Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

Liz Smith

Actress

Born - 11 December 1921, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England
Died - 24 December 2016

Pixilated, sharp-nosed, thin-lipped English actress who played eccentric elderlies to great effect after a late start to her acting career. Born Betty Gleadle, she only turned to acting in her forties, initially at holiday camps, then in repertory. Film and TV work began soon after. Following a movie debut in Leo the Last (1970), her career took off after director Mike Leigh gave her a prominent part in his film Bleak Moments (1971). The rest of her career was spent between film and TV, latterly as Nana in the popular comedy series The Royle Family. Later film work includes It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (1976), The Duellists (1977), Agatha (1979), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Britannia Hospital (1982), Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), A Private Function (1984), Little Dorrit (1987), High Spirits (1988), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Dakota Road (1992), Son of the Pink Panther (1993), Secrets & Lies (1996), Tom's Midnight Garden (1999), Dead Cool (2003), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Keeping Mum (2005), City of Ember (2008) and Flick (2008), her last.