Geraldine James

Geraldine James, OBE (born 6 July 1950) is an English actress. She tied with Peggy Ashcroft for Best Actress at the 1989 Venice Film Festival for She's Been Away and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2003. After graduating from Drama Centre London in 1973, James began her career in repertory theatre. For her role as Portia in the 1989 Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. She 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). She is also known as Mrs. Pincher, the breastfeeding mother in Little Britain (2004). Her film credits include Gandhi (1982), The Tall Guy (1989), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). Theatre director Peter Hall says Geraldine James ranks amongst the great English classical actresses. Early life and family James was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, to a cardiologist father. She was educated at Downe House, a girls' independent school in Newbury, Berkshire, and at the Drama Centre London.