Miriam Margolyes


Miriam Margolyes is a British-Australian actress. Known for her work as a character actor across film, television, and stage, she received the BAFTA [Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role|BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress] for her role as Mrs. Mingott in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, and achieved international prominence with her portrayal of Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series. Margolyes was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2002 New Year Honours for Services to Drama.
After starting her career in theatre, Margolyes made the transition to film with a small part in the British comedy A Nice Girl Like Me. Subsequent credits include Yentl, Little Shop of Horrors, Little Dorrit, I Love You to Death, Immortal Beloved, Balto, Different for Girls, Romeo + Juliet, Magnolia, End of Days, Being Julia, and Ladies in Lavender. She voiced roles in Babe, James and the Giant Peach, Mulan, Happy Feet, Flushed Away, and Early Man.
Margolyes appeared in the television films Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story, Orpheus Descending, Stalin, Cold Comfort Farm, and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Her other credits include Blackadder, Vanity Fair, Supply & Demand, and Doctor Who, as well as the recurring roles of Prudence Stanley in the Australian drama series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, and Sister Mildred in the BBC1 drama series Call the Midwife.
On stage, Margolyes toured her one-woman show, Dickens' Women, between 1989 and 2012, which earned her an Laurence [Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical|Olivier Award] nomination; starred as Sue Mengers in the Australian premiere of I'll Eat You Last ; and originated the role of Madame Morrible in Wicked. Outside acting, she has fronted various travelogue series and written three memoirs: This Much is True, Oh Miriam!, and The little book of Miriam.

Early life and education

Miriam Margolyes was born on 18 May 1941 in Oxford, England, into a Jewish family. She is the only child of Joseph Margolyes, a Scottish physician and general practitioner from the Strathbungo area of Glasgow, and property-developer Ruth, daughter of a second-hand furniture dealer and auctioneer at Kirkdale, Liverpool, who later relocated to London. The maternal family surname changed from Sandeman to Walters before Margolyes' birth. Her maternal great-grandfather, Symeon Sandmann, was born in the Polish town of Margonin, then part of the Kingdom of Prussia, which Margolyes visited in 2013. Her paternal grandfather Philip Margolyes was born in the small Belarusian shtetl of Amdur, which at the time was in Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire.
Margolyes attended Oxford High School and Newnham College, Cambridge. There, in her 20s, she began acting and appeared in productions by the Cambridge Footlights. She represented Newnham College in the first series of University Challenge, where she may have been one of the first people to say "fuck" on British television; she claims to have used the word in frustration on the show in 1963. The word was "bleeped out" for transmission.

Career

With her versatile voice, Margolyes first gained recognition as a voice artist. In the 1970s, she recorded a soft-porn audio called Sexy Sonia: Leaves from my Schoolgirl Notebook. In 1972, she played alongside Tony Robinson in the educational TV show Sam on Boffs' Island. She performed most of the supporting female characters in the dubbed Japanese action TV series Monkey. She also worked with the theatre company Gay Sweatshop and provided voiceovers in the Japanese TV series The Water Margin.
In 1974, she appeared with Kenneth Williams and Ted Ray in the BBC Radio 2 comedy series The Betty Witherspoon Show.
Margolyes's first major role in a film was as Elephant Ethel in Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers. In the 1980s, she made appearances in Blackadder opposite Rowan Atkinson: these roles include the Spanish Infanta in The Black Adder, Lady Whiteadder in Blackadder II and Queen Victoria in Blackadder's Christmas Carol. In 1986, she played a major supporting role in the BBC drama The Life and Loves of a She-Devil. She won the 1989 LA Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Flora Finching in the film Little Dorrit. On American television, she headlined the short-lived 1992 CBS sitcom Frannie's Turn. In 1994, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs Mingott in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence.
Margolyes played the dental nurse to Steve Martin's dentist in the 1986 film Little Shop of Horrors. In her 2023 memoir Oh Miriam: Stories from an Extraordinary Life, Margolyes said Martin was "undeniably brilliant, but horrid to me" during the film. Martin responded that "My memory is that we had a good communication as professional actors. But when it is implied that I harmed her or was in some way careless about doing the stunts, I have to object".
In 1989, Margolyes co-wrote and performed a one-woman show, Dickens' Women, in which she played 23 characters from Dickens' novels. In 2005, Margolyes hosted a ten-part BBC Four documentary, Dickens in America, which retraced Dickens's 1842 journey across the United States of America.
Margolyes played Aunt Sponge and voiced the Glow-Worm in James and the Giant Peach. She played the Nurse in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. She voiced the rabbit character in the animated commercials for Cadbury's Caramel bars and provided the voice of Fly the dog in the Australian-American family film Babe.
She played Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and [the Chamber of Secrets (film)|Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets] and again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. In a 2011 interview on The Graham Norton Show, in regard to her Potter costars, Margolyes said that she got on well with Maggie Smith, but rather bluntly admitted that she "didn't like the one that died", referring to Richard Harris. In 2024, Margolyes enraged adult Harry Potter fans by stating, "I worry about Harry Potter fans because they should be over that by now. It was 25 years ago, and it’s for children." Harry Potter fans responded on X, one saying "Nobody has a right to try and shame people into not enjoying something they harmlessly enjoy." Louis Chilton wrote in The Independent that "Margolyes does have that right. Don’t we all? And what’s a bit of shame every now and then between friends?"
In 2004, Margolyes played the role of Peg Sellers, the mother of Peter Sellers, in the Golden Globe winning film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.
Margolyes was one of the original cast of the London production of the musical Wicked opposite Idina Menzel in 2006, playing Madame Morrible, a role she played again on Broadway in 2008.
In 2009, she appeared in a new production of Endgame by Samuel Beckett at the Duchess Theatre in the West End.
Margolyes voiced the role of Mrs. Plithiver, a blind snake, in the 3D-animated-epic film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.
In 2011, Margolyes recorded a narrative for the album The Devil's Brides by klezmer musician-ethnographer Yale Strom.
Margolyes played recurring character Prudence Stanley in the Australian-based TV series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries from 2012 to 2015.
In 2014, she voiced Nana in the Disney Junior animated series Nina Needs to Go!
In January 2016, Margolyes appeared in The Real Marigold Hotel, a travel documentary in which a group of eight celebrities travelled to India to see whether retirement would be more rewarding there than in the UK. The series was reprised for two Christmas Specials The Real Marigold On Tour, from Florida and Kyoto. She narrated the 2016 ITV documentary about Lady Colin Campbell entitled Lady C and the Castle.
In December 2017, Margolyes appeared in the second season of The Real Marigold On Tour to Chengdu and Havana. She appeared in the first episode of the third series, in which she travelled to St Petersburg with Bobby George, Sheila Ferguson and Stanley Johnson.
In January 2018, Margolyes hosted a three-part series for the BBC titled Miriam's Big American Adventure, highlighting the citizens of the United States and the issues facing the country. She voiced Queen Oofeefa in the film Early Man. Margolyes portrayed Mother Mildred in the BBC One drama Call the Midwife from 2018 until 2021.
She played Miss Shepherd in a 2019 production of The Lady in the Van for the Melbourne Theatre Company in Melbourne in Australia.
In October 2021, she played Lillian opposite Helen Monks in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom Charlotte and Lillian, where she introduced her autobiography This Much Is True. On 5 November, she appeared on BBC One's The Graham Norton Show, where she discussed the book, explaining that it was written only because she "was paid an enormous amount of money". On 16 September, the book was published by Hachette Books.
In April 2022, Margolyes was the subject of the BBC documentary Miriam Margolyes: Up for Grabs in the Imagine... series, where she was interviewed by Alan Yentob.
She appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity in February 2023. Her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was "Charles Dickens and all his works". In November 2023, Margolyes appeared as the voice of The Meep in "The Star Beast", the first of three Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials.
In 2025, she performed as solo entertainer in her show Margolyes and Dickens: More Best Bits at Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Personal life

Margolyes spent many years living for long periods in Australia, and became an Australian citizen on Australia Day 2013, while retaining her British citizenship.
She is lesbian, and referred to herself as a "dyke" live on national television and in front of Australian prime minister Julia Gillard in 2013. Since 1968, she has been in a relationship with Heather Sutherland, an Australian retired professor of Indonesian studies. On 26 June 2013, Sutherland and Margolyes entered into a civil partnership., they were dividing their time between homes in London and Kent in England, Robertson, New South Wales in Australia, and Montisi in Italy. In November 2023, Margolyes revealed on The Graham Norton Show that she and Sutherland had never lived together but she wanted to do so as they were now both old and did not have much time left. She had been living in London and Sutherland had been living in Amsterdam for a while.

Health

Margolyes has spoken openly about several health challenges in later life. She has been diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a condition that causes narrowing of the spinal canal and affects mobility. As a result, she uses mobility aids, including walking sticks, a walker, and a mobility scooter, and is registered as disabled. She also suffers from osteoarthritis, which contributes to chronic pain in her legs, hands, and back, and has undergone knee replacement surgery on her left knee.
In May 2023, she underwent a Transcatheter [aortic valve replacement|transcatheter aortic valve implantation], a minimally invasive heart procedure in which her aortic valve was replaced with one made from the tissue of a cow's heart.
In July 2025, Margolyes responded to renewed media speculation about her health, following earlier claims that she had said in an interview she was "probably going to die within the next five or six years, if not before". In a video message, she dismissed claims that she was "at death's door" as "bollocks", affirming she was "very much alive" and preparing to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
In August 2025, during an interview with Weekend Magazine, Margolyes expressed support for assisted dying, stating she would consider it if a stroke left her unable to speak, doubly incontinent or cognitively impaired.

Charities

Margolyes is a patron of My Death My Decision, an organisation in the UK which seeks a more compassionate approach to dying, including the legal right to a medically assisted death, if that is a person's persistent wish.
Margolyes is a supporter of Sense and was the host at the first Sense Creative Writing Awards, held at the Charles Dickens Museum in London in December 2006, where she read a number of works written by talented deafblind people.
She is also a campaigner for the respite care charity Crossroads.

Political views

Margolyes' political activism started at university. "I came from a very middle-class Jewish background, always Tory-voting", she later said. However, in the 1970s, she joined the Workers Revolutionary Party with other actors and Equity members including Vanessa Redgrave, Frances de la Tour, and Tom Kempinski.
Margolyes is a member of the Labour Party and is registered to vote in Vauxhall. In August 2015, she was a signatory to a letter criticising The Jewish Chronicles reporting of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's alleged associations with antisemites. In November 2019, she endorsed the Labour Party in the UK general election because of their policies on the National Health Service. Later in the month, along with other public figures, she signed a letter supporting Corbyn and describing him as a "beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia, and racism in much of the democratic world".
Margolyes was very critical of the British Government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. She considered it "a public scandal" and "a disgrace". With the Prime Minister hospitalised suffering from COVID-19, Margolyes said "I had difficulty not wanting Boris Johnson to die."
In her 2020 ABC series Almost Australian, Margoyles interviewed the Sistergirls of the Tiwi Islands, a transgender group of indigenous Australians. Margoyles can be seen telling the group "to be a woman you're gonna have to get rid of all that stuff but I get whiskers on my chin and I have to pluck them out with tweezers because that's what women do," before being told by one of the indigenous members "you know, in our culture we respect that person regardless of the look. We don't look on the outside, it's the inside that you have to change." Margolyes responded "I apologise, now I understand."
In a 2022 interview with Radio Times, Margolyes came to the defence of J. K. Rowling, commenting that "There is a spectrum and people can be anywhere along that. There isn't one answer to all these trans questions". In November 2023, Margolyes said during another appearance on The Graham Norton Show that her position had changed after a discussion with Zoe Terakes, a trans Australian actor, and that she no longer believed that grammar was paramount over making someone happy by using their preferred pronouns.
On 15 October 2022, after being interviewed by Justin Webb about the recently deceased Robbie Coltrane on BBC Radio 4's Today, she commented to the presenters that she had never expected to be in a seat that had just been vacated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt. She said, live on air, "When I saw him there I just said, 'You've got a hell of a job, the best of luck', and what I really wanted to say was 'Fuck you, you bastard!'"
She was herself shaken by the blunder, explaining to a researcher as she left the studio that she thought the mics were off at the time of the comment.
She is a signatory of Jews for Justice for Palestinians. Margolyes said, "What I want to try to do is to get Jewish people to understand what's really going on, and they don't want to hear it. If you speak to most Jews and say, 'Can Israel ever be in the wrong?' they say, 'No. Our duty as Jews is to support Israel whatever happens.' And I don't believe that. It is our duty as human beings to report the truth as we see it."
On 6 April 2024, a video by Margolyes was published by The Jewish Council of Australia criticising the Israeli government for its ongoing invasion of the Gaza Strip (2023–present)|invasion of the Gaza Strip] and calling on Jews to "shout, beg, scream" for a ceasefire. In her 2.5 minute video she said:
The Campaign Against Antisemitism described these comments as "repugnant" and "anti-Jewish venom". It said it would write to the Honours Forfeiture Committee and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and urge them to revoke her honours. Jewish author and activist Andrew Feinstein said Margolyes is "a Jew who believes that ‘Never Again' applies to all humanity and speaks up about the reality that Israel does not represent us. She speaks truth to power in the best Jewish tradition". Margolyes said "I'm not antisemitic, I'm anti-killing children. I am criticising the Israeli government. But I am also criticising the Jewish people in the UK, the community that I belong to, which is not coming out in support of me. I just want people not to kill each other".

Books

  • Dickens' Women Co-authored with Sonia Fraser
  • This Much is True
  • Oh Miriam!: Stories from an Extraordinary Life
  • ''The Little Book of Miriam ''

In popular culture

Author and comedian David Walliams says he used Margolyes as a model for the title character in his children's book Awful Auntie after an argument with her during a stage production, though he stressed that he has nothing against her and is a fan of her work.

Filmography

Video games

YearTitleRole
2021Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix UpBERYL
2023Wallace & Gromit in The Grand GetawayBERYL

Non-fiction television

Notes

Awards and nominations

Margolyes was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2002 New Year Honours for Services to Drama.