Steadman, Alison (1946- )

English character actor. She has worked on a variety of comic and dramatic UK television and film roles. An accomplished stage performer, she came to the attention of a wider audience in Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective (1986) and as the suburban matriarch in her former husband Mike Leigh's Life is Sweet (1991) and Topsy Turvy (1999). Other films include the comedies Clockwise (1986) and Shirley Valentine (1989), and the period drama Pride and Prejudice (1995).

She has also starred in UK television series, including Wackers (1975), Gone to Seed (1992), Fat Friends (2000), and Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (2001).

Steadman won a number of awards for her rendition of the title role in both the stage and film version of Abigail's Party (1977); she also played the role in Mike Leigh's television adaptation of the play. Steadman continued to work on the stage, and was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in 1993 for The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. She was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2000 for her performance in The Memory of Water at the Vaudeville Theatre.