Comic and impersonator
Died aged 87
Janet Brown was best known for her impersonation of former British "Iron Lady" Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
She is remembered for her portrayal of the former Prime Minister on television in the 1970s and 1980s and also played her in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.
It was a role she managed to keep going for a decade.
She became so polished in her impersonation that she occasionally created havoc at US airports as people assumed she was the real thing.
And there were two full television series of her own Janet and Company in which she did not only Thatcher but other diverse guests such as Hilda Ogden from Coronation Street and Zsa Zsa Gabor, all of them Janet Brown in disguise.
Some of them were also performed before the Queen in a Royal Command performance.
In a career going back to the 1930s she worked with other stars including Hughie Green, Tony Hancock and George Cole. More recently she appeared in shows including Midsomer Murders, Casualty and Hotel Babylon.
And far from being lost in a haze of other characters, Brown retained enough of her own identity to be a subject for a This is Your Life television programme.
The Scottish-born star was married to Carry On actor Peter Butterworth until his death in 1979 and leaves a son and grandson.
- Staff reporter, PA
