Stage Bryan made her stage debut as a child in a pantomime in
Manchester, and encouraged by her mother, joined the
Oldham Coliseum while still a teenager. After spending six years honing her craft there, she moved to London to develop her stage career, becoming a regular performer in the
West End. Cast in a production of
Noël Coward's Private Lives, the actress was encouraged to adopt a stage name by Coward himself. She opted for Dora Bryant, which she often said was inspired by a box of
Bryant and May matches that were lying on the table, but a typographical error left off the last letter on the theatre credits and she became Dora Bryan. In 1955, Bryan made her debut in
West End musical comedy with her performance as Lily Bell in a production of
A.P. Herbert's
The Water Gipsies. Singing the show's hit songs, "Why Did You Call Me Lily?", "You Never Know with Men", and "It Would Cramp My Style", such was her personal success that the billing outside the theatre was changed after the first night to "
Dora Bryan in A.P. Herbert's
The Water Gipsies. Throughout her career, she continued to perform on the stage, often appearing in musicals such as
Gentleman Prefer Blondes (1962) and
Hello, Dolly! (1966–1968). She also headlined a number of stage revues such as
The Dora Bryan Show (1966), "My Name Is Dora" (1967) and
An Evening with Dora Bryan and Friends (1968). She made her Broadway debut as Mrs. Pearce in
Pygmalion (1987), starring
Peter O'Toole and
Amanda Plummer. Other credits include her first Shakespearean role,
Mistress Quickly in
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1984), Mrs. Hardcastle in
She Stoops to Conquer (1985) and in Kander and Ebb's
70, Girls, 70 (1991) to great acclaim. She appeared with
Trevor Peacock in the
National Theatre's 1994 revival of
Harold Pinter's
The Birthday Party.
Screen roles and other work Instantly recognisable from her voice, which became a trademark of her performances, Bryan followed many of her theatre contemporaries into film acting, generally playing supporting roles. She often played women of easy virtue—for example in
The Fallen Idol (1948), one of her early films, and
Ealing's The Blue Lamp (1950). She appeared in similarly stereotypical female roles in other films, for example
Gift Horse (1952),
The Cockleshell Heroes (1955),
The Green Man (1956) and
Carry On Sergeant (1958). Bryan appeared in radio comedy series including
Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh.
British Pathe filmed Bryan in 1957 in 'Home on Wheels', featuring her and friends in her personal caravan. She appeared in the film
A Taste of Honey (1961), which won four
BAFTA awards, including Best Actress for Bryan and Best British Film. In 1963, she recorded the Christmas song "All I Want for Christmas Is a Beatle", which reached no. 20 on the UK charts. She played the Headmistress in ''
The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), and she starred in According to Dora'' (1968–1969), her own television series for the BBC. Bryan appeared in the UK-Argentine thriller
Apartment Zero (1988). The film was directed by
Martin Donovan and starred
Hart Bochner and
Colin Firth. Bryan plays the role of one of two eccentric characters (the other was played by
Liz Smith) described by
The Washington Post as two "tea-and-crumpet gargoyle-featured spinsters who snoop the corridors". It featured in the 1988
Sundance Film Festival. She appeared in two episodes of series one of the BBC sitcom
On The Up in 1990 as Mrs Carpenter (the mother of main character Tony, played by
Dennis Waterman). She was replaced by actress Pauline Letts for series two and three. In 1998, Bryan made an appearance in the
Victoria Wood sitcom
dinnerladies. In 2000, she joined the cast of the long-running BBC comedy series
Last of the Summer Wine as Auntie Ros, and in 2001 she was a guest star in
Absolutely Fabulous as
June Whitfield's on-screen friend Dolly (originally called Milly when she appeared in 1996). A few years later in 2005 her role in
Last of the Summer Wine came to an end. At about the same time, she stopped making films. Her last screen appearance was in the short film
Gone to the Dogs (2006) with
Antony Booth. In 2006, she intended to appear both in the comedy
Rock-a-Hula Rest Home at a pub theatre in Brighton and in the comedy ''
There's No Place Like a Home'', but she had to withdraw because of her inability to memorise her lines. ==Awards and testimonials==