Who is Lesley Manville?
Lesley Manville 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 & Lies (1996), and her performance in Phantom Thread (2017), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also had a supporting role in the Disney fantasy Maleficent (2014).
Manville's extensive stage career includes roles in "As You Like It", "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" and "The Alchemist". Her film debut was in Dance with a Stranger (1985). She was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire at the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to drama. She was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire at the 2021 Queen's New Years Honours for her services to drama and to charity.
Overview
- Nicknames
- Leslie Manville
Trivia
- Is a trained soprano-singer and has practiced the art since the age of eight. She chose to pursue an acting career instead when she discovered her talent for improvisation.
- She appears with Gary Oldman in A Christmas Carol (2009). The two were nominated for Oscars for the same year, 2017, she for Best Supporting Actress (Phantom Thread (2017)) and he for Best Actor (Darkest Hour (2017), which he won).
- Despite being a praised theater-thespian, she took off 10 years from the stage between 1995 and 2005 in order to pursue acting in movies, especially those directed by Mike Leigh. In 2005, she returned to the stage in the big-budget production of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" as Marisa Coulter. The same role has also been played by Nicole Kidman, two years later, in The Golden Compass (2007).
- She was cast as Queen Elizabeth II in The Theory of Everything (2014) but her role was deleted from the movie.
- She won the 2014 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance as Helene Alving in Richard Eyre's revival of "Ghosts".