# Angela Pleasence
**Angela Pleasence** (full name Angela Daphne Anne Pleasence) was an English actress whose career ran from the 1960s to 2016, spanning stage, television, and film. She was the daughter of the actor [Donald Pleasence](https://www.edgepedia.org/donald-pleasence), known for the [Halloween](https://www.edgepedia.org/halloween) franchise and the [James Bond](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-bond) films, and she was best known for playing Catherine Howard in the 1970 BBC miniseries *The Six Wives of Henry VIII*, Monica Sutton in *Coronation Street*, and Queen Elizabeth I in a 2007 episode of *Doctor Who*.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0687081/) • [2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | Born 1941 in Chapeltown, Yorkshire; died April 6, 2026, aged 84[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr) |
| Training | RADA Acting Diploma, graduated 1963[3](https://www.rada.ac.uk/profiles/angela-pleasence/) |
| Stage debut | 1964, as Titania in *A Midsummer Night's Dream* at Birmingham Repertory Theatre[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr) |
| Signature TV role | Catherine Howard in *The Six Wives of Henry VIII* (BBC, 1970)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0687081/) |
| Horror films | *From Beyond the Grave* (1974), *Symptoms* (1974), *The Godsend* (1980)[4](https://www.legacy.com/legacy/notable-deaths/angela-pleasence) |
| Work with her father | Two on-screen appearances together: *From Beyond the Grave* (1974) and *The Barchester Chronicles* (1982)[5](https://www.tvguide.co.uk/articles/angela-pleasence-star-of-happy-valley-and-casualty-dies-aged-84/) |
| Final screen credit | Winnie in the second series of *Happy Valley* (2016)[4](https://www.legacy.com/legacy/notable-deaths/angela-pleasence) |
## Early life and training
Pleasence was born in Chapeltown, Yorkshire, the daughter of Donald Pleasence and his first wife, the actor Miriam Raymond, the first of her father's four wives.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0687081/) Her surname has occasionally been credited as "Pleasance", and she was sometimes billed that way herself, including in *Gangs of New York*.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0687081/)
After leaving school in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, she spent four years before deciding on acting: a year of a pre-nursing course at a technical college, then work in Paris as an au pair. Back in England she auditioned successfully at RADA by performing a Victorian street ballad, and graduated with the Acting Diploma in 1963.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr) • [3](https://www.rada.ac.uk/profiles/angela-pleasence/) She described her student work as timid; only in her final term did she begin speaking on stage, playing old ladies so she could bend over and mumble.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr)
## Stage career
After graduating she joined Birmingham Repertory Theatre and made her professional debut in 1964 as Titania in *A Midsummer Night's Dream*. She then married the actor Michael Cadman in June 1964, had a child, and went through an extended period of unemployment; she later said that being Donald Pleasence's daughter did not help her escape being turned down in thousands of auditions.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0687081/)
Her stage work drew notice early. Reviewing her performance as a psychiatric patient in *The Ha Ha*, directed by Richard Eyre at the Edinburgh Lyceum in 1967, Allen Wright of *The Scotsman* wrote that surely no other actress could play the part so perfectly. The next year he commended her "touching and delicate" Irena in Eyre's revival of Chekhov's *Three Sisters*. In 1970 she took the title role in Shaw's *Saint Joan* at the Mermaid Theatre in London, an unconventional casting that critics compared to "a fuming sparrow" while still finding much to praise. In 1980 [Harold Pinter](https://www.edgepedia.org/harold-pinter) directed her at Hampstead Theatre in his play *The Hothouse*, and again in the 1982 television version, in which she played Miss Cutts. She later performed at the National Theatre and in West End productions including *Ghetto*, *The Hothouse*, and *The Cherry Orchard*, and played Winnie in Beckett's *Happy Days* in Edinburgh in 1995.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr) • [4](https://www.legacy.com/legacy/notable-deaths/angela-pleasence)
## Television
Television brought Pleasence her widest recognition. On January 1, 1968, *Coronation Street* viewers saw a group of hippies take over the house at No 11, among them Monica Sutton, played by Pleasence with what the *Guardian* obituary called economical wit; the characters left four episodes later.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr)
At the start of 1970 she played 17-year-old [Catherine Howard](https://www.edgepedia.org/catherine-howard) in the BBC series *The Six Wives of Henry VIII*, a performance the *Guardian* called magnetic and febrile, and which is generally considered her signature role.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr) • [4](https://www.legacy.com/legacy/notable-deaths/angela-pleasence) Later television work included Fantine in *Les Misérables* (1978), Lady Bertram in the BBC's six-part *Mansfield Park* (1983), the [Ghost of Christmas Past](https://www.edgepedia.org/ghost-of-christmas-past) opposite George C Scott's Scrooge in *[A Christmas Carol](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-christmas-carol-1984-film)* (1984), Mrs Grantly in *The Barchester Chronicles* (1982), and guest appearances in *Dixon of Dock Green*, *The Bill* (twice), *Casualty* (twice), *Midsomer Murders*, and *Agatha Christie's Poirot*.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr) • [6](https://www.sassyflix.com/person/37440-angela-pleasence) In 2007 she played Queen Elizabeth I in the *Doctor Who* episode "The Shakespeare Code".[4](https://www.legacy.com/legacy/notable-deaths/angela-pleasence)
Her final screen appearances came in two crime dramas: as Louise Iver in *[Whitechapel](https://www.edgepedia.org/whitechapel-tv-series)* (2013), and as Winnie, the elderly next-door neighbor of [Sarah Lancashire](https://www.edgepedia.org/sarah-lancashire)'s Catherine Cawood, in the second series of *[Happy Valley](https://www.edgepedia.org/happy-valley-tv-series)* (2016).[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr)
## Film and British horror
Pleasence made her film debut billed as "Scruffy girl" in *Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush* (1968), directed by Clive Donner. Her first major film role came in *Hitler: The Last Ten Days* (1973), with [Alec Guinness](https://www.edgepedia.org/alec-guinness) in the title role, and she then became associated with 1970s British horror: *From Beyond the Grave* (1974), *Symptoms* (1974), and *The Godsend* (1980).[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr) • [7](https://actoragecheck.com/actor/Angela-Pleasence/37440)
She and her father looked alike enough that the *Daily Record* said the only way they could work together was to play father and daughter, which they did twice: in the portmanteau horror film *From Beyond the Grave* (1974) and in the 1982 BBC adaptation of Trollope's *The Barchester Chronicles*, where Donald played Rev Septimus Harding and Angela his daughter Mrs Grantly.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr) • [5](https://www.tvguide.co.uk/articles/angela-pleasence-star-of-happy-valley-and-casualty-dies-aged-84/)
Later films included Martin Scorsese's *Gangs of New York* (2002), in which her character is shot after pulling a knife on the cutpurse played by [Cameron Diaz](https://www.edgepedia.org/cameron-diaz), Steve Coogan's horror spoof *Dr Terrible's House of Horrible* (2001), which parodied the British horror films she and her father had starred in, and the medieval comedy *Your Highness* (2011), in which she played a witch.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr)
## Death
Pleasence died on April 6, 2026, aged 84, her death announced by her talent agency, Waring McKenna, which described a career of quiet distinction spanning more than five decades.[4](https://www.legacy.com/legacy/notable-deaths/angela-pleasence) • [5](https://www.tvguide.co.uk/articles/angela-pleasence-star-of-happy-valley-and-casualty-dies-aged-84/) [Reference](https://www.edgepedia.org/reference) databases disagree on her exact birth date, giving either September 17 or September 30, 1941.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0687081/) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/angela_pleasence)
## References
1. [Angela Pleasence, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0687081/)
2. [Angela Pleasence obituary, The Guardian (Ryan Gilbey, 15 April 2026)](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/15/angela-pleasence-obituaryr)
3. [Angela Pleasence, RADA student and graduate profiles](https://www.rada.ac.uk/profiles/angela-pleasence/)
4. [Angela Pleasence Obituary, Legacy.com](https://www.legacy.com/legacy/notable-deaths/angela-pleasence)
5. [Angela Pleasence, star of Happy Valley and Casualty, dies aged 84, TV Guide UK](https://www.tvguide.co.uk/articles/angela-pleasence-star-of-happy-valley-and-casualty-dies-aged-84/)
6. [Angela Pleasence Movies & Credits, SassyFlix](https://www.sassyflix.com/person/37440-angela-pleasence)
7. [Angela Pleasence Acting Credits, ActorAgeCheck](https://actoragecheck.com/actor/Angela-Pleasence/37440)
8. [Angela Pleasence, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/angela_pleasence)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › English actors: 1970s to 1990s › Surnames N to R*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license