowbacks
as Cheryl Newman
1990
7.0
Antonia and Jane
as Jane Hartman
1990
5.0
🎬
Up the Garden Path
1990
6.8
The Englishman's Wife
as Stephanie
1990
0.0
Tales from the Crypt
as Sarah
1989
8.0
The Heat of the Day
as Louie
1989
0.0
A Bit of Fry & Laurie
1989
7.9
🎬
Thompson
as Self
1988
1.0
The Play on One
as Cheryl Newman
1988
6.0
Comrades
as Betsy Loveless
1987
6.8
The Ruth Rendell Mysteries
as Polly Flinders
1987
6.3
The Singing Detective
as Staff Nurse White
1986
7.5
Ladies in Charge
1986
5.0
Ladies in Charge
as Edith
1986
5.0
Screen Two
as The Producer
1985
6.8
Natural World
as Narrator
1983
7.2
Easy Money
as Mary Price
1982
0.0
Playhouse
as Mary Price
1974
7.0
The Oscars
as Self
1953
7.0
Golden Globe Awards
as Self - Nominee
1944
7.2