Wendy Hiller
Encyclopedia
Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE
(15 August 1912 – 14 May 2003) was an Academy Award-winning English
film
and stage
actress, who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years. The writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation Rating the Movie Stars, described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took command of the screen whenever she appeared on film". Despite many notable film performances, she chose to remain primarily a stage actress.
, Stockport
, in Lancashire
, the daughter of Frank Watkin Hiller, a Manchester cotton manufacturer, and Marie Stone, Hiller began her professional career as an actress in repertory
at Manchester
in the early 1930s. She first found success as slum dweller Sally Hardcastle in the stage version of Love on the Dole
in 1934. The play was an enormous success and toured the regional stages of England. This play saw her West End
debut in 1935 at the Garrick Theatre
. She married the play's author Ronald Gow
, fifteen years her senior, in 1937 (the same year as she made her film debut in Lancashire Luck
, scripted by Gow).
The huge popularity of Love on the Dole took the production to New York in 1936, where her performance attracted the attention of George Bernard Shaw
. Shaw recognized a spirited radiance in the young actress, which was ideally suited for playing his heroines. Shaw cast her in several of his plays, including Saint Joan
, Pygmalion
and Major Barbara
and his influence on her early career is clearly apparent. She was reputed to be Shaw's favorite actress of the time. Unlike other stage actresses of her generation, she did relatively little Shakespeare, preferring the more modern dramatists such as Henrik Ibsen
and new plays adapted from the novels of Henry James
and Thomas Hardy
among others.
In the course of her stage career, Hiller won popular and critical acclaim in both London and New York. She excelled at rather plain but strong willed characters. After touring England as Viola in Twelfth Night (1943) she returned to the West End
to be directed by John Gielgud
as Sister Joanna in The Cradle Song (Apollo, 1944). The string of notable successes continued as Princess Charlotte
in The First Gentleman (Savoy, 1945) opposite Robert Morley
as the Prince Regent, Pageen in Playboy of the Western World (Bristol Old Vic, 1946) and Tess of the d'Urbervilles
(Bristol Old Vic, 1946, transferring to the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End in 1947), which was adapted for the stage by her husband.
In 1947, Hiller originated the role of Catherine Sloper, the painfully shy, vulnerable spinster in The Heiress
on Broadway. The play, based on the Henry James novel Washington Square
, also featured Basil Rathbone
as her emotionally abusive father. The production enjoyed a year-long run at the Biltmore Theater in New York and would prove to be her greatest triumph on Broadway. On returning to London, Hiller again played the role in the West End production in 1950.
Her stage work remained a priority and continued with Ann Veronica (Piccadilly, 1949), which was another collaboration with Gow, who wrote the play with his wife as leading lady. She did a two year run in N.C. Hunter's Waters of the Moon (Haymarket, 1951–52), alongside Sybil Thorndike
and Edith Evans
. A season at the Old Vic in 1955-56 produced a notable performance as Portia in Julius Caesar
among others. Other stage work at this time included The Night of the Ball (New Theatre, 1955), the new Robert Bolt
play Flowering Cherry (Haymarket, 1958, Broadway, 1959), Toys in the Attic
(Piccadilly, 1960), The Wings of the Dove
(Lyric, 1963), A Measure of Cruelty (Birmingham Repertory, 1965), A Present for the Past (Edinburgh, 1966), The Sacred Flame
(Duke of York's Theatre, 1967) with Gladys Cooper
, The Battle of Shrivings (Lyric, 1970) with John Gielgud
and Lies (Albery, 1975).
In 1957, Hiller returned to New York to star as Josie Hogan in Eugene O'Neill
's A Moon for the Misbegotten
, a performance which gained her a Tony Award
nomination as Best Dramatic Actress. The production also featured Cyril Cusack
and Franchot Tone
. Her final appearance on Broadway was as Miss Tina in the 1962 production of Michael Redgrave
's adaptation of The Aspern Papers
, from the Henry James novella.
As she matured, she demonstrated a strong affinity for the plays of Henrik Ibsen, as Irene in When We Dead Awaken
(Cambridge, 1968), as Mrs. Alving in Ghosts
(Edinburgh, 1972), Aase in Peer Gynt
(BBC, 1972) and as Gunhild in John Gabriel Borkman
(Old Vic, 1975), in which she appeared with Ralph Richardson
and Peggy Ashcroft
. Later West End successes such as Queen Mary
in Crown Matrimonial (Haymarket, 1972) proved she was not limited to playing dejected, emotionally deprived women. She later revisited some earlier plays playing older characters, as in West End revivals of Waters of the Moon (Chichester, 1977, Haymarket, 1978) with Ingrid Bergman
and The Aspern Papers
(Haymarket, 1984) with Vanessa Redgrave
. She was scheduled to return to the American stage in a 1982 revival of Anastasia with Natalie Wood
, until Wood's untimely death just weeks before rehearsals. Hiller made her final West End performance in the title role in Driving Miss Daisy
(Apollo, 1988).
in the film Pygmalion
(1938) with Leslie Howard
as Professor Higgins. This performance earned Hiller her first Oscar nomination and became one of her best remembered famous film roles. Her 1939 nomination marked the first time a British actress in a British film had been nominated for an Academy Award. She was also the first actress to utter the word "bloody" in a British film, when Eliza utters the line "Not bloody likely, I'm going in a taxi!".
She followed up this success with another Shaw adaptation, Major Barbara
(1941) with Rex Harrison
and Robert Morley. Powell and Pressburger
signed her for The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
(1943), but a pregnancy led to the casting of Deborah Kerr
. Determined to work with Hiller, the film makers later teamed her with Colonel Blimp star Roger Livesey
in I Know Where I'm Going!
(1945), which became a classic of British cinema.
Despite her early film success and offers from Hollywood, she returned to the stage full-time after 1945 and only occasionally accepted film roles. With her return to film in the 1950s, she portrayed an abused colonial wife in Carol Reed
's Outcast of the Islands
(1952), but had already transitioned into mature, supporting roles with Sailor of the King
(1953) and a memorable victim of the Mau Mau uprising in Something of Value
(1957). She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress
in 1959 for the film Separate Tables
(1958), as a lonely hotel manageress and mistress of Burt Lancaster
. She remained uncompromising in her indifference to film stardom, as evidenced by her surprising reaction to her Oscar win "never mind the honour, cold hard cash is what it means to me." She received a third Oscar nomination for her performance as the simple, unrefined, but dignified Lady Alice More, opposite Paul Scofield
as Thomas More
, in A Man for All Seasons
(1966). She reprised her London stage role in the southern gothic
Toys in the Attic
(1963), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination as the elder spinster sister in a film which also starred Dean Martin
and Geraldine Page
.
She received a BAFTA nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of the domineering, possessive mother in Sons and Lovers
(1960). Her role as the grand Russian princess in a huge commercial success, Murder on the Orient Express
(1974), won her international acclaim and the Evening Standard British Film Award as Best Actress. Other notable roles included a Jewish refugee fleeing Nazi Germany with her dying husband in Voyage of the Damned
(1976) and the formidable London Hospital matron in The Elephant Man
(1980).
among others. In 1965, she starred in an episode of the acclaimed dramatic series Profiles in Courage
(1965), in which she played Anne Hutchinson
, a free-thinking woman charged with heresy in Colonial America. In Britain, during the 1960s, she appeared in the drama series Play of the Month, as well as on the children's TV programme Jackanory
, reading the stories of Alison Uttley
.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she appeared in many television films including a memorable Duchess of York in the BBC Television Shakespeare
production of Richard II (1978), the irascible Edwardian Oxford academic in Miss Morrison's Ghosts
(1981) and the BBC dramatizations of Julian Gloag's Only Yesterday (1986) and the Vita Sackville-West
novel All Passion Spent
(1986), in which she was the quietly defiant Lady Slane. This performance earned her a BAFTA nomination as Best Actress. Her last appearance, before retiring from acting, was the title role in The Countess Alice
(1993) with Zoë Wanamaker
.
, Buckinghamshire, where they raised two children, Ann (1939–2006) and Anthony (b. 1942), and lived together in the house called "Spindles". Ronald Gow died in 1993, but Hiller continued living at their home until her death a decade later. When not performing on stage or screen, she lived a completely private domestic life, often insisting on being referred to as Mrs. Ronald Gow, rather than by her stage name.
Despite a busy professional career, throughout her life she continually took an active interest in aspiring young actors by supporting local amateur drama societies, as well as being the president of the Chiltern Shakespeare Company
until her death. Chronic ill health necessitated her eventual retirement from acting in 1992. She spent the last decade of her life in quiet retirement at her home in Beaconsfield, where she died of natural causes at the age of 90.
Regarded as one of Britain's great dramatic talents, she was created an Officer of the British Empire
(OBE) in 1971 and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1975. Her style was disciplined and unpretentious, and she disliked personal publicity. The writer Sheridan Morley
described Hiller as being remarkable in her "extreme untheatricality until the house lights went down, whereupon she would deliver a performance of breathtaking reality and expertise."
In 1996, Hiller was honoured by the London Film Critics Circle
with the Dilys Powell
Award for excellence in British film.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(15 August 1912 – 14 May 2003) was an Academy Award-winning English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
actress, who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years. The writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation Rating the Movie Stars, described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took command of the screen whenever she appeared on film". Despite many notable film performances, she chose to remain primarily a stage actress.
Early years
Born in BramhallBramhall
Bramhall is a suburb of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of about 25,500.Research by the University of Sheffield has placed Bramhall as the "least lonely" place in Britain. Bramhall is also regarded as an affluent area where most residents...
, Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
, in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, the daughter of Frank Watkin Hiller, a Manchester cotton manufacturer, and Marie Stone, Hiller began her professional career as an actress in repertory
Repertory
Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...
at Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
in the early 1930s. She first found success as slum dweller Sally Hardcastle in the stage version of Love on the Dole
Love on the Dole
Love on the Dole is a novel by Walter Greenwood, about working class poverty in 1930s Northern England. It has been made into both a play and a film.-The novel:...
in 1934. The play was an enormous success and toured the regional stages of England. This play saw her West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
debut in 1935 at the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
. She married the play's author Ronald Gow
Ronald Gow
Ronald Gow was an English dramatist, best known for Love on the Dole .Born in Heaton Moor, Stockport, Cheshire, the son of a bank manager, Gow attended Altrincham County High School. After training as a chemist, he returned to his old school as a teacher...
, fifteen years her senior, in 1937 (the same year as she made her film debut in Lancashire Luck
Lancashire Luck
Lancashire Luck is a 1937 British film comedy, directed by Henry Cass. It is notable as the film debut of Wendy Hiller, and the first credited appearance of Nigel Stock.-Plot:...
, scripted by Gow).
Stage
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
. Shaw recognized a spirited radiance in the young actress, which was ideally suited for playing his heroines. Shaw cast her in several of his plays, including Saint Joan
Saint Joan (play)
Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Published not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, the play dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. Shaw studied the transcripts...
, Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
and Major Barbara
Major Barbara (play)
Major Barbara is a three act play by George Bernard Shaw, written and premiered in 1905 and first published in 1907.-Setting:*London*Act I: Lady Britomart's house in Wilton Crescent*Act II: The Salvation Army shelter in West Ham...
and his influence on her early career is clearly apparent. She was reputed to be Shaw's favorite actress of the time. Unlike other stage actresses of her generation, she did relatively little Shakespeare, preferring the more modern dramatists such as Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
and new plays adapted from the novels of Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
and Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
among others.
In the course of her stage career, Hiller won popular and critical acclaim in both London and New York. She excelled at rather plain but strong willed characters. After touring England as Viola in Twelfth Night (1943) she returned to the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
to be directed by John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
as Sister Joanna in The Cradle Song (Apollo, 1944). The string of notable successes continued as Princess Charlotte
Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales
Princess Charlotte of Wales was the only child of George, Prince of Wales and Caroline of Brunswick...
in The First Gentleman (Savoy, 1945) opposite Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
as the Prince Regent, Pageen in Playboy of the Western World (Bristol Old Vic, 1946) and Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, also known as Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, Tess of the d'Urbervilles or just Tess, is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British...
(Bristol Old Vic, 1946, transferring to the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End in 1947), which was adapted for the stage by her husband.
In 1947, Hiller originated the role of Catherine Sloper, the painfully shy, vulnerable spinster in The Heiress
The Heiress (play)
The Heiress is a 1947 play by American playwrights Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted from the 1880 Henry James novel, Washington Square. The play opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre on 29 September 1947 directed by Jed Harris starring Wendy Hiller, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Cookson...
on Broadway. The play, based on the Henry James novel Washington Square
Washington Square (novel)
Washington Square is a short novel by Henry James. Originally published in 1880 as a serial in Cornhill Magazine and Harper's New Monthly Magazine, it is a structurally simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father...
, also featured Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
as her emotionally abusive father. The production enjoyed a year-long run at the Biltmore Theater in New York and would prove to be her greatest triumph on Broadway. On returning to London, Hiller again played the role in the West End production in 1950.
Her stage work remained a priority and continued with Ann Veronica (Piccadilly, 1949), which was another collaboration with Gow, who wrote the play with his wife as leading lady. She did a two year run in N.C. Hunter's Waters of the Moon (Haymarket, 1951–52), alongside Sybil Thorndike
Sybil Thorndike
Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike CH DBE was a British actress.-Early life:She was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire to Arthur Thorndike and Agnes Macdonald. Her father was a Canon of Rochester Cathedral...
and Edith Evans
Edith Evans
Dame Edith Mary Evans, DBE was a British actress. She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.Evans was particularly effective at portraying haughty...
. A season at the Old Vic in 1955-56 produced a notable performance as Portia in Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
among others. Other stage work at this time included The Night of the Ball (New Theatre, 1955), the new Robert Bolt
Robert Bolt
Robert Oxton Bolt, CBE was an English playwright and a two-time Oscar winning screenwriter.-Career:He was born in Sale, Cheshire. At Manchester Grammar School his affinity for Sir Thomas More first developed. He attended the University of Manchester, and, after war service, the University of...
play Flowering Cherry (Haymarket, 1958, Broadway, 1959), Toys in the Attic
Toys in the Attic (play)
-Plot:Set in New Orleans following the Great Depression, it focuses on the Berniers sisters, two middle-aged spinsters who have sacrificed their own ambitions to look after their ne'er-do-well younger brother Julian, whose grandiose dreams repeatedly lead to financial disasters...
(Piccadilly, 1960), The Wings of the Dove
The Wings of the Dove
The Wings of the Dove is a 1902 novel by Henry James. This novel tells the story of Milly Theale, an American heiress stricken with a serious disease, and her impact on the people around her...
(Lyric, 1963), A Measure of Cruelty (Birmingham Repertory, 1965), A Present for the Past (Edinburgh, 1966), The Sacred Flame
The Sacred Flame (play)
The Sacred Flame was William Somerset Maugham's 21st play, written at the age of 54. Maugham dedicated the publication to his friend Messmore Kendall....
(Duke of York's Theatre, 1967) with Gladys Cooper
Gladys Cooper
Dame Gladys Constance Cooper, DBE was an English actress whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television....
, The Battle of Shrivings (Lyric, 1970) with John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
and Lies (Albery, 1975).
In 1957, Hiller returned to New York to star as Josie Hogan in Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
's A Moon for the Misbegotten
A Moon for the Misbegotten
A Moon for the Misbegotten is a play by Eugene O'Neill. The play can be thought of as a sequel to the autobiographical Long Day's Journey into Night...
, a performance which gained her a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nomination as Best Dramatic Actress. The production also featured Cyril Cusack
Cyril Cusack
Cyril James Cusack was an Irish actor, who appeared in more than 90 films.-Early life:Cusack was born in Durban, Natal, South Africa, the son of Alice Violet , an actress, and James Walter Cusack, a sergeant in the Natal mounted police. His parents separated when he was young and his mother took...
and Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor, star of Mutiny on the Bounty and many other films through the 1960s...
. Her final appearance on Broadway was as Miss Tina in the 1962 production of Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
's adaptation of The Aspern Papers
The Aspern Papers
The Aspern Papers is a novella written by Henry James, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1888, with its first book publication later in the same year. One of James' best-known and most acclaimed longer tales, The Aspern Papers is based on an anecdote that James heard about a Shelley...
, from the Henry James novella.
As she matured, she demonstrated a strong affinity for the plays of Henrik Ibsen, as Irene in When We Dead Awaken
When We Dead Awaken
When We Dead Awaken is the last play written by Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. Published in December 1899, Ibsen wrote the play between February and November of that year. The first performance was at the Haymarket Theatre in London, a day or two before publication.-Plot summary:The first act...
(Cambridge, 1968), as Mrs. Alving in Ghosts
Ghosts (play)
Ghosts is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was written in 1881 and first staged in 1882.Like many of Ibsen's better-known plays, Ghosts is a scathing commentary on 19th century morality....
(Edinburgh, 1972), Aase in Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...
(BBC, 1972) and as Gunhild in John Gabriel Borkman
John Gabriel Borkman
John Gabriel Borkman is the penultimate composition of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, written in 1896.-Plot:The Borkman family fortunes have been brought low by the imprisonment of John Gabriel who used his position as a bank manager to illegally speculate with his investors' money...
(Old Vic, 1975), in which she appeared with Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
and Peggy Ashcroft
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
. Later West End successes such as Queen Mary
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
in Crown Matrimonial (Haymarket, 1972) proved she was not limited to playing dejected, emotionally deprived women. She later revisited some earlier plays playing older characters, as in West End revivals of Waters of the Moon (Chichester, 1977, Haymarket, 1978) with Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
and The Aspern Papers
The Aspern Papers
The Aspern Papers is a novella written by Henry James, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1888, with its first book publication later in the same year. One of James' best-known and most acclaimed longer tales, The Aspern Papers is based on an anecdote that James heard about a Shelley...
(Haymarket, 1984) with Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
. She was scheduled to return to the American stage in a 1982 revival of Anastasia with Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
, until Wood's untimely death just weeks before rehearsals. Hiller made her final West End performance in the title role in Driving Miss Daisy
Driving Miss Daisy (play)
Driving Miss Daisy is a 1987 play by Alfred Uhry about the relationship of an elderly Southern Jewish woman, Daisy Werthan, and her African-American chauffeur, Hoke Colburn, from 1948 to 1973...
(Apollo, 1988).
Film career
At Shaw's insistence, she starred as Eliza DoolittleEliza Doolittle
Eliza Sophie Caird , better known by her stage name Eliza Doolittle, is an English singer–songwriter from London, who signed to the Parlophone record label in October 2008. Her debut self-titled album, Eliza Doolittle was released on 12 July 2010, where it debuted at number 3 in the UK...
in the film Pygmalion
Pygmalion (1938 film)
Pygmalion is a 1938 British film based on the George Bernard Shaw play of the same title, and adapted by him for the screen. It stars Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller....
(1938) with Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard (actor)
Leslie Howard was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer. Among his best-known roles was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind and roles in Berkeley Square , Of Human Bondage , The Scarlet Pimpernel , The Petrified Forest , Pygmalion , Intermezzo , Pimpernel Smith...
as Professor Higgins. This performance earned Hiller her first Oscar nomination and became one of her best remembered famous film roles. Her 1939 nomination marked the first time a British actress in a British film had been nominated for an Academy Award. She was also the first actress to utter the word "bloody" in a British film, when Eliza utters the line "Not bloody likely, I'm going in a taxi!".
Major Barbara (1941 film)
Major Barbara is a 1941 British film starring Wendy Hiller and Rex Harrison. The film was produced and directed by Gabriel Pascal and edited by David Lean. It was adapted for the screen by Marjorie Deans and Anatole de Grunwald, based on the 1905 play Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw...
(1941) with Rex Harrison
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.-Youth and stage career:...
and Robert Morley. Powell and Pressburger
Powell and Pressburger
The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers, made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1981 they were recognized for their contributions to British cinema with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the most prestigious...
signed her for The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a 1943 film by the British film making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger under the production banner of The Archers. It stars Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr and Anton Walbrook. The title derives from the satirical Colonel Blimp comic strip by David...
(1943), but a pregnancy led to the casting of Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...
. Determined to work with Hiller, the film makers later teamed her with Colonel Blimp star Roger Livesey
Roger Livesey
Roger Livesey was a British stage and film actor. He is most often remembered for the three Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going! and A Matter of Life and Death...
in I Know Where I'm Going!
I Know Where I'm Going!
I Know Where I'm Going! is a 1945 romance film by the British-based film-makers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey, and features Pamela Brown, Finlay Currie and Petula Clark in her fourth film appearance....
(1945), which became a classic of British cinema.
Despite her early film success and offers from Hollywood, she returned to the stage full-time after 1945 and only occasionally accepted film roles. With her return to film in the 1950s, she portrayed an abused colonial wife in Carol Reed
Carol Reed
Sir Carol Reed was an English film director best known for Odd Man Out , The Fallen Idol , The Third Man and Oliver!...
's Outcast of the Islands
Outcast of the Islands
Outcast of the Islands is a 1951 film directed by Carol Reed based on by Joseph Conrad's novel An Outcast of the Islands. The film features Robert Morley, Trevor Howard, Ralph Richardson, and Wendy Hiller....
(1952), but had already transitioned into mature, supporting roles with Sailor of the King
Sailor of the King
Sailor of the King is a 1953 war film based on the novel Brown on Resolution by C. S. Forester and filmed in the Mediterranean Sea...
(1953) and a memorable victim of the Mau Mau uprising in Something of Value
Something of Value
Something Of Value is a 1957 drama directed by Richard Brooks and starring Rock Hudson, Dana Wynter and Sidney Poitier.-Plot:The movie, based on the book of the same name by Robert Ruark, portrays the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. It shows the colonial and native African conflict caused by colonialism...
(1957). She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
in 1959 for the film Separate Tables
Separate Tables (film)
Separate Tables is a 1958 American drama film based on two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan that were collectively known by this name. It was directed by Delbert Mann, and adapted by Rattigan, John Gay and an uncredited John Michael Hayes. Mary Grant designed the film's costumes.The film took the...
(1958), as a lonely hotel manageress and mistress of Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
. She remained uncompromising in her indifference to film stardom, as evidenced by her surprising reaction to her Oscar win "never mind the honour, cold hard cash is what it means to me." She received a third Oscar nomination for her performance as the simple, unrefined, but dignified Lady Alice More, opposite Paul Scofield
Paul Scofield
David Paul Scofield, CH, CBE , better known as Paul Scofield, was an English actor of stage and screen...
as Thomas More
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
, in A Man for All Seasons
A Man for All Seasons (1966 film)
A Man for All Seasons is a 1966 film based on Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons about Sir Thomas More. It was released on December 12, 1966. Paul Scofield, who had played More in the West End stage premiere, also took the role in the film. It was directed by Fred Zinnemann, who had...
(1966). She reprised her London stage role in the southern gothic
Southern Gothic
Southern Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction unique to American literature that takes place exclusively in the American South. It resembles its parent genre in that it relies on supernatural, ironic, or unusual events to guide the plot...
Toys in the Attic
Toys in the Attic (film)
Toys in the Attic is a 1963 American drama film starring Dean Martin, Geraldine Page, Yvette Mimieux, Gene Tierney and Wendy Hiller. The film was directed by George Roy Hill and is based on a Tony Award-winning play by Lillian Hellman...
(1963), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination as the elder spinster sister in a film which also starred Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
and Geraldine Page
Geraldine Page
Geraldine Sue Page was an American actress. Although she starred in at least two dozen feature films, she is primarily known for her celebrated work in the American theater...
.
She received a BAFTA nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of the domineering, possessive mother in Sons and Lovers
Sons and Lovers (1960 film)
Sons and Lovers is a British 1960 film adaptation of the D. H. Lawrence novel Sons and Lovers. It was adapted by T. E. B. Clarke and Gavin Lambert and directed by Jack Cardiff...
(1960). Her role as the grand Russian princess in a huge commercial success, Murder on the Orient Express
Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film)
Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 British mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, and based on the1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.-Overview:...
(1974), won her international acclaim and the Evening Standard British Film Award as Best Actress. Other notable roles included a Jewish refugee fleeing Nazi Germany with her dying husband in Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned is the title of a 1974 book written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, which was the basis of a 1976 drama film with the same title.The story was inspired by true events concerning the fate of the MS St...
(1976) and the formidable London Hospital matron in The Elephant Man
The Elephant Man (film)
The Elephant Man is a 1980 American drama film based on the true story of Joseph Merrick , a severely deformed man in 19th century London...
(1980).
Television career
Hiller made numerous television appearances, in both Britain and in the United States. In the 1950s and 1960s, she performed in episodes of American drama series such as Studio One and Alfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
among others. In 1965, she starred in an episode of the acclaimed dramatic series Profiles in Courage
Profiles in Courage (TV series)
Profiles in Courage was a historical anthology series that appeared on NBC from November 8, 1964 to May 9, 1965 . The series was based on the recently assassinated President John F...
(1965), in which she played Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson was one of the most prominent women in colonial America, noted for her strong religious convictions, and for her stand against the staunch religious orthodoxy of 17th century Massachusetts...
, a free-thinking woman charged with heresy in Colonial America. In Britain, during the 1960s, she appeared in the drama series Play of the Month, as well as on the children's TV programme Jackanory
Jackanory
Jackanory is a long-running BBC children's television series that was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. The show was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, the first story being the fairy-tale Cap o' Rushes read by Lee Montague. Jackanory continued to be broadcast until 24 March 1996,...
, reading the stories of Alison Uttley
Alison Uttley
Alison Uttley , née Alice Jane Taylor, was a prolific British writer of over 100 books. She is now best known for her children's series about Little Grey Rabbit, and Sam Pig....
.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she appeared in many television films including a memorable Duchess of York in the BBC Television Shakespeare
BBC Television Shakespeare
The BBC Television Shakespeare was a set of television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, produced by the BBC between 1978 and 1985.-Origins:...
production of Richard II (1978), the irascible Edwardian Oxford academic in Miss Morrison's Ghosts
Miss Morrison's Ghosts
Miss Morison's Ghosts is a 1981 British supernatural television drama broadcast by ITV starring Hannah Gordon and Wendy Hiller. It is based on a book by two Oxford academics, Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain who claimed that in 1901, on a day trip to Versailles, they travelled back in...
(1981) and the BBC dramatizations of Julian Gloag's Only Yesterday (1986) and the Vita Sackville-West
Vita Sackville-West
The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...
novel All Passion Spent
All Passion Spent
All Passion Spent is a literary fiction novel by Vita Sackville-West.Published in 1931, it is one of Sackville-West’s most popular works and hasbeen adapted for television by the BBC.This charming and gentle novel addresses peoples’, especially women’s,...
(1986), in which she was the quietly defiant Lady Slane. This performance earned her a BAFTA nomination as Best Actress. Her last appearance, before retiring from acting, was the title role in The Countess Alice
The Countess Alice
The Countess Alice is a 1993 British-American made for television drama film which was directed by Moira Armstrong and starring Wendy Hiller, Zoë Wanamaker and Duncan Bell. This was Wendy Hiller's last film role.-Synopsis:...
(1993) with Zoë Wanamaker
Zoe Wanamaker
Zoë Wanamaker, CBE is an American-British actress. She has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company; in films, including the Harry Potter series; and in a number of television productions, including a long-time role as Susan Harper in the sitcom My Family.-Early life and family:Wanamaker was...
.
Personal life
In the early 1940s, Hiller and husband Ronald Gow moved to BeaconsfieldBeaconsfield
Beaconsfield is a market town and civil parish operating as a town council within the South Bucks district in Buckinghamshire, England. It lies northwest of Charing Cross in Central London, and south-east of the county town of Aylesbury...
, Buckinghamshire, where they raised two children, Ann (1939–2006) and Anthony (b. 1942), and lived together in the house called "Spindles". Ronald Gow died in 1993, but Hiller continued living at their home until her death a decade later. When not performing on stage or screen, she lived a completely private domestic life, often insisting on being referred to as Mrs. Ronald Gow, rather than by her stage name.
Despite a busy professional career, throughout her life she continually took an active interest in aspiring young actors by supporting local amateur drama societies, as well as being the president of the Chiltern Shakespeare Company
Chiltern Shakespeare Company
The Chiltern Shakespeare Company is a Shakespearean theatre company founded in 1989 that produces Shakespearean plays annually in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire...
until her death. Chronic ill health necessitated her eventual retirement from acting in 1992. She spent the last decade of her life in quiet retirement at her home in Beaconsfield, where she died of natural causes at the age of 90.
Regarded as one of Britain's great dramatic talents, she was created an Officer of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(OBE) in 1971 and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1975. Her style was disciplined and unpretentious, and she disliked personal publicity. The writer Sheridan Morley
Sheridan Morley
Sheridan Morley was an English author, biographer, critic, director, actor and broadcaster. He was the eldest son of actor Robert Morley and grandson of actress Dame Gladys Cooper, and wrote biographies of both...
described Hiller as being remarkable in her "extreme untheatricality until the house lights went down, whereupon she would deliver a performance of breathtaking reality and expertise."
In 1996, Hiller was honoured by the London Film Critics Circle
London Film Critics Circle
The London Film Critics' Circle is the name by which the Film Section of The Critics' Circle is known internationally.The word London was added because it was thought the term Critics' Circle Film Awards lacked meaning — for people in LA for example — and the Film Section wished its annual Awards...
with the Dilys Powell
Dilys Powell
Elizabeth Dilys Powell was a British journalist, author and film critic.She was born into a middle class family in Bridgnorth, Shropshire. Her mother was Mary Jane Lloyd; her father, Thomas Powell, a bank manager...
Award for excellence in British film.
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1937 | Lancashire Luck Lancashire Luck Lancashire Luck is a 1937 British film comedy, directed by Henry Cass. It is notable as the film debut of Wendy Hiller, and the first credited appearance of Nigel Stock.-Plot:... |
Betty Lovejoy | |
| 1938 | Pygmalion Pygmalion (1938 film) Pygmalion is a 1938 British film based on the George Bernard Shaw play of the same title, and adapted by him for the screen. It stars Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller.... |
Eliza Doolittle | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
| 1941 | Major Barbara | Major Barbara | |
| 1945 | I Know Where I'm Going! I Know Where I'm Going! I Know Where I'm Going! is a 1945 romance film by the British-based film-makers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey, and features Pamela Brown, Finlay Currie and Petula Clark in her fourth film appearance.... |
Joan Webster | |
| 1952 | Outcast of the Islands Outcast of the Islands Outcast of the Islands is a 1951 film directed by Carol Reed based on by Joseph Conrad's novel An Outcast of the Islands. The film features Robert Morley, Trevor Howard, Ralph Richardson, and Wendy Hiller.... |
Mrs. Almayer | |
| 1953 | Sailor of the King Sailor of the King Sailor of the King is a 1953 war film based on the novel Brown on Resolution by C. S. Forester and filmed in the Mediterranean Sea... |
Lucinda Bentley | also known as Single-Handed |
| 1957 | Something of Value Something of Value Something Of Value is a 1957 drama directed by Richard Brooks and starring Rock Hudson, Dana Wynter and Sidney Poitier.-Plot:The movie, based on the book of the same name by Robert Ruark, portrays the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. It shows the colonial and native African conflict caused by colonialism... |
Elizabeth McKenzie Newton | |
| 1957 | How to Murder a Rich Uncle How to Murder a Rich Uncle How to Murder a Rich Uncle is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Nigel Patrick and starring Patrick, Wendy Hiller, Charles Coburn and Anthony Newley. A man plans to kill his wealthy Uncle George... |
Edith Clitterburn | |
| 1958 | Separate Tables Separate Tables (film) Separate Tables is a 1958 American drama film based on two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan that were collectively known by this name. It was directed by Delbert Mann, and adapted by Rattigan, John Gay and an uncredited John Michael Hayes. Mary Grant designed the film's costumes.The film took the... |
Pat Cooper | |
| 1960 | Sons and Lovers Sons and Lovers (1960 film) Sons and Lovers is a British 1960 film adaptation of the D. H. Lawrence novel Sons and Lovers. It was adapted by T. E. B. Clarke and Gavin Lambert and directed by Jack Cardiff... |
Gertrude Morel | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :... |
| 1963 | Toys in the Attic Toys in the Attic (film) Toys in the Attic is a 1963 American drama film starring Dean Martin, Geraldine Page, Yvette Mimieux, Gene Tierney and Wendy Hiller. The film was directed by George Roy Hill and is based on a Tony Award-winning play by Lillian Hellman... |
Anna Berniers | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture The Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1944 for a performance in a motion picture released in the previous year.... |
| 1966 | Alice More | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the... |
|
| 1974 | Murder on the Orient Express Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film) Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 British mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, and based on the1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.-Overview:... |
Princess Dragomiroff | |
| 1976 | Voyage of the Damned Voyage of the Damned Voyage of the Damned is the title of a 1974 book written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, which was the basis of a 1976 drama film with the same title.The story was inspired by true events concerning the fate of the MS St... |
Rebecca Weiler | |
| 1979 | Allison Crosby | ||
| 1980 | Mothershead | ||
| 1981 | Miss Morrison's Ghosts Miss Morrison's Ghosts Miss Morison's Ghosts is a 1981 British supernatural television drama broadcast by ITV starring Hannah Gordon and Wendy Hiller. It is based on a book by two Oxford academics, Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain who claimed that in 1901, on a day trip to Versailles, they travelled back in... |
Miss Elizabeth Morrison | |
| 1982 | Making Love Making Love Making Love is a 1982 American film. It tells the story of a married man coming to terms with his homosexuality and the love triangle that develops around him, his wife and another man... |
Winnie Bates | |
| 1983 | Attracta Attracta (film) Attracta is a 1983 Irish drama film directed by Kieran Hickey and starring Wendy Hiller, Kate Thompson and Joe McPartland. It was based on a short story by William Trevor. An elderly schooteacher reflects on her past.-Cast:* Wendy Hiller ... Attracta... |
Attracta | |
| 1987 | Aunt D'Arcy | ||
| 1992 | Countess Alice von Holzendorf |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | David Copperfield David Copperfield (1969 film) David Copperfield is a 1969 American television film directed by Delbert Mann based on the novel of the same name by Charles Dickens adapted by Jack Pulman, who later went on to adapt the Roman saga I, Claudius for BBC Television. The film was made in the UK for 20th Century Fox Television.The film... |
Mrs. Micawber | |
| 1972 | Clochemerle Clochemerle Clochemerle is a 1934 French satirical novel by Gabriel Chevallier. It is set in a French village in Beaujolais inspired by Vaux-en-Beaujolais and deals with the ramifications over plans to install a new urinal in the village square.-Adaptation:... |
Justine Putet | |
| 1980 | Princess Vilma | ||
| 1981 | Play for Today Play for Today Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted... |
Lady Carlion | "Country" |
| 1982 | Evelyn | ||
| 1982 | Witness for the Prosecution Witness for the Prosecution (1982 film) Witness for the Prosecution is a 1982 TV version of Agatha Christie's short story and play, and also a remake of the classic Billy Wilder 1957 film Witness for the Prosecution.... |
Janet Mackenzie | |
| 1985 | Lady Bracknell | ||
| 1985 | Matchett | ||
| 1986 | Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy | Princess Victoria | |
| 1986 | Only Yesterday | May Darley | from the novel by Julian Gloag |
| 1986 | All Passion Spent All Passion Spent All Passion Spent is a literary fiction novel by Vita Sackville-West.Published in 1931, it is one of Sackville-West’s most popular works and hasbeen adapted for television by the BBC.This charming and gentle novel addresses peoples’, especially women’s,... |
Lady Slane | Nominated — British Academy Television Award for Best Actress British Academy Television Award for Best Actress - 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake... |
| 1987 | Anne of Avonlea Anne of Avonlea (1987 film) Anne of Avonlea is a 1987 television film. It is a sequel to the 1985 Anne of Green Gables film. The film dramatizes material from several books in the eight-novel "Anne" series by L. M. Montgomery; they are Anne of Avonlea , Anne of the Island and Anne of Windy Poplars... |
Mrs. Harris | as Dame Wendy Hiller |
| 1988 | Lady Ursula Berowne | ||
| 1989 | Ending Up | Adela | |
| 1991 | The Best of Friends The Best of Friends (play) The Best of Friends is an epistolary play by Hugh Whitemore about the friendship of George Bernard Shaw, Sydney Cockerell, and Dame Laurentia McLachlan, based in the lengthy correspondence that passed between them for over 25 years... |
Laurentia McLachlan |