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Elizabeth "Liz" Smith (born 11 December 1921) is a BAFTA Award winning English actress best known for her roles in the sitcoms The Vicar of Dibley and The Royle Family, and who also appeared in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Elizabeth Smith was born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire in 1921. In 1945, she married Jack Thomas and they had two children. However, Smith and Thomas divorced in 1959 and Smith brought up her children on her own.

In 1970, Smith had her first appearance on television in Leo the Last, although this was uncredited. The following year however, at the age of 50, Smith appeared as the downtrodden mother in Mike Leigh's Bleak Moments, part of Play for Today. After that she appeared in programmes such as Emmerdale Farm as Hilda Semple, the Last of the Summer Wine episode Compo's Date, Bootsie and Snudge, Crown Court, I Didn't Know You Cared and The Sweeney. She also appeared as Marta Balls in The Pink Panther Strikes Again, but her scenes were deleted. However, in the 1982 film Curse of the Pink Panther, Smith did appear as Madame Balls.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Liz Smith appeared in many television programmes in the UK, appearing in The Duchess of Duke Street, Within These Walls, In Loving Memory, The Gentle Touch, Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime, One by One as Gran Turner and The Lenny Henry Show. In 1984, Liz Smith received a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Maggie Smith's mother in the film A Private Function.

Liz Smith started the 1990s by appearing in 2point4 children, in which she had a regular roles as Aunt Belle and Bette, Bottom, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Lovejoy. In 1994, she got the role of Letitia Cropley in the popular sitcom The Vicar of Dibley. This made her a household name, but in the 1996 Easter Special episode the character died. Two years later, Smith starred in another sitcom which would make her more well known, The Royle Family. This aired until 2000, but came back for a special episode in 2006 when Nana, her character, died. In the meantime, she had appeared in The Queen's Nose, The Bill and Secrets & Lies. In 1997 she appeared in The Revengers' Comedies. To years later in 1999, she featured in A Christmas Carol as Mrs Dilber, having played the same character in the 1984 version, and also appeared in Alice in Wonderland.

Since 2000, Smith has continued to act and has appeared in Trial & Retribution V, Doctors, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Oliver Twist and Keeping Mum. In 2005 she played Grandma Georgina in the 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In 2006, Smith published her autobiography called Our Betty (ISBN 0743285336) and at around the same time moved into a retirement home in Hampstead, London. In 2007, Smith appeared in the Little Man Tate music video "This Must Be Love".^[1] On 5 December 2007, Smith won the "Best Television Comedy Actress" at the British Comedy Awards for her role in The Royle Family.^[2]

• Liz Smith at the Internet Movie Database