Geraldine James

Geraldine James, OBE (born 6 July 1950) is an English film and television actress.

Geraldine James OBE
Born	6 July 1950 Maidenhead, Berkshire, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1973–present
Spouse(s)	Joseph Blatchley ​ (m. 1986)​
Children	1

Biography

Early life and family

James was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, to a cardiologist father.[1][2] She was educated at Downe House, a girls' independent school in Newbury, Berkshire. After graduating from the Drama Centre London in 1973, she began her career in repertory theatre.

Acting

James has been nominated four times for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress; for Dummy (1977), The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Band of Gold (1995) and The Sins (2000). For her role as Portia in the 1989 Broadway revival of The Merchant of Venice, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. She also won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 1989 Venice Film Festival for She's Been Away. Her film credits include Gandhi (1982), The Tall Guy (1989), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Alice in Wonderland (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and 45 Years (2015). Since 2017, she has starred in the Netflix series Anne with an E as Marilla Cuthbert, and in the 2019 film Downton Abbey as Queen Mary.

Theatre director Peter Hall said that James ranks amongst the great English classical actresses.[3]

Credits

Film appearances

• The Dumb Waiter (1979) as Sally
• Bloody Kids (1980) as Ritchie's Wife
• Sweet William (1980) as Pamela
• Gandhi (1982) as Mirabehn
• The Tall Guy (1989) as Carmen
• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1989) as Mrs. Gertrude Brisket
• Prince of Shadows (1991) as Rebecca Osorio
• If Looks Could Kill – Teen Agent, (1991) as Vendetta Galante
• The Bridge (1992) as Mrs Todd
• Words Upon the Window Pane (1994) as Mrs. Henderson
• Moll Flanders (1996) as Edna
• The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997) as Dr. Ludmilla Kropotkin
• Lover's Prayer (2001) as Mother
• An Angel for May (2002)
• Calendar Girls (2003) as Marie
• Northanger Abbey (2007) as the narrator
• Sherlock Holmes (2009) as Mrs Hudson
• Alice in Wonderland (2010) as Lady Ascot
• Made in Dagenham (2010) as Connie
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) as Cecilia Vanger
• Arthur (2011) as Vivienne Bach
• Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) as Mrs Hudson
• 45 Years (2015) as Lena
• Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) as Lady Ascot
• Rogue One (2016) as Jaldine Gerams (Blue 3)
• Daphne (2017)
• Megan Leavey (2017) as The Veterinarian
• Beast (2017)
• Downton Abbey (2019)[4] as Mary of Teck
• Benediction (TBA)

Music appearances

• Human. :II: Nature. (2020)

Radio appearances

Date	Title	Role	Director	Station
21 February 2000 – 3 March 2000	The Hours		Gaynor Macfarlane	BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama
21 March 2003	Baldi: The Book Case	Maggie	Mark Lambert	BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
19 April 2003	Turtle Diary	Neaera	Gaynor Macfarlane	BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play
2005	The Raj Quartet	Mildred Layton	Jeremy Mortimer	BBC Radio 4

Television appearances

• The Sweeney: Pay Off (1976) as Shirley Glass
• Dummy (1977) as Sandra X
• Shoestring (1979) Nine tenths of the law.
• The History Man (1981) as Barbara Kirk
• I Remember Nelson (1982) as Emma Hamilton
• The Jewel in the Crown (1984) as Sarah Layton
• Blott on the Landscape (1985) as Lady Maud Lynchwood
• Echoes (1988) as Angela O'Hara
• Inspector Morse: Who Killed Harry Field (1991) as Helen Field
• A Doll's House (1992) as Kristine Linde
• Band of Gold (1995–1997) as Rose Garrety
• Kavanagh QC (1995–1999) as Eleanor Harker QC
• Rebecca (1997) as Beatrice
• Little Britain as Mother of Harvey Pincher (cameo)
• The Sins (2000) as Gloria Green
• State of Play (2003) as Yvonne Shaps
• Hex (2004) as Lilith Hughes
• He Knew He Was Right (2004) as Lady Rowley
• Agatha Christie's Poirot – After the Funeral, (2005) as Helen Abernethie
• The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006) as Hilary Rees-Benson
• A Harlot's Progress (2006)
• Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire (2006) as Cornelia
• The Last Enemy (2008) as Barbara Turney
• Heist (2008) as Joanna
• Midsomer Murders (2010) Series 13, episode 8, "Fit for Murder".
• Thirteen Steps Down (2012) as Gwendolyn
• Utopia (2013)
• Black Work (2015) as Chief Constable Carolyn Jarecki
• The Five (2016) as Julia Wells
• Anne with an E (2017–2019) as Marilla Cuthbert (adaptation of Anne of Green Gables)
• Back to Life (2019) as Caroline Matteson

Theatre appearances

• Portia opposite Dustin Hoffman in the London and Broadway productions of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare.[5][6]
• Hedda Gabler at the Royal Exchange, Manchester in 1993.

Awards

Year	Nominated work	Award	Category	Result	Refs
1977	Dummy	BAFTA TV Award	Best Actress	Nominated	[7]
1984	The Jewel in the Crown	BAFTA TV Award	Best Actress	Nominated
1989	She's Been Away	Venice Film Festival	Volpi Cup for Best Actress	Won	[8][9]
1990	The Merchant of Venice	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Actress in a Play	Won
1990	The Merchant of Venice	Tony Award	Best Actress in a Play	Nominated
1995	Band of Gold	BAFTA TV Award	Best Actress	Nominated
2000	The Sins	BAFTA TV Award	Best Actress	Nominated
2018	Anne with an E	Canadian Screen Awards	Best Supporting Actress, Drama	Won	[10]

Honours

• James was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours.

References

1. "Geraldine James Biography (1950-)". www.filmreference.com.
2. "Geraldine James: A talent to surprise". The Independent. 7 April 2004.
3. "Geraldine James" (17 December 2001) Woman's Hour, Radio 4, BBC
4. McNary, Dave (30 August 2018). "Imelda Staunton, Geraldine James Join 'Downton Abbey' Movie".
5. "Hoffman as Shylock: London Critics Cool" (3 June 1989) New York Times
6. "'Merchant' role is jewel in James' crown" (29 Jan 1990) USA TODAY
7. "Television | Actress in 1978" BAFTA
8. "Miss Geraldine James, OBE". Debrett's. Archived from the original on 21 January 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
9. "Triumph in Venice" (16 Sep 1989) The Guardian
10. "Anne with an E, Cardinal win big at Canadian Screen Awards - CBC News". CBC. 28 March 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2020.

External links

• Geraldine James at IMDb
• Geraldine James at the Internet Broadway Database
• Geraldine James at the BFI's Screenonline
• "The Jewel That is James" – Interview by Jeremy Taylor for bmi Voyager October 2007
• Q&A with Geraldine James in the Guardian