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Lesley Manville

A versatile character actress and occasional lead in British films and television, Lesley Manville was an important member of Mike Leigh's improvisational acting company, with committed and deeply moving turns in films like "All Or Nothing" (2002), "Vera Drake" (2004)" and "Another Year" (2010). Manville's career began as a teenager on television and the English stage, but after meeting Leigh in 1979, she soon became a regular in his features after 1988's "High Hopes." Though her feature appearances were sporadic - she was found more frequently on television, most notably in "The Firm" (BBC, 1988) with her one-time husband, Gary Oldman, and on stage - her work with Leigh, as well as in other films like "Sammy and Rosie Get Laid" (1987) and "Sparkle" (2009), marked her as an exceptional talent whose true star quality was yet to be fully discovered.