Alison Steadman Mike Leigh's "Abigail's Party", which she reprised with the original cast on television. She won an Olivier Award for "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice", and also appeared in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "Entertaining Mr Sloane", "Hotel Paradiso", and others in locations as diverse as the Royal Court, the Theatre Royal, the Old Vic, the Hampstead Theatre, the Nottingham Playhouse, the Everyman Liverpool and the National Theatre. She starred as Elmire in the 1983 RSC production of Molière's "Tartuffe", which was adapted for BBC television. In 2010, Steadman was cast as Madame Arcati in a revival of
Mike Leigh wonderful little episodes in Ozu's "Tokyo Story", in a hairdressing salon and a bar, must have been in Leigh's subconscious memory when he made "The Short and Curlies" (1987), one of his most devastatingly funny pieces of work, and the pub scene in "Life is Sweet"..." In September 1973, he married actress Alison Steadman; they have two sons: Toby (born February 1978) and Leo (born August 1981). Steadman appeared in seven of his films and several of his plays, including "Wholesome Glory" and "Abigail's Party". They divorced in 2001. The actress Marion Bailey is his partner. Leigh is a Distinguished