Joan Greenwood

From Chelsea, London, England, UK • 1921 - 1987

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, Young Wives' Tale (both 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 the Second World War. Her appearances in Ealing comedies are among her memorable screen roles: in Whisky Galore! (1949); 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 (1961), 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 titular character in a production of Hedda Gabler at the Oxford Playhouse. 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; they remained together until his death in 1978. (Via Wikipedia)