Actress Dora Bryan dies aged 91

Wednesday 23rd July 2014, 4:42pm

Dora Bryan

BAFTA-winning actress Dora Bryan OBE has died at the age of 91.

With a stage and screen career stretching back to the late 1940s, her last prominent role was as Ros Utterthwaite through four mid-2000s series of Last Of The Summer Wine.

Bryan's career was wide-ranging but largely encompassed comedy titles, ranging from the first ever Carry On film, Carry On Sergeant, to Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's Catterick in 2004.

She was also heard in the original radio series of Hancock's Half Hour, and appeared on television in Educating Archie, The Dickie Henderson Show, On The Up, and alongside Victoria Wood on numerous occasions, including in hit sitcom dinnerladies.

Regularly playing ditsy blondes, in the early 1960s Dora Bryan starred in ITV sitcom Happily Ever After, based on the hit American series I Love Lucy.

Bryan was also notable as the proprietress of Brighton hotel with her late husband, cricketer Bill Lawton. The couple owned Clarges Hotel on the Brighton seafront, which served as a location in both Carry On Girls and Carry On At Your Convenience.

Dora's film career included a number of roles alongside Frankie Howerd, such as Up The Front and The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery.

She also appeared in two separate roles in Absolutely Fabulous, Jennifer Saunders's hit sitcom, which is now being made into a film, and in which Saunders has expressed a wish that everyone who had appeared in the TV series might appear.

Dora Bryan died in a nursing home in Hove today and is survived by two sons.

In 1963, she released the novelty record All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle:

Here is a BBC local news clip from 2013, seeing Dora Bryan visit an exhibition dedicated to her career on her 90th birthday:

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