Known For
Acting
Born
May 31, 1948
Died
Oct 19, 2014
Place of Birth
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Credits
64 titles
Lynda Bellingham
Biography
Lynda Bellingham played many roles during her five-decade professional career, but became synonymous with one. "Being a mum making gravy was not quite how I had seen my career advancing," she said once. But between 1983 and 1999 that's what she did in 42 "episodes" of an award-winning TV ad. Since the early 1980s, her name was rarely mentioned in print without it being prefaced with "Oxo mum". During her career, though, she starred on TV as the vet's wife Helen Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small in the 80s and as one of two divorcees trying to forge a relationship in the 90s sitcom Second Thoughts, opposite James Bolam. On stage she was best known for playing the lead in a touring production of Calendar Girls between 2008 and 2012. She was also, for four years between 2007 and 2011, a regular member of the team on Loose Women, the daytime TV chat show. She had few regrets about how her career turned out, summarising its trajectory thus on her website: "Arrived in London at the Central School [for Speech and Drama] in 1966 and never looked back. I had a ball!" Bellingham, though, knew that gravy, like Lady Macbeth's damned spot, left an indelible mark. "In many ways I was very proud of what we did, but there is no doubt that my credibility as an actress was knocked," she reflected. "Certain people in the industry would never employ me as a serious actress after it. On the other hand, it gave me the financial security to go off and work in the theatre for very little money." Her performances as Mrs Oxo were reportedly responsible for a 10% increase in stock cube sales.
Known For
Filmography
Too Close for Comfort
Mum
Odd One In
Mister Eleven
Shirley
All Star Mr & Mrs
The Alan Titchmarsh Show
Self
Bonkers
Mrs Wadlow
Robin Hood
Devil's Gate
Marlene
Murder in Suburbia
Milly Goodman
The Long Bank Holiday
Councillor Marjorie Balsam
New Tricks
One Life
Celebrity Naked Ambition
Self (archive footage)
The Last Detective
Bodywork
Poppy Fields
Waking the Dead
Mary Mantel
The Romanovs: A Crowned Family
Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna
Reach for the Moon
Penny Martin
At Home with the Braithwaites
Pauline Farnell
Loose Women
Self
Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Maxine
Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh
The Scarlet Tunic
Emily Marlowe
An Audience with Ronnie Corbett
Midsomer Murders
Jane Willows
Faith in the Future
Martin Chuzzlewit
Mrs Lupin
Junior Masterchef
Gibberish
Second Thoughts
Faith
This Morning
Self
The Vision
Mary Morris
Filthy Rich & Catflap
Ms Tomkins
Doctor Who: The Ultimate Foe
The Inquisitor
Doctor Who: Terror of the Vervoids
The Inquisitor
Doctor Who: Mindwarp
The Inquisitor
Doctor Who: The Mysterious Planet
The Inquisitor
Casualty
Steph Yates
Screen Two
Mary Morris
Surprise, Surprise
Self
Wogan
Self
Riding High
Miss Mott
Funny Man
Gwen
Mackenzie
Ruth Isaacs
Shoestring
Nicola
The Waterloo Bridge Handicap
Likely Lady (Miss Beamish)
The Pink Medicine Show
All Creatures Great and Small
Helen Herriot
An Audience with...
Self
Blake's 7
Vena