Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Biography
Dame Penelope Keith DL
Dame Penelope Keith, is an English actress, best known for her roles in the British sitcoms The Good Life and To the Manor Born. She began her career in repertory theatre before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963, her theatre credits include Alan Ayckbourns The Norman Conquests and Michael Frayns Donkeys Years for which she won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance.
Since the late 1990s, she has worked mainly in the theatre, including Keith Waterstones Good Grief, Nol Cowards Blithe Spirit, Richard Everetts Entertaining Angels and as Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest.
She succeeded Lord Olivier as president of the Actors Benevolent Fund and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1990, Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2007, and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to the arts and to charity.