Gwyneth Petty, also known professionally as Gwenyth Petty, is a Welsh actress and broadcaster with family roots in Crug-y-bar, a rural community in Carmarthenshire, and Maesteg, an industrial town in Glamorgan. She grew up a shy child who found delight in listening to the wireless, which was constantly on in the family home, taking in programmes such as Children's Hour and Saturday Night Theatre. During the Second World War, well-known performers of the day would come to entertain colliers at Maesteg Town Hall and the Little Theatre, where her mother helped behind the scenes and stars stayed overnight at the Petty family home — an experience that left a lasting impression on the young Gwyneth.
She trained at the Rose Bruford School and then at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Her career began in earnest at the BBC studios in Swansea, in the Uplands and on Alexandra Road, where she performed live on the radio. She was later asked to read for a poet working in the room next door: Dylan Thomas. She went on to become a member of the original cast of Under Milk Wood, broadcast live on the BBC Third Programme alongside Richard Burton, and later appeared in the stage production of Under Milk Wood at the Globe Theatre in London. As of her 2018 honorary degree citation, she was the only surviving member of the play's original main broadcast cast.
Petty was a member of the BBC Repertory Company, appearing in classics ranging from Ibsen and Shakespeare to Welsh works by Saunders Lewis. Her film credits include David (1951), shot in the mining town of Ammanford and still regarded by many as one of the finest films made in Wales, along with Theory of Flight (with Kenneth Branagh), The Dark (with Sean Bean) and Very Annie Mary (with Kenneth Griffith). Her television credits include Teulu on S4C and Mortimer's Law for BBC One.
In December 2018, Swansea University awarded Gwyneth Petty an honorary degree in recognition of her career and contribution to Welsh broadcasting and theatre. She has also received the White Robe of the National Eisteddfod's Gorsedd of Bards, an honour of which she has said she is especially proud.