Edna Doré (born Edna Gorring in 1922) is a British actress. Doré is one of Britain's best known senior citizen actresses. She is known for her bit-part roles in situation comedies and for playing the character of Mo Butcher in the BBC soap opera EastEnders (1988 - 1990).
She began her career as a chorus girl in ENSA, then spent twenty years in repertory theatre before becoming a member of the National Theatre for ten years. She turned to television acting in 1960 and subsequently had parts in many successful series including: Dixon of Dock Green, Doctor in the House, The Liver Birds, Terry and June, Tenko, Z Cars and Open All Hours
In 1988 she starred in Mike Leigh's award winning film, High Hopes, for which she received the award for Best Supporting Player at the 1989 European Film Awards. Here she played Mrs. Bender, who suffers from the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease.
In 1988 she was cast in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders, where she played Mo Butcher, the battleaxe mother of Mike Reid's character, Frank Butcher. During her time in the show she once again received wide acclaim for her portrayal of an elderly lady's descent into Alzheimer's Disease. The story — about the effect that Alzheimer's has on the sufferer's family — had to be curtailed when Doré decided to leave the programme in 1990. The character was killed off at the end of 1992.
In 1997 she played the role of Kath in the Gary Oldman award winning film Nil by Mouth. Other film credits include Tube Tales (1999), Weak at Denise (2001) and All or Nothing (2002).
In recent years she has had parts in many successful television shows including: Love Hurts (1992), A Year in Provence (1993), Casualty (1993;1997), Men Behaving Badly (1997), Peak Practice (2000), Holby City (2001), Time Gentlemen Please (2000-2002), The Bill (2002;2003 & 2006), Eyes Down (2003 - 2004), Murder in Mind (2003), My Family (2004), Hotel Babylon (2006) and Doctors (2006), among others. She also played the role of Maeve in the Doctor Who episode "Fear Her" in June 2006.
In September 2006 she appeared in the BBC2 comedy sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look and in April 2007 she appeared in a guest star role opposite David Jason in ITV's Diamond Geezer, playing the role of Violet.
Doré lives in Barnes. She married the stage director and writer, Alexander Doré, in 1946 in Pancras, London and remained with him until his death in 2002. Her son, Mike, owns a pub in Sussex.
Doré trained to be an actress with Anna Wing, who is famous for playing Lou Beale in EastEnders.
