Happy Birthday to four-time Olivier-winning performer Imelda Staunton, born Jan. 9, 1956, in Archway, London. She’s been nominated for 13 Olivier Awards in all so far, including a record-breaking seven for Best Actress in a Musical. She first studied drama at La Sainte Convent, where she had leads in school productions such as The Beggar’s Opera. Encouraged by her elocution teacher, Staunton auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was accepted. After graduating from RADA, Staunton spent six years in English repertory, including two seasons at Nottingham Playhouse, where she starred as Mabel in Mack and Mabel.
In the 1980s, she moved on to roles at the National Theatre, including Lucy Lockit in The Beggar’s Opera (1982), which earned her Olivier nominations for Best Actress in a Musical and for Best Newcomer. In 1985, Staunton won her first Olivier for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for her work in the plays The Corn Is Green and A Chorus of Disapproval. In 1988, she earned two Olivier nominations, one as Dorothy in a revival of The Wizard of Oz and another as Sonya in Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya. Below is Staunton singing “Somewhere over the Rainbow” and “If I Only Had the Nerve / We’re Off to See the Wizard” with The Wizard of Oz cast at the Children’s Royal Variety.
Staunton won her first Olivier for Best Actress in a Musical in 1990 for playing the Baker’s Wife in the London premiere of Into the Woods. In 1996, she received another Olivier nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Miss Adelaide in a revival of Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre. Over the next 20 years, Staunton primarily appeared in plays, including Entertaining Mr Sloane (2009), Good People (2014), and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, all for which she received Olivier nominations. Below is the cast of Into the Woods performing the prologue on Terry Wogan’s TV show and clips of the Guys and Dolls cast in a TV documentary about the revival (Staunton appears about 1:15).
In film, Staunton won the BAFTA and earned Oscar and Golden Globes nominations for her performance in the title role in Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake (2004) and earned a BAFTA nom for Pride (2014), but she is probably best known as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter series. Since her TV debut in The Singing Detective (1986), she has appeared in Cranford (2007), which earned her a BAFTA nom, and The Girl (2012), which earned her BAFTA and Emmy noms.
Most recently, Staunton has been in the West End revivals of Sweeney Todd (2013) as Mrs. Lovett, Gypsy (2016) as Rose, and Follies (2017) as Sally, winning Oliviers for the first two and earning a nom for the third. Below is Staunton (with Michael Ball) in “A Little Priest” from Sweeney Todd and in “Everything’s Coming up Roses” from Gypsy.