Joan Greenwood

Joan Greenwood

Birth : 1921-03-04, Chelsea, London, England, UK

Death : 1987-02-27

History

Joan Greenwood (4 March 1921 – 27 February 1987) was an English actress. Born in Chelsea, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, was her trademark. Perhaps her most famous role was Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952). Description above from the Wikipedia article Joan Greenwood, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Profile

Joan Greenwood

Movies

Little Dorrit
Mrs. Clennam
A drama based on the novel by Charles Dickens which tells the story of Arthur Clennam who is thrown into a debtor's prison. There he meets a young seamstress whose father has been imprisoned for twenty-five years. A film in originally released in two parts.
Past Caring
Stella
67 year-old Victor is forced to move into an old people's home but he prefers to grow old disgracefully.
Made In Ealing: The Story of Ealing Studios
Interviewee
Documentary about the British film studio. First appeared on the BBC television programme Omnibus.
Country
Dollie van der Biek
In 1945, the Carlions assemble at an English country house for a family gathering. During the event, they must determine who is to take over the family brewing empire, since the present head of the business, Sir Frederick, is getting old. The results of the 1945 general election causes a major stir, and some angry farmers occupy a barn.
The Flame Is Love
Duchess of Grantham
In this melodrama from Barbara Cartland's 1975 bestseller, a turn-of-the-century American heiress, while en route to her betrothal to an English duke, encounters love and intrigue in the arms of a French journalist.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Beryl Stapleton
Director Paul Morrissey applies a hefty dose of humor to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective story in this interpretation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Comedian Peter Cook takes on the role of brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes, who's not so gifted here as he relegates much of the investigation of demonic dogs to his bumbling sidekick, Watson (Dudley Moore), while he spends time with his mother and searches for an assistant.
The Water Babies
Lady Harriet
This children's fantasy tells the story of a 12-year-old boy who discovers a complex underwater world where young children are held prisoner by an evil shark and an eel.
The Uncanny
Miss Malkin
Wilbur Gray, a horror writer, has stumbled upon a terrible secret, that cats are supernatural creatures who really call the shots. In a desperate attempt to get others to believe him, Wilbur spews three tales of feline horror.
Girl Stroke Boy
Lettice Mason
Middle-class parents are confounded when their son brings home his new partner: an elegant, confusingly androgynous West Indian.
The Ealing Comedies or Kind Hearts and Overdrafts
Self
The story of the men and women who produced a series of film comedies that were so original and funny that they put Ealing on the map.
Barbarella
The Great Tyrant (voice) (uncredited)
In the far future, a highly sexual woman is tasked with finding and stopping the evil Durand-Durand. Along the way she encounters various unusual people.
The Moon-Spinners
Aunt Frances Ferris
Young English girl Nikky and her aunt arrive at the Moon-Spinners, a hotel on Crete, to a less than enthusiastic welcome. The coolness of the owner is only out-done by the surliness of her brother Stratos, recently back from London. But then there is nice English lad Mark to make friends with, at least until Stratos and his pal take a shot at him one night. When Nikky helps him hide she finds the Greeks are after her too.
Tom Jones
Lady Bellaston
Tom loves Sophie and Sophie loves Tom. But Tom and Sophie are of differering classes. Can they find a way through the mayhem to be true to love?
The Amorous Prawn
Lady Dodo Fitzadam
While her husband, the General is abroad, Lady Fitzadam decides to convert their army residence into a fishing resort for rich American tourists in order to raise money for their dream retirement cottage.
Mysterious Island
Lady Mary Fairchild
During the US Civil War, Union POWs escape in a balloon and end up stranded on a South Pacific island, inhabited by giant plants and animals. They must use their ingenuity to survive the dangers, and to devise a way to return home. Sequel to '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' .
Stage Struck
Rita Vernon
A young woman arrives in New York City determined to become a great theatrical star, but discovers that her goal may not be as easily attainable as she had hoped.
Moonfleet
Lady Clarista Ashwood
Set in the eighteenth century, Moonfleet is about John Mohune, a young orphan who is sent to the Dorset village of Moonfleet to stay with an old friend of his mother's, Jeremy Fox. Fox is a morally ambiguous character, an elegant gentleman involved with smugglers and pirates.
Monsieur Ripois
Norah
From the Louis Hemon novel "M. Ripois and His Nemesis" about Andre Ripois, a philanderer in pursuit of love and riches from Paris to London. Andre is breaking up with his wife, Catherine, over his attentions to her best friend Patricia. While Catherine is out arranging the divorce, Andre, just to keep in practice, hits on the girl upstairs, Diana and then turns his attention back to Patricia, who he tricks into having dinner at his flat on the pretext that Catherine will be there. When he cannot make any progress with her via his usual tactics, he tries to arouse her pity be telling her of his past. In his early, impoverished days in London, he made love to his boss Anne but her dreadful cooking drove him away. Next came Norah who he picked up on a bus and took to his flat and told her about his make-believe inheritance, but she insisted on marriage first, which was not in his plans
Father Brown
Lady Warren
Works of art are disappearing, stolen by a master thief, a master of disguise. Father Brown has two goals: to catch the thief and to save his soul.
The Importance of Being Earnest
Gwendolen Fairfax
Algernon Moncrieff is surprised to discover that his affluent friend -- whom he knows as "Ernest" -- is actually named Jack Worthing. Jack fabricated his alter ego in order to escape his country estate where he takes care of his charge, Cecily Cardew. Cecily believes that Ernest is Jack's wayward brother and is keen on his raffish lifestyle. Algernon, seeing an opportunity, assumes Ernest's identity and sneaks off to woo Cecily.
Young Wives' Tale
Sabina Pennant
A post-war housing crisis leaves a shy woman to share a house with two couples. Comic situations arise as the new roomer becomes infatuated with one of the husbands.
The Man in the White Suit
Daphne Birnley
The unassuming, nebbishy inventor Sidney Stratton creates a miraculous fabric that will never be dirty or worn out. Clearly he can make a fortune selling clothes made of the material, but may cause a crisis in the process. After all, once someone buys one of his suits they won't ever have to fix them or buy another one, and the clothing industry will collapse overnight. Nevertheless, Sidney is determined to put his invention on the market, forcing the clothing factory bigwigs to resort to more desperate measures...
Mr. Peek-a-Boo
Susan
A simple civil servant Léon, who has the unusual ability to walk through walls, falls madly in love with a hotel thief by the name of Susan. He poses as Garou-Garou, a dangerous gangster to attempt to woo her affections, but is arrested and sent to jail. While in jail he annoys the guards by walking in and out of his cell, and keeps persuading Susan to cease her criminal way of life. As fundamentally being an honest and law-abiding citizen, he eventually handles back everything he has stolen, is acquitted by the court, and becomes famous and respected. When he learns that Susan is planning to return to England and start a new life, he decides to confess to her his emotions. However, the couple is interrupted by a sudden rush of journalists. Trying to escape in a building, they get cornered on a corridor, and Léon pushes Susan through a nearby wall. But by doing this, he loses his own wall-walking ability, and the film concludes.
Flesh and Blood
Wilhelmina Cameron
Based upon the play A Sleeping Clergyman by James Bridie, it tells the story of three generations of the Scottish Cameron family, with its various conflicts and romances.
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Sibella
When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.
Whisky Galore!
Peggy Macroon
Based on a true story. The name of the real ship, that sunk Feb 5 1941 - during WWII - was S/S Politician. Having left Liverpool two days earlier, heading for Jamaica, it sank outside Eriskay, The Outer Hebrides, Scotland, in bad weather, containing 250,000 bottles of whisky. The locals gathered as many bottles as they could, before the proper authorities arrived, and even today, bottles are found in the sand or in the sea every other year.
The Bad Lord Byron
Lady Caroline Lamb
Injured and on his deathbed in Greece, Lord Byron imagines a celestial trial with witnesses to determine the worth of his character.
Saraband for Dead Lovers
Sophie Dorothea
Sophie Dorothea is a young woman forced into a loveless marriage with Prince George Louis of Hanover. George Louis is later crowned King George I of England. Despairing of ever experiencing true love, the depressed queen finds life at court no solace. Sophie then falls for a dashing Swedish soldier of fortune, Count Konigsmark.
The White Unicorn
Lottie Smith
In a home for delinquent girls, the worst offender exchanges reminiscences with the warden.
The October Man
Jenny Carden
Jim Ackland, who suffers from a head injury sustained in a bus crash , is the chief suspect in a murder hunt, when a girl that he has just met is found dead on the local common, and he has no alibi for the time she was killed.
The Man Within
Elizabeth
A man goes on the run from hardened smugglers.
A Girl in a Million
A man gets divorced from a nagging wife meets a girl in a million. Or is she?
They Knew Mr. Knight
Ruth Blake
After a chance train encounter with Laurence Knight, Tom Blake's family's fortunes prosper on the beneficence of the great financier. A developing friendship leads to the Knights selling their home to the Blakes when they move back to London. All looks rosy for the Blakes as share prices in Mr Knight's new business venture soar, but is their confidence misplaced?
Frenzy
Christine
A seance is held to discover the whereabouts, and the killer, of a sculptor's wife.
The Gentle Sex
Betty Miller
During the War seven women from very different backgrounds find themselves together in the Auxiliary Territorial Services. They are soon drilling, driving lorries, and manning ack-ack batteries.
He Found a Star
Babe Cavour
A talent agent makes the mistake of becoming too involved with one of his clients.