Biography
Brenda Forbes was a British-born American actress of stage and screen. Born Dorothy Brenda Taylor on 14 January 1909 in Wandsworth, London, she was the daughter of actress Mary Forbes and the sister of actor Ralph Forbes. She moved to the United States as a teenager to join her mother and made her Broadway debut in 1931.
Forbes appeared in several films, including Mrs. Miniver (1942) as Gladys and The White Cliffs of Dover (1944). Her career was primarily on stage, where she created the role of Wilson in the original 1931 production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street opposite Katharine Cornell and reprised it in revivals. She also appeared in productions such as the 1976 revival of My Fair Lady as Mrs. Higgins.
She was married to Merrill Shepard from 1947 until his death in 1986. Forbes died of cancer on 11 September 1996 in New York City, aged 87. Her final screen role was in The Jerky Boys: The Movie (1995).
