Mike Leigh actress dies

Cartlidge: "Fearless and passionately committed"

UK actress Katrin Cartlidge, who starred in several of Mike Leigh's films and was one of the first stars of TV soap Brookside, has died.

Cartlidge, 41, began her career playing Lucy Collins in Brookside, for six years from 1982.

She went on to star in films including From Hell, with Johnny Depp, Oscar-winning No Man's Land and Mike Leigh's Career Girls.

Her agent said she died over the weekend, but did not disclose any details of the circumstances.

'Enormous humour'

One report said she died of complications arising from pneumonia and septicaemia.

Cartlidge was described as "one of the most fearless and passionately committed performers" to have emerged from Britain in recent years.

"She worked with enormous humour and an intensity extraordinary because it was so light, positive and considerate of others," actor Simon McBurney wrote in The Guardian.

She recently starred as Katerina Ivanovna in an acclaimed BBC Two adaptation of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.

Oscar winner

On the big screen, she was seen alongside Depp and Heather Graham in the Jack the Ripper thriller From Hell.

Her role as a journalist during the Bosnian war helped No Man's Land win the best foreign film Oscar in 2002.

Before that, she had become known as one of director Mike Leigh's favourite actresses, appearing in his films Naked, Career Girls and Topsy Turvy.

She also starred with Emily Watson in 1996's acclaimed drama Breaking the Waves.