Joan Greenwood | |
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Joan Greenwood in the 1950s
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Born |
Chelsea, London, England |
4 March 1921
Died | 28 February 1987 London, England |
(aged 65)
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1938–1987 |
Spouse(s) | André Morell (1960–1978; his death); one son |
Joan Greenwood (4 March 1921 – 28 February 1987) was an English actress. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, was her trademark. She is perhaps best remembered for her role as Sibella in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). Her other film appearances included The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), Stage Struck (1958), Tom Jones (1963) and Little Dorrit (1987).
Born in Chelsea, London, the daughter of Sydney Earnshaw Greenwood (1887 – 1949), a portrait artist, and Ida Greenwood (nee Waller), Joan Greenwood studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and 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.
Greenwood made several memorable screen appearances just after the war, in Ealing Comedies, in 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 Gwendolyn in a film version of The Importance of Being Earnest released in the same year.