Gemma Jones

Born: 4 December 1942
Where: London, England

The veteran character actress is best known to modern audiences as "mum" to Renee Zellwegger in the Bridget Jones movies.

She also has the dubious distinction of playing the first person to die in the Inspector Morse series on TV.

The daughter of British actor Griffith Jones, she found almost immediate employment after her graduation in 1962 from RADA where she won the Gold Medal.

Within a year, she was appearing in London's West End alongside Peter O'Toole in Baal and she primarily concentrated on her stage career over the next three decades.

Jones toured the world in the early 1970s with Peter Brook's famed production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and returned to the US with the National Theatre's 1994 production of The Winter's Tale.

She made her feature film debut in 1971 with Ken Russell's visually stunning The Devils, but her additional screen work has been fairly limited.

Throughout the 80's she continued to appear mainly on television, but was seen on the big screen in 1988 as a physician in Paperhouse.

She followed this with a supporting role as Mrs Dashwood in Ang Lee's 1995 hit Sense and Sensibility.

In 1997 she portrayed Lady Queensberry in Wilde opposite Stephen Fry as the homosexual writer.

The following year she starred in Theory Of Flight with Helena Bonham Carter and Kenneth Branagh about a troubled man who finds redemption through his friendship with a disabled woman.

In 2001, she made her memorable appearance as the title character's eccentric mother in Bridget Jones's Diary.

The following year she played Madame Pomfrey in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and also appeared as Queen Victoria in Shanghai Nights.

In 2004, she reprised her role in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.