Mona Washbourne
Birth : 1903-11-27, Solihull, Warwickshire, England, UK
Death : 1988-11-15
History
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mona Lee Washbourne (27 November 1903 – 15 November 1988) was an English actress of stage, film, and television. Her most critically acclaimed role was in the film Stevie (1978), late in her career, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award.
Mona Washbourne was born in Solihull, Warwickshire and began her entertaining career training as a concert pianist.
In 1948, after several years acting professionally on stage, and numerous stage musical performances, she began appearing in films. Her film credits include the horror movie The Brides of Dracula (1960), Billy Liar (1963), and The Collector (1965). She is probably best known to American audiences for her role as housekeeper Mrs. Pearce in My Fair Lady (1964). She also appeared as the stern and caustic Mrs. Bramson in the remake of Night Must Fall (also 1964), and the matron in the film If.... (1968).
She appeared at both the Royal Court Theatre in London and on Broadway in 1970 in David Storey's Home. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. In 1975 she appeared on the West End stage with James Stewart in a revival of Mary Chase's play Harvey, in the role originally taken by Josephine Hull. Washbourne won the 1981 New York Film Critics' Circle Awards for Best Supporting Actress in Stevie (1978).
In 1981 Washbourne appeared in Granada Television's TV miniseries adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as Nanny Hawkins. One of her last television appearances was in Where's the Key? (1983), a BBC play about Alzheimer's disease.
Mona Washbourne was married to actor Basil Dignam (1905-1979), whom she wed in 1940.
She died in 1988, aged 84, in London.
Mary Grey
Newly widowed Etta visits her beloved Aunt M and discovers her bedridden and listless. Etta's struggle to restore her aunt's dignity and cheer brings renewed meaning to the lives of both women, but also reveals family secrets and forces confrontations with her aunt's indifferent son and hostile daughter-in-law.
Queen Mother
Dramatization of the romance and July 1981 wedding of Great Britain's Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
Mrs. Pearce
Adaptation of the play by Bernard Shaw.
Aunt Lydia
A missing formula, a defecting Eastern European scientist kidnapped, car chases, foot chases, air chases, the British secret service, and a couple of American tourists caught right in the middle.
Aunt
For a poet with a gift for crafting words into barbs, Stevie Smith lives a relatively conventional life. Sheltered in a London suburb, she spends her days engaged in tedious housework, crafting verse and conversing with her aunt. But while her body may be committed to drudgery, Stevie's mind is constantly trying to break free, which causes her to rail against religion and middle-class values, and prevents her from finding happiness with a man interested in her.
Grandmother
A pair of peasant children, Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl, are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the Fairy Berylune. On their journey, they are accompanied by the humanized presences of a Dog, a Cat, Light, Fire, Bread, and other entities.
Mrs. Jarley
A kindly shop owner whose overwhelming gambling debts allow a greedy landlord to seize his shop of dusty treasures. Evicted and with no way to pay his debts, he and his granddaughter flee.
Mrs. Helen Fiedke
Lise, a mentally unbalanced middle-aged woman, travels from her home in London to Rome, Italy where she embarks on a fatal destiny that she had helped to arrange for herself — a premeditated search for someone, anyone, with whom she could form a dangerous liaison.
Neighbour / Usher / Sister Hallett
This sprawling, surrealist comedy serves as an allegory for the pitfalls of capitalism, as it follows the adventures of a young coffee salesman in modern Britain.
Gran (Alice Tallent)
Two young people plot to get their hands on grannie's money, but rather than simply pushing her down the stairs they hatch an elaborate plot to convince her that radical youth have taken over England are planning to do away with "oldies" like her.
Kathleen
David Storey's adaptation of his award winning play for the BBC's Play for Today series.
Mrs. Gray
A reformed drug addict travels to Italy to find out who murdered his aunt.
Mrs. Hayes
From Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy, Australia and behind the Iron Curtain. They are the most superbly conditioned animals in the world. They are also the pawns of powerful nations, the victims of dangerous drugs and the object of many men's ambitions. Once every four years they come together... for the Olympic Games.
Mother
In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room.
Matron
In an English boys' boarding school, social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects in the Upper Sixth. But three Lower Sixth students, leader Mick Travis, Wallace and Johnny decide on a shocking course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and for all.
Mrs. Brown
A hobo (Lance Percival) goes to London with a rock group (Herman's Hermits) and their prize racing greyhound, Mrs. Brown.
Set in London's Swiinging Sixties, Cliff Richard plays Jamie Hopkins, an art student whose desperate need for money leads him to dabble in the underworld of drug dealing. Cliff has stated that Two A Penny, his most dramatically challenging movie role ever, is the film he is proudest of. He has stated, "if I did want to send a fiolm as a CV, I would send that one". It is certainly his most demanding and controversial role; cynical, self centered and highly manipulative, Jamie Hopkins lies, steals and double-crosses his mother (Dora Bryan), forces himself on his girlfriend (Ann Holloway) and gets involved in fist fights with criminals. Through the influence of his girlfriend, a born again Christian, is the possibility that he may reform, yet in the mystery of the film's by-line "He promised to love her forever….today" lies the possibility that he may well not.
Tea Lady (uncredited)
Sir James Bond is called back out of retirement to stop SMERSH. In order to trick SMERSH, James thinks up the ultimate plan - that every agent will be named 'James Bond'. One of the Bonds, whose real name is Evelyn Tremble is sent to take on Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat, but all the Bonds get more than they can handle.
Catherine Parsons
A man stumbles out of a car crash with no memory of what transpired. Everyone who he meets suggests that he is a ruthless man with an aggressive temper. Could he be deliberately blocking out memories of his past?
Aunt Annie
Freddie is an inept bank clerk with no future. His only hobby is collecting butterflies, which gives him a feeling of power and control that is otherwise totally missing from his life. He comes into a large sum of money and buys himself a country house. Still unable to make himself at ease socially, he starts to plan on acquiring a girlfriend - in the same manner as he collects butterflies. He prepares the cellar of the house to be a collecting jar and stalks his victim over several days.
Aunt Lil
Aunt Mildred
A study of absurdity in a suburban family: father recreates the Old Bailey in the living room while the son teaches speak-your-weight machines to sing in the attic.
Mrs. Pearce
A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.
Mrs. Bramson
A psychotic killer gets in the good graces of his aging invalid employer, and worms his way into the affection of her beautiful daughter, with unpleasant results for all.
Alice Fisher
A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.
Helga Lang
A young teacher on her way to a position in Transylvania helps a young man escape the shackles his mother has put on him. In so doing she innocently unleashes the horrors of the undead once again on the populace, including those at her school for ladies. Luckily for some, Dr. Van Helsing is already on his way.
Nanny
Englishwoman Grace Allingham marries Frenchman Charles Edouard de Valhubert, but their marriage quickly becomes unusual. Because Charles cheats on her and lives away from his family out of professional obligation to his government, Grace ends up raising the couple's son, Sigismond, on her own. Grace and Charles are finally reunited after nearly a decade apart, and, while they seem headed for a permanent split, there's still a spark between them.
Mrs. Daniels
Bittersweet story about London's unwanted children and the good people trying to help them. Ann is a social worker, while Bill is an electrician whose contract with the local care home introduces him to the children and Ann. Events start to escalate out of control when a child takes possession of a loaded gun.
Agnes Smith
A vacationing journalist investigates the mysterious death of a composer and debunks the theory that it was suicide.
Mrs. Joe
The story revolves around the Dinky Doos, a provincial musical troupe living from hand to mouth.
IT’S GREAT TO A YOUNG stars John Mills as Dingle an easygoing high school teacher. When autocratic new headmaster Frome (Cecil Parker) begins imposing all sorts of repressive rules, Dingle does his best to stand up for his students, only to be dismissed for his troubles. The kids conspire to not only reinstate their favourite teacher, but to circumvent Frome's refusal to purchase new instruments for an upcoming music festival.
Miss Linstead
A group of circus children and their friends band together to save the show from financial disaster.
Nurse (uncredited)
Bertrand, an accountant employed by a large London firm, is called to the office of the Managing Director, Dreuther, to explain a mistake in the accounts. Dreuther is highly impressed by the young accountant's skilful explanation of the error and, hearing that Bertrand is soon to marry his spirited young fiancée, tells him to spend the honeymoon not in Bournemouth, but Monte Carlo at the company s expense! However, events in the fabulous Mediterranean paradise do not work out quite as Bertrand had envisaged...
Mrs. Thomas, landlady
Locked in her cell, a murderer reflects on the events that have led her to death row.
Librarian (Uncredited)
U.S. Embassy employee Lee Cochrane and his wife, Sue, receive a shock when they discover that their 18-month-old son, Simon, has disappeared in London. He was last seen with their nanny, and the couple seemingly have no leads that might help police Detective Craig in his investigation. The media sensationalizes the incident, causing an unnecessary distraction as the couple prepares to confront the culprit face-to-face.
Monica Bare
Edward "Teddy" Bare is a ruthless schemer who thinks he's hit the big time when he kills his older wife, believing he will inherit a fortune. When things don't go according to plan, Teddy sets his sights on a new victim: wealthy widow Freda Jeffries. Unfortunately for the unscrupulous criminal, Freda is much more guarded and sassy than his last wife, making separating her from her money considerably more challenging.
Midwife Appleby
Under a complicated bequest from her uncle, Myrtle stands to inherit $2,000,000 if her ex-husband doesn't have any male heirs on the way, else he gets the cash. She journies from New York to England, and finally tracks him down with his heavily pregnant new wife. Should she try and woo him back or challenge the legality of the new marriage?
Mrs. McBain
A little girl accidentally breaks her mother's favourite ornament and goes hop-picking to replace it.
Midwifery Sister (uncredited)
The first of the seven "Doctor" films, based on Richard Gordon's novels and released between 1954 and 1970. Simon Sparrow is a newly arrived medical student at St Swithin's hospital in London. Falling in with three longer-serving hopefuls he is soon immersed in the wooing, imbibing and fast sports-car driving that constitute 1950s medical training. There is, however, always the looming and formidable figure of chief surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt to remind them of their real purpose.
Mum with Pram
An impoverished American sailor is fortunate enough to be passing the house of two rich gentlemen who have conceived the crazy idea of distributing a note worth one million pounds. The sailor finds that whenever he tries to use the note to buy something, people treat him like a king and let him have whatever he likes for free. Ultimately, the money proves to be more troublesome than it is worth when it almost costs him his dignity and the woman he loves.
Mrs MacGregor
A Polish boy runs away from his unkind foster mother in Edinburgh and finds a new home in a lakeside village for orphans of all nations, after encountering trouble through his innocent implication in a robbery.
Miss Minter
A greedy but successful professional gambler wants to join the British Establishment when he falls in love with a blue-blooded lady. But first he must mend his ways and then dump his nightclub singer girl friend. She's not so easy to get rid of, neither is his past.
A young woman marries and moves into her husband's family mansion. She soon discovers that neither the house, nor her husband, is exactly what it seems to be.
Fussy Mother
The hero discovers his estranged wife dead and tries to frame her lover for the murder. He becomes involved with the criminals who make various unsuccessful attempts on his life while the police clear up the mystery.
Mrs. Mead
Part of BFI collection "Police and Thieves."
Mrs. Salop - Lady Gambler (uncredited)
The father of a girl in an orphanage, who doesn't remember him, has been writing to her with tales of his success in business. Actually, he is impersonating a friend, a handsome gambler. When the father dies, the gambler takes the girl from the orphanage and tells her the truth. But the girl is now a full-grown beauty and complications arise, including those provided by a black-sheep brother.
Lady Levenson
Penniless man-about-town Michael Gore-Brown is delighted to hear he has been left a high-class Mayfair fashion salon. His intention is to sell it as quickly as possible, but on meeting Ellen, chief designer and manager, he quickly changes his mind and turns his attention to courting her.
Vicar's Wife
An officer's wife has a romantic dream about her husband's man (servant) and comes to believe it is true. Meanwhile the husband has asked his servant to help him, after the war, to suggest ways to ignite the romance he and his wife had before the war, as well as find a way to make money in a post-war economy.
Miss Barnes
In pre-WW1 England, a youngster is expelled from a naval academy over a petty theft, but his parents raise a political furor by demanding a trial.
