Brenda Anne Blethyn, OBE (née Bottle) is an English actress and voice actress, who has worked in theaters, television, and films. Her Disney roles so far are Mama Heffalump in Pooh's Heffalump Movie and Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too, Ernestine Enormomonster in Henry Hugglemonster, and Augusta Rottgen-van Pels in Anne Frank: The Whole Story for Touchstone Television.
Born in Ramsgate, Kent, Blethyn trained at technical college and worked as a stenographer and bookkeeper before taking her theater interest as her profession. After studying at the Guildford School of Acting, she went onto the London stage, performing several seasons at the Royal National Theatre. She has been productions of The Madras House, Bedroom Farce, Crimes of the Heart, A Doll's House, Benefactors, Born Yesterday, An Ideal Husband, Mrs Warren's Profession, 'Night Mother, and The Glass Menagerie.
She also appeared in films such as Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story, The Witches (1990), Secrets & Lies, A River Runs Through It, Girls' Night, Saving Grace, Blizzard, Lovely & Amazing, Pumpkin, A Way of Life, Pride & Prejudice (2005), and Atonement. Her television credits include Chance in a Million, The Storyteller, The Labours of Erica, Outside Edge, Kate & Koji, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Vera.
