Liz Smith, MBE (born 11 December 1921) is a British actress, best known for her role as Norma Speakman in the BBC comedy The Royle Family which starred Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston. She also had a role in The Vicar of Dibley in 1994 to 1996.
Liz Smith was born Betty Gleadle in the Crosby area of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire in 1921. When she was two years old, her mother died in childbirth. Her father walked out of her life shortly afterwards, when his new wife did not wish him to have any contact with his previous life. She was brought up by her widowed grandmother. During the Second World War, she served in the Women's Royal Naval Service of the Royal Navy.
In 1945 she married Jack Thomas, whom she met while on service in India. They had two children, but then they divorced in 1959 and Smith brought up her son and daughter on her own. She has described this as an extremely difficult period in her life, as she struggled against financial difficulties and social disapproval of single mothers.
In 1971, aged 48, she got her big break when she appeared as the downtrodden mother in Mike Leigh's Bleak Moments, part of Play for Today.
"The moment that my life transformed was when I was
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