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Joan Greenwood
Greenwood in Moonfleet (1955)
Born(1921-03-04)4 March 1921
Chelsea, London, England
Died28 February 1987(1987-02-28) (aged 65)
London, England
OccupationActress
Years active1938–1987
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1960; died 1978)​
Children1

Joan Mary Waller Greenwood (4 March 1921 – 28 February 1987) was an English actress. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, was her trademark. She played Sibella in the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets, and also appeared in The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), Stage Struck (1958), Tom Jones (1963) and Little Dorrit (1987).

Greenwood worked mainly on the stage, where she had a long career, appearing with Donald Wolfit's theatre company in the years following World War II. Later, after the war, her appearances in Ealing comedies are among her memorable screen appearances: Whisky Galore!; as the seductive Sibella in the black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949); and in The Man in the White Suit (1951). She opened The Grass Is Greener in the West End in 1952 and played Gwendolen in a film version of The Importance of Being Earnest released in the same year.

She had leading roles in Stage Struck (1958) and then in Mysterious Island, an adaptation of a Jules Verne novel; and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for Tom Jones (1963).

In 1960, Greenwood appeared as the title character in a production of Hedda Gabler at the Oxford Playhouse.[1] Starring opposite her as Judge Brack was the actor André Morell. They fell in love and flew in secret to Jamaica, where they were married, remaining together until his death in 1978.[2]

Early life and education

Greenwood was born in 1921 in Chelsea, London. Her parents were Ida (née Waller) and Sydney Earnshaw Greenwood (1887–1949), a portrait artist.[3] She went to school at Bramley, leaving when fifteen. She originally wanted to be a ballet dancer but then decided to act and studied at at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.[4]

Career

Greenwood worked for two years in repertory. Her fluency in French saw her cast in London in a produciton of The Imaginary Invalid. Greenwood appeared in Little Ladyship (1939) on TV and in the short John Smith Wakes Up (1941). Her first feature was My Wife's Family (1941) followed by He Found a Star (1941).

She joinedthe Oxford Playhouse Repertory Company, and while there played leading- parts in a number of well known plays, such as School for Scandal, Caesar and Cleopatra, Hamlet and A Doll's House. She went back to the London stage and appeared in productions of Little Ladyship, Peter Pan, Heartbreak House, and The Women.[4] While appearing in the latter she was seen by Leslie Howard who cast her in a notable role in The Gentle Sex (1943), which was a hit.[5]

Greenwood had a support part in Frenzy (1945) and They Knew Mr. Knight (1946).

Rank

Sydney Box offered her a seven year contract with the Rank Organisaiton, starting with the female lead in A Girl in a Million (1946), a comedy Lion with Basil Radford; producer [Sydney Box]] was so taken with her performance he changed the title to refer to her.[4]

She had a good role in The Man Within (1947), billed after Michael Redgrave and Jean Kent, then co starred alongside John Mills in The October Man (1947) and Margaret Lockwood in The White Unicorn (1947).

Stardom

Greenwood was cast in the lead role of Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948), as Sophia Dorothea of Celle, alongside Stewart Granger. It was an expensive movie but a commercial disappointment.[6] She did The Importance of Being Earnest (1949) for TV then played Lady Caroline Lamb in The Bad Lord Byron (1949), a notorious flop.

More successful was Whisky Galore! (1949), which kicked off the Ealing comedy cycle. It was directed by Alexander Mackendrick and Greenwood was top billed along with Basil Radford. Greenood did another for Ealing, Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), with Alec Guiness directed by Robert Hamer. Both films became regarded as comedy classics.

Greenwood was Richard Todd's leading lady inFlesh and Blood (1951), at British Lion. She went to France to co-star with Bourvil in Mr. Peek-a-Boo (1951). She did another for Ealing, Mackendrick and Guiness, The Man in the White Suit (1951), then Young Wives' Tale (1951) and did The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) again, this time for features. She appeared on TV shows like BBC Sunday-Night Theatre.

Greenwood returned to France to appear in Lovers, Happy Lovers! (1954) with Gerard Philipe. She did The King and Mrs. Candle (1954) for American TV and made a third film with Guinness and a second with Hamer, Father Brown (1954).

In Hollywood she was the female lead in Moonfleet (1955) at MGM, replacing original choice Merle Oberon. The Confidential Clerk by T.S. Eliot had a short run on Broadway in 1954.[7]

Later Career

In the late 1950s Greenwood worked increasingly on TV in versions of Man and Superman and Ann Veronica, Hedda Gabbler and The Grass is Greener. She had a support role in Stage Struck (1958), Mysterious Island (1961) and the female lead in The Amorous Mr. Prawn (1962).

Greenwood had a flashy support role in Tom Jones (1963), and The Moon-Spinners (1964).

Greenwood appeared as Olga, alongside Spike Milligan in Frank Dunlop's production of the play Oblomov, based on the novel by Russian writer Ivan Goncharov. The play opened at London's Lyric Theatre on 6 October 1964. Greenwood was described as "a model of generosity and tolerance...the only person in the cast who could not be 'corpsed' by Milligan; although he tried very hard. She looked beautiful, and played the part of Oblomov's unfortunate lady with total integrity. 'She never left the script', says Milligan with a guilty smile of something between irritation and admiration. 'I just couldn't make her crack up. All the rest of us did. She never lost her dignity for a moment.'"[8]

She was in the play Those That Play the Clowns (1966) which had a short run on Broadway.

She was in The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens (1970) and Girl Stroke Boy (1971).

Later roles included The Uncanny (1977), The Water Babies (1978), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978(, Love Among the Artists (1979), The Flame Is Love (1979), Wainwright's Law (1980), Bognor (1981), Triangle (1982), Ellis Island (1985) and Past Caring (1985).

She played Lady Carlton, a quirky romance novelist and the landlady to the main characters, in the British sitcom Girls on Top (1985–86). She was in Miss Marple: At Bertram's Hotel (1987). Her last film was Little Dorrit (1988), released posthumously. Her last TV series was Melba (1988).

Personal life and death

Greenwood married André Morell in 1960. Their son, Jason Morell, is an actor, writer and film/theatre director. In 1987, nine years after her husband's death, Greenwood died as the result of acute bronchitis and asthma[3] at her home in London, less than a week before her 66th birthday.[9]

Partial filmography

References

  1. ^ "Mr Andre Morell – Stage, film and television actor". The Times. 30 November 1978. p. 19.
  2. ^ "Obituary of Miss Joan Greenwood, The voice that intrigued generations". The Times. 3 March 1987.
  3. ^ a b Rachel Low, "Greenwood, Joan Mary Waller (1921–1987)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2011 available online. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  4. ^ a b c "Talented Young Actress". Voice. Vol. 23, , no. 22. Tasmania, Australia. 3 June 1950. p. 4. Retrieved 24 October 2020 – via National Library of Australia.((cite news)): CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  5. ^ Lant, Antonia (1991). Blackout : reinventing women for wartime British cinema. Princeton University Press. p. 231.
  6. ^ Brian MacFarlane, An Autobiography of British Cinema, Methuen 1997 p 482
  7. ^ "Don Iddon's NEW YORK DIARY". The Herald. No. 23, 923. Victoria, Australia. 28 January 1954. p. 4. Retrieved 24 October 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ Scudamore, Pauline (1985). Spike Milligan: A Biography. London: Granada. ISBN 978-0-246-12275-9. pp. 215–216
  9. ^ "Jason Morell". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 3 May 2007.
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