Dora Bryan
Acting
Dora May Bryan OBE was an English actress of stage, film and television. Born Dora May Broadbent, her career began in pantomime as a child actor. In World War II she joined the ENSA in Italy to entertain British troops. After having established herself as a versatile stage actress, covering everything from drama and comedy to musicals, she started to appear in film in the late 1940s, and in 1968 she even had her own TV series, "According to Dora". At one point in her career she was Britain's highest-paid star. She was active on stage until the mid 1990s and continued to work in film and television until 2005, when she finally had to give up the acting profession as she could no longer remember her lines. Her autobiography According To Dora was published in 1987. In 1996, she was awarded an OBE in recognition of her services to acting and the same year she was also awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for her role in the West End production of the Harold Pinter play "The Birthday Party". She was married to British cricket player Bill Lawton from 1954 to his death in 2008. She lived in a nursing home in Hove, outside Brighton, until her death in 2014.
MirrorMask
Aunt Nan
Thora Hird Tribute
Self (archive footage, uncredited)
Absolutely Fabulous: The Last Shout
Millie
Bed
Bosom Lady
Palmer
Monica
Apartment Zero
Margaret McKinney
Screamtime
Emma
Up the Front
Auntie Cora Crumpington
Hands of the Ripper
Mrs. Golding
Two a Penny
Ruby Hopkins
The Sandwich Man
Mrs. De Vere
The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery
Amber Spottiswood
The Dream Machine
Self
A Taste of Honey
Helen
Alice Through the Looking Box
Queen
Hello London
herself
The Night We Got the Bird
Julie Skidmore
Follow That Horse!
Operation Bullshine
Pvt. Cox
Desert Mice
Gay Bennett
Carry On Sergeant
Norah
The Man Who Wouldn't Talk
Telephonist
Small Hotel
(uncredited)
The Green Man
Lily
Child in the House
Cassie
The Cockleshell Heroes
Myrtie
You Lucky People!
Hortense Tipp
As Long as They're Happy
May
Harmony Lane
Comedian
Mad About Men
Berengaria
The Crowded Day
Marge
The Young Lovers
Switchboard Operator (uncredited)
Fast and Loose
Mary Rawlings, the maid
You Know What Sailors Are
The Intruder
Dora Bee
The Fake
Barmaid
Street Corner
Prostitute
Women of Twilight
Olga
The Real Thing
Dora
The Ringer
Mrs. Hackett
Miss Robin Hood
Pearl
Mother Riley Meets the Vampire
Tilly
Time, Gentlemen, Please!
Peggy Stebbins
Gift Horse
Glad Flanagan
13 East Street
Valerie
Whispering Smith vs. Scotland Yard
Miss La Fosse
High Treason
Mrs. Bowers
Lady Godiva Rides Again
Movie Publicist
No Highway in the Sky
Scarlet Thread
Maggie
Circle of Danger
Bubbles Fitzgerald
The Quiet Woman
Elsie Tripp
Traveller's Joy
Eva
No Trace
Maisie
Something in the City
Waitress
The Blue Lamp
Maisie
The Cure for Love
Jenny Jenkins
The Interrupted Journey
the waitress
Don't Ever Leave Me
Talkative Hairdresser (uncredited)
Adam and Evelyne
Blonde Sales Assistant (uncredited)
Now Barabbas
Winnie
The Perfect Woman
Model in Shop
Once Upon a Dream
Barmaid
No Room at the Inn
The Girl
The Fallen Idol
Rose
Odd Man Out
Girl in Telephone Kiosk (uncredited)