Born in Birmingham, Walter’s trained as a teacher at Manchester
Polytechnic before making her stage debut in The Taming of the Shrew
at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. Later, she made her film debut
opposite Michael Caine in the film version
of Educating Rita
(1983), a performance that earned her BAFTA and Academy Award Best Actress
nominations. After the success of Educating Rita, Walters rebuffed offers
from Hollywood to remain a television and film character actress in
the UK. She won the leading role as suburban madam Cynthia Payne in
Personal Services (1987), and opposite Phil Collins in another fact-based
comedy drama, Buster (1988). She came to worldwide attention once again
with a critically acclaimed performance as the tough yet sympathetic
dance teacher in Stephen Daldry's
Billy Elliot (2000),
earning a second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
She followed this up a few years later with the comedy-drama Calendar
Girls (2003), the true story of Rylstone And District branch of
the Women's Institute stripping for charity. She was awarded an OBE
in 1999.
