Janet Brown


1923 - 2011

Comedienne and impressionist. Born in Rutherglen, the daughter of a shipyard worker, she began her career as a teenager in the late 1930s in theatre and radio. In 1949 she starred in Mr Gillie by James Bridie (1888 - 1951), alongside Alastair Sim (1900-76) and George Cole, and the following year she joined Sim in the film version of another Bridie play Folly to be Wise. She also starred in Floodtide (1949) with many of the leading Scottish actors of the time, including Jimmy Logan (1928 - 2001), Gordon Jackson (1923-90) and John Laurie (1897 - 1980).

Becoming one of the first female impressionists on television, Brown was particularly noted in the 1980s for her humorous portrayal of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She made a brief appearance as the Prime Minister in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981).

Working well into her eighties, she died in Sussex (England).


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