Wendy Hillier is a British theater and film actress who won the American audience and won an Oscar for her supporting role in the melodrama "Separate Tables". She was not only a talented person, having starred in 50 films, but also a family man. With her husband Ronald Gough, they lived together in a happy marriage for more than half a century.
Wendy Hillier's childhood and early career
The future actress was born on August 15, 1912 in Bramhall near the town of Cheshire. Her father, Frank Watkin Hillier, was an industrialist who made cotton clothes. The girl's mother is Mary Elizabeth Stone. In addition to Wendy, her three brothers grew up in the family: Rene, Michael and John.
The Hillier family was wealthy, and Frank Watkin's cotton garments and materials business flourished.
When the girl grew up, she was sent to Winsby School, Sussex, in the south of England, in the hope that she would be relieved of her native accent. Soon, Hillier decided on the choice of direction in life. Therefore, in 1930 she became a student at the repertory theater in Manchester, working as an assistant director and playing small minor roles.
Wendy Hillier made her first theatrical debut at the age of 18 in The Ware Case. In 1934, she played Sally Hardcastle, a determined proletarian woman based on Walter Greenwood's Love on the Dole, who agrees to marry a wealthy merchant just to help her poor family and save her from hunger. After the successful premiere of the play, Hillier went to play at the Garrick Theater in London, where she was well received. Many spectators came to watch the production with the rising actress. Critic James Eygat described it as "gorgeous," adding that: "The play touched me very much and will touch anyone else who has one old-fashioned thing - a heart."
The following year, Wendy Hillier appeared on Broadway and earned the attention and respect of the American public with her talented acting. Critic Greville Vernon wrote about the actress: "This young British woman has it all: beauty, charm, pathos and tragedy."
Wendy Hillier's film career
Wendy Hillier's first film was the humble 1937 comedy "Lancashire Luck". In it, the actress played the daughter of a carpenter, where luck suddenly smiles at the girl and she gets a big win from football bets.
The next year in her career, Hill came a real triumph, which came after her role in "Pygmalion" based on the play by the Irish playwright Bernard Shaw. There Wendy Hillier played the role of Eliza Dolittle. The actress performed her image as faithfully as possible and was nominated for an Oscar.
Thus, before the age of 30, the aspiring actress has already gained international popularity. The famous writer Bernard Shaw had a good attitude to Wendy Hillier, highly appreciated the actress's artistic talent and wished to see her in another film production "Major Barbara".
The actress owes much of her creative success to her natural voice, which she knew how to correctly apply for a particular role. Sometimes he was shaky, sometimes harsh. The Western public liked Wendy Hill's light North English accent, which gave some of her images a peasant simplicity and unforgettable performance.
In 1945, the actress starred in the lyric film I Know Where I'm Going! And also played the lonely but cheerful hotel owner in At Separate Tables. This role earned Wendy Hillier her first and only Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Throughout her film career, Wendy Hill has embodied various characters on the screen: an obsessive mother in Sons and Lovers, a wife with a strong character in A Man for All Seasons, an artsy Russian aristocrat in Murder on the Orient Express, as well as sympathetic and understanding the nurse in The Elephant Man.
Selected filmography of Wendy Hillier
The famous British actress has starred in films such as:
- Adventure "Outcast from the Islands";
- war drama "Something valuable";
- the drama "Toys in the Attic";
- military drama "Journey of the Outcast";
- black detective comedy "The Cat and the Canary";
- melodrama "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn".
The last work of the actress in the movie was the drama "Countess Alice", in which she got the main role of the elderly aristocrat Alice Von Holzendorf.
Personal life of Wendy Hill
Wendy's father often told her that she would not marry until she got rid of that particular Lancashire accent. However, in fact, this did not affect the personal life of the actress.
In 1937, the actress married Ronald Gough, one of the theater writers with whom Wendy worked early in her career. The couple had two children, Ann and Anthony.
The couple lived a quiet and peaceful life in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. The actress's husband passed away in 1993, having been happily married to Wendy Hillier for 56 years. The actress herself died on May 14, 2003 at the age of 90 and was buried next to her husband in the churchyard of St. Mary in Buckinghamshire.
Throughout her creative career, Wendy Hillier was torn between being busy on stage, in movies and family life, preferring the latter. She admitted in an interview that "it is impossible to be successful everywhere at the same time."
Wendy Hillier was an atypical enough celebrity: one husband, one house in Beaconsfield, one family. Despite the fact that she periodically appeared in Hollywood and played on Broadway, Wendy Hillier led an ordinary family life, which she loved very much.
