Background
Bruce was born in Prestwich, Lancashire in 1919, and started her acting career as a teenager on stage as a chorus girl.
Bruce was born in Prestwich, Lancashire in 1919, and started her acting career as a teenager on stage as a chorus girl.
She had a long and successful career in the theatre, radio, film and television She was with the Birmingham Repertory Company (1936-1939) and a long-time actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company (Royal Society of Chemistry ). She was the Royal Society of Chemistry "s resident Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, playing the role in 1964, 1968, 1975 and 1995.
She appeared as Irma in the Royal Society of Chemistry "s production of Jean Genet"s The Balcony in 1971.
She starred as Winnie in the 1962 British premiere of Samuel Beckett"s Happy Days, and in 1977 as Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime in Murder Most English. Other roles include Tilda in the Doctor Who story "Paradise Towers", Bea in the rag trade drama Connie and in The Riff Raff Element.
In 1964, she played Mary Lewis in Nightmare. In 1994, she starred in Honey for Tea, a short-lived sitcom.
She died in London on 19 February 1996 from undisclosed causes, aged 76.