June Brown

June Brown MBE
Brown at the 2009 BAFTA Awards
Born	June Muriel Brown (1927-02-16) 16 February 1927[1] Needham Market, Suffolk, England
Years active	1952–present
Known for	Dot Cotton in EastEnders (1985–93, 1997–)
Television	Doctor Who EastEnders
Spouse(s)	John Garley (1950–1957) (his death) Robert Arnold (1958–2003) (his death)
Children	6
Awards	Best Actress BAFTA

June Muriel Brown, MBE (born 16 February 1927) is an English actress, known for her role as Dot Cotton in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 1985 onwards. In 2005, she won Best Actress at the British Soap Awards and also received the Lifetime Achievement award at the same ceremony. In 2009, she was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress. She is only the second performer to receive a BAFTA nomination for their work in a soap opera (the first was Jean Alexander). She was made a MBE in the 2008 Queens Birthday Honours.

Early life and family

June Muriel Brown was born in Suffolk in 1927, the daughter of Louisa Ann (née Butler) and Henry William Melton Brown.^[2] She was one of five children, although her baby brother died of pneumonia in 1932, aged 15 days, and her elder sister, Marise, died in 1934, aged eight, from a meningitis-like illness. Other than English, she has Irish, Scottish, Italian and Sephardic Jewish descent from Oran, Algeria.^[3][4] On her maternal grandmother's side June is descended from the Jewish bare knuckle boxer Isaac Bitton.^[5] She was educated at St John's Church of England school in Ipswich and then won a scholarship to Ipswich High School where she passed the school certificate examinations.^[6] During the Second World War, she was evacuated to Pontyates, a village in Wales. During the later years of the war, she served in the Wrens (Royal Navy), and was classically trained at The Old Vic Theatre School.^[7]

At 23, she met and married actor John Garley; he suffered from depression and committed suicide in 1957. In 1958, she married Robert Arnold,^[8] a regular in the BBC television programme Dixon of Dock Green. They had six children, though her second daughter, Chloe (b. 1960) born prematurely at 28 weeks, died after 16 days. The other children are Louise (b. 1959), Sophie (b. 1961), William/Bill (b. 1962), Chloe (b. 1964), and Naomi (b. 1966). Chloe suffered paralysis, but Brown is reported as saying that it went away after she prayed for healing. Brown and Arnold were together for forty-five years, until he died in 2003 of Lewy Body dementia. Since then she has lived alone in their house in Surrey.^[9]

She is a supporter of the Conservative Party, and told an interviewer for The Guardian newspaper: "I wouldn't vote Labour, dear, if you paid me. I vote Conservative".^[10]

Film and television career

Brown has had a long television career, with small roles in Coronation Street as Mrs Parsons (1970–71); in the Play for Today, Edna, the Inebriate Woman as Clara (1971); in the Doctor Who story "The Time Warrior" as Lady Eleanor (1973/74); medical soap Angels; history-of-Britain Churchill's People; long-running comedy drama Minder; police drama soap The Bill; and cult sci-fi series Survivors. She also had a bigger part as Mrs Leyton in the very popular costume drama The Duchess of Duke Street (1976), and played Mrs Mann in Oliver Twist (1985).

She has also starred in the wartime big band comedy Ain't Misbehavin (1997), and played Nanny Slagg in the BBC's big-budget production of Gormenghast in 2000. She had a number of small roles in several famous movies, appearing as the grieving mother of an undead biker in British horror flick Psychomania (1971), as well as Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), Sitting Target (1972), The 14 (1973), Murder by Decree (1979), Nijinsky (1980), The Mambo Kings (1992) and the hugely successful Mr. Bean movie spin-off Bean (1997). She also appeared as Tom Hedden's wife in the controversial Straw Dogs (1971), though her scenes were cut from the film.

In 1984, she featured in the TV mini-series Lace which starred actress Phoebe Cates.

She also starred in a 1968 TV film called Gentle To Nora and had her very first acting role in 1952 in the movie "It Started In Paradise", she played an uncredited announcer. In 2006, Brown appeared as Aunt Spiker at the Children's Party At The Palace, an all-star event to celebrate the Queen's 80th birthday. In 2010 Brown took part in the annual Christmas special for Strictly Come Dancing. Brown said "I'm terrified and apprehensive about what I've let myself in for, I must be barmy and I'm not sure what's come over me… I just hope I can remember the steps to the routines. I'm looking forward to working with the professional dancers and the other contestants."^[11] Her dancing partner was Vincent Simone, with whom she danced the tango. She was the oldest contestant in the show so far.^[12]

In July 2012 Brown hosted a documentary for the BBC called Respect Your Elders, which looked at society's treatment and attitudes towards the elderly.^[13]

She takes part in interviews and chat shows frequently including The Graham Norton Show in 2013.

EastEnders and Dot

Brown was recommended to producers for the role of Dot Cotton by another one of its original cast members, Leslie Grantham, who played the show's villain, Den Watts. Dot is one of the longest-running characters in EastEnders. Brown played the role from 1985 to 1993, and from 1997 onwards.

Initially a highly unsympathetic character in EastEnders - a sanctimonious, judgemental, two-faced busybody, Dot Cotton was originally brought on for a short-term story arc to complement the storyline of her screen son, Nick Cotton, being accused of murder. However, Dot became a popular character, and has matured into one of the best-loved characters in the programme, a 'mother earth' figure to whom anyone can go to in times of need. In an interview on The Paul O'Grady Show in December 2007, June expressed embarrassment at watching herself on screen and says she has a highly modest attitude towards her role as Dot.

Brown says she is pleased to have been able to restore Dot as a character of depth in her ground-breaking episode, especially after reports that she wanted to leave the series in 2007 because she had disagreed with a storyline in which Dot found a refugee baby abandoned in a church. She signed a £370,000 contract in April 2007 to play Dot Cotton for another year. She signed a £570,000 deal in April 2008 to play Dot for another year. June Brown said, "I feel better with the writers now, as they are coming up with sustainable story lines for me to play. On top of that, the arrival of John Bardon has boosted my confidence."

On 31 January 2008, June made history by being the first and so far only actress to carry an entire episode single handed in the history of British soap, with a monologue looking back over her past life, dictated to a cassette machine for her husband Jim to listen to in hospital following a stroke. The fact that co-star and close friend John Bardon (who plays Jim) was recovering from a stroke in real life added extra pathos to the episode.^[14][15] In an interview on This Morning she claimed it was relatively easy, as there were no co-actors forgetting their lines. In 2009, Brown was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.^[16] She is the first actress to be nominated in the category for a role in a soap opera since Jean Alexander's nomination for playing Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street in 1988. Brown's nomination came as a result of her "single-hander" episode of EastEnders, the director of which she praised.^[17]

On 30 April 2012 it was announced that Brown would take a six-month break from EastEnders and planned to write her autobiography during her time off.^[18] In October 2012 it was announced she had returned to filming and she appeared on screen again in January 2013.^[19]

In May 2015 Brown admitted that her eyesight is failing due to macular degeneration but she cannot afford to retire. Brown says she has prayed that her eyesight will return.^[20]

On 30 January 2016, it was reported that Brown had signed a £300,000 contract to stay on EastEnders until she is 90 years old in 2017.^[21]

Theatre roles

Brown has also been active in British theatre. In 1959, she played the role of Chica in Alun Owen's The Rough and Ready Lot when it received its stage debut on 1 June 1959 in a production by the 59 Theatre Company at the Lyric Opera House, Hammersmith, as well as in the television adaptation which was broadcast that September.^[22][23]

She directed Pin Money by Malcolm Needs in London, and Double D in London and Edinburgh. She played Mrs Danvers in a production of Rebecca. Other plays include An Inspector Calls, The Lion in Winter, A View from the Bridge, and numerous pantomimes including The Witches, in which her sister also performed. During her early career, she played the roles of Hedda Gabler and Lady Macbeth.

In 2009, Brown played Jessie in the West End production of Calendar Girls at the Noël Coward Theatre. Also in the play were former EastEnders stars Anita Dobson (Angie Watts), Jack Ryder (Jamie Mitchell) and Jill Halfpenny (Kate Mitchell).

Awards and recognition

2008

• Appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to Drama and Charity.

2009

• Nominated in the Best Actress category at the British Academy Television Awards, lost out to Anna Maxwell-Martin
• On 4 December 2009 she was awarded an honorary degree by the University of East London

2011

• On 3 November 2011 she was awarded an honorary degree by the University Campus Suffolk

Acting roles

Film

• Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
• Straw Dogs (1971) (scenes deleted)
• Sitting Target (1972)
• Psychomania (1972)
• The 14 (1973)
• Murder by Decree (1979)
• Nijinsky (1980)
• Misunderstood (1984)
• The Mambo Kings (1992)
• Bean: The Movie (1997)
• Margery and Gladys (2003)

Television

• Coronation Street (1970–71) as Mrs. Parsons
• Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971)
• Doctor Who serial The Time Warrior (1973–1974), as Lady Eleanor of Wessex
• South Riding (1974), as tragic Lily Sawdon
• Angels (1974 episode)
• Churchill's People (1975)
• Survivors (1975)
• The Sweeney (1975) Series 1, episode 1 "Ringer"
• The Duchess of Duke Street (1976–1977)
• Sorry (1980) one-off BBC play
• Lace (1984) TV miniseries
• Minder (1984) Series 5, episode 7 "Hypnotising Rita"
• The Bill (1984)
• Oliver Twist (1985)
• EastEnders (1985–1993, 1997–present), as Dot Cotton
• Gormenghast (2000), as Nanny Slagg
• Heading Out (2013)

Theatre

• An Inspector Calls
• Nightshade
• The Lion in Winter
• Hedda Gabler
• A Day Forever
• Rebecca
• Laura
• Absolute Hell
• Macbeth
• Calendar Girls (play)

Video games

• Brain Dead 13 as Vivi

Directed

• Double D (play)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to June Brown.

• June Brown at the Internet Movie Database
• "List of performances". Theatre Collection. University of Bristol.