Virginia McKenna : biography
Virginia A. McKenna OBE (born 7 June 1931) is a British stage and screen actress, author and wildlife campaigner.
Other interests
For her services to wildlife and to the arts, in 2004 McKenna was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire. In March 2009 Virginia McKenna’s autobiography, The Life in My Years, was published by Oberon Books.
In 1975 she released an album of twelve songs called Two Faces of Love which included two of her own compositions and a sung version of the poem The Love That I Have from the film Carve Her Name with Pride. The record was released on the Gold Star label with two line drawings of McKenna by her sister-in-law Linden Travers. On its reissue on the Rim label in 1979 the album instead had a photographic picture.
Her audiobook work includes The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. and narration of "The Lonely Doll" by Dare Wright.
Filmography
Year | Film | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1952 | Father’s Doing Fine | Catherine | |
The Second Mrs. Tanqueray | Ellean Tanqueray | ||
1953 | The Cruel Sea | Julie Hallam | |
The Oracle | Shelagh | ||
1955 | Simba | Mary Crawford | |
The Ship That Died of Shame | Helen Randall | ||
1956 | A Town Like Alice | Jean Paget | BAFTA Award for Best British Actress |
1957 | The Barretts of Wimpole Street | Henrietta Barrett | |
The Smallest Show on Earth | Jean Spenser | ||
1958 | Carve Her Name with Pride | Violette Szabo | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best British Actress |
Passionate Summer | Judy Waring | aka Storm Over Jamaica | |
1959 | The Wreck of the Mary Deare | Janet Taggart | |
1961 | Two Living, One Dead | Helen Berger | |
1965 | A Passage to India | (TV) | |
1966 | Born Free | Joy Adamson | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama |
1969 | Ring of Bright Water | Mary MacKenzie | |
An Elephant Called Slowly | Ginny | ||
1970 | Waterloo | Duchess of Richmond | |
1974 | Swallows and Amazons | Mother | |
The Gathering Storm | Clemmie Churchill | (TV) | |
1975 | Beauty and the Beast | Lucy | (TV) |
1977 | Holocaust 2000 | Eva Caine | |
The Disappearance | Catherine | ||
1979 | Julius Caesar | Portia | (BBC Television Shakespeare) |
1982 | Blood Link | Woman in Ballroom | |
1992 | The Camomile Lawn | Older Polly | (TV miniseries) |
1994 | Staggered | Flora | |
1996 | September | Violet | (TV) |
1998 | Sliding Doors | James’s Mother | |
2010 | Love/ Loss | Mary | |
2012 | "Leona Calderon" | Elderly British Lady | http://www.leonacalderon.com |