Fans of BBC soap star floored after realising Hollywood brother helped her bag big role
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Fans of the popular BBC soap, EastEnders, are only just realising that one legendary cast member has a very famous brother in the acting industry who helped her bag her first big role.
Laila Morse, best known for her role of Mo Harris in the beloved soap, made her debut on the programme back in 2000 as the loud matriarch of the Slater family with her famous one-liners.
But what many viewers don't know about Laila is that she didn't make it in the industry until she was 51-years-old- and it was her famous younger brother who helped her get there. Fans were floored when they discovered that Laila, now 79, is the older sister of none other than Hollywood sensation Gary Oldman, reports The Daily Record.
Gary, 67, rose to fame in the mid 1980s and made his acting debut in the film Remembrance in 1982. The actor is best known for his roles in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Immortal Beloved, Sid & Nancy, Batman The Dark Knight and Harry Potter where he plays Sirius Black.
He's had a wildly successful career, having won three British Academy Film Awards, an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his work.
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Gary attended drama school as a child while Laila, whose real name is Maureen Oldman, took a very different path as she left school without any qualifications and fell pregnant at 17.
She went on to welcome her two children, Gerry and Tracey, during her first marriage to Gerald Bromfield which ended in 1970 after he was jailed for theft. She remarried to a man named Jimmy Bass who she divorced in 2003 after nine years together.
Laila worked in hospitality and retail before her acting career finally took off later in life and she has previously credited her brother for helping her get her foot in the door by landing her first role in Gary's 1997 Nil By Mouth film.
She then made her TV debut in two episodes of The Bill, as well as TV production of Great Expectations.
She previously told Loose Women: "My big brother wrote and directed Nil by Mouth. He just wanted something raw. He was with a friend and he just said, 'she could do that'. I just looked at him and went what? I can't do that.
"He said, 'Come back to the hotel and read a bit', which I did...and he went, 'right you're doing it.' That's the first thing I'd ever done."
Laila then went on to secure her role as 'Big Mo' in the BBC soap in 2000.
She has appeared in the show intermittently for the past two and a half decades, with stints from 2000-2016 and 2018-2022.
Mo returned to Albert Square in May last year on a permanent basis with her great grandson Freddie Slater, who is played by Bobby Brazier.
Laila and her brother Gary are known to be very close with the siblings spending Christmas Day together at Gary's California home in 2018.
In sweet photos, shared by Gary's wife Giselle Schmidt, the family grinned for the camera around the dinner table with another snap showing Laila making a "proper English Christmas dinner" for them to tuck into.
Meanwhile back in 2021, the pair enjoyed a sibling trip to Las Vegas. Taking to her Instagram at the time, Laila shared a snap of her and Gary, writing: 'Throwback to our trip to Las Vegas.'
EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
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