Samantha Morton

Samantha Morton

Samantha Jane Morton is an English actress and director. She is known for her work in independent productions often with dark themes. Morton has received numerous accolades, including a British Academy Television Award, a British Independent Film Award and a Golden Globe Award. Morton is the third child of Pamela, a factory worker, and Peter Morton, and is of PolishIrish descent.

About Samantha Morton in brief

Summary Samantha MortonSamantha Jane Morton is an English actress and director. She is known for her work in independent productions often with dark themes. Morton has received numerous accolades, including a British Academy Television Award, a British Independent Film Award and a Golden Globe Award. Morton was a member of the Central Junior Television Workshop in her native Nottingham, and later began her career in British television in 1991. She made the transition to film with lead roles in the dramas Emma, Jane Eyre, and the well-received Under the Skin. Morton also starred alongside Max Beesley in BBC’s mini series production of ‘Tom Jones, A Foundling’ in 1997 to critical acclaim. Morton made her directorial debut with the television film The Unloved, which won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Single Drama. By the late 2010s, she often ventured back into television, starring in the series The Last Panthers, Rillington Place, Harlots, and The Walking Dead. She has also starred in films such as The Messenger, John Carter, Decoding Annie Parker, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Morton is the third child of Pamela, a factory worker, and Peter Morton, and is of PolishIrish descent. She lived with her father until she was eight, when she was made a ward of court because neither of her parents could care for her and her siblings. Her father was an abusive alcoholic, and her mother was involved in a violent relationship with her second husband; as a result, she never lived with their parents again.

Morton applied to numerous drama schools, including RADA, without success. In 1991, she attended Clarendon College of Performing Arts to gain a BTEC award but subsequently left for personal reasons. She made her stage début at the Royal Court Theatre, and continued her television career with appearances in Peak Practice and in an episode of Cracker. At the time, she had a regular role in the first two series of Kay Mellor’s successful Band of Gold. Further television roles followed, including parts in period dramas such as Emma and Jane Eye. The movie Emma was a film adaptation of the novel of the same name published in 1515 about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. It was broadcast in 1996 on ITV, garnering an estimated 18 million viewers. Morton starred as a young French girl who becomes a governess to a young brooding lord of Yorkshire. The Guardian placed it at number 15 on its list of the Best British Films of 1984–2009. The New York Times remarked that she played Iris, a woman coping with the death of her mother in the film Iris, where she played a young girl who finds the love of the lord of the manor. She was nominated for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a BAFTA Film Award for her performance in In America, this time for Best Actress. For her role in Longford, she won the Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.