Brown was born on 16 February 1927 in Needham Market, Suffolk,[2] one of five children of Louisa Ann (née Butler) and Henry William Melton Brown.[3] Her ancestry included English, Irish and Scottish, and from her maternal grandmother, Sephardic Jewish (from Algeria, the Netherlands and Italy).[4][5] Through her grandmother, she was descended from the noted Jewish bare-knuckle boxer Isaac Bitton.[6]
Brown 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.[7] During the Second World War, she was evacuated to the Welsh village of Pontyates in Carmarthenshire. During the later years of the war, she served in the Wrens and was classically trained at the Old Vic Theatre School in Lambeth, London.[8]
She also played Nanny Slagg in the BBC's big-budget production of Gormenghast in 2000.[11] She was cast in small roles in several 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 Mr. Bean movie spin-off Bean (1997). She also appeared as Tom Hedden's wife in Straw Dogs (1971), although her scenes were cut from the film. In 1984, she featured in the TV mini-series Lace which starred actress Phoebe Cates.[12]
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 of 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."[13] Her dancing partner was Vincent Simone, with whom she danced the tango.
In August 2011 she was featured in the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?, and was the oldest person to have appeared on the programme.[14]
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.[15]
Brown was recommended to producers for the role of Dot Cotton in EastEnders by one of its original cast members, Leslie Grantham, who played Den Watts. Brown played the role from 1985 to 2020, with a break between 1993 and 1997.[17]
On 31 January 2008, aged 80, Brown became the first and, to date, only soap actor to carry an entire episode single-handed. The episode featured a monologue looking back over her character's 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 played Jim) was recovering from a stroke in real life added extra pathos to the episode.[18] In 2009, Brown was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.[19] Brown's nomination came as a result of her "single-hander" episode of EastEnders, the director of which she praised.[20]
On 30 April 2012, it was announced that Brown was to take a six-month break from EastEnders and planned to write her autobiography during her time off.[21] In October 2012, it was announced she had returned to filming, and she appeared on screen again from January 2013.[22] Her autobiography, Before the Year Dot, was published in 2013.[23]
In May 2015, Brown revealed that her eyesight was failing due to macular degeneration.[24] Later, in 2016, a storyline for Dot in which her eyesight was deteriorating was introduced. Speaking about the condition in April 2019, Brown said that it had worsened since undergoing surgery in 2017, and that she no longer went out socially because of her eyesight: "I never go to soap awards or suchlike now. I don't recognise people that I know and they would think I was snubbing them."[25]
On 20 February 2020, Brown announced that she had left EastEnders.[26][27]
Personal life
In 1950, Brown met and married actor John Garley; he suffered from depression and died by suicide in 1957. In 1958, she married actor Robert Arnold.[28] They had six children in seven years, one of whom died in infancy.[29] The couple were together for 45 years, until he died in 2003 of Lewy-body dementia. Thereafter, she lived alone in Surrey.[30]
Brown died on 3 April 2022, aged 95.[37] On the announcement of her death, the following day, EastEnders paid tribute to Brown and posted condolences from several of her former co-stars on social media, including Gillian Taylforth,[38]Natalie Cassidy,[39]Lacey Turner,[40]Diane Parish,[41]Emma Barton,[41]Shona McGarty,[42]Adam Woodyatt[38] and Letitia Dean.[41] The episode broadcast that evening was dedicated to her memory. Following this, the documentary June Brown: A Walford Legend, which originally aired in 2017, to celebrate Brown's 90th birthday, and her 2011 episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, were aired on BBC One, in a change to the original schedule.[43][44]
^Owen, Alun (1960). The Rough and Ready Lot: A play in Three Acts. Cover design by Elisabeth Frink (First ed.). London: Encore Publishing Co. Ltd. p. 4.
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