Celia Johnson
DBE | |
---|---|
Born | Celia Elizabeth Johnson 18 December 1908 |
Died | 26 April 1982 Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, England | (aged 73)
Education | St Paul's Girls' School |
Years active | 1928–1982 |
Spouse | |
Children | 3, including Lucy |
Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson,
Johnson began her stage acting career in 1928, and subsequently achieved success in
Early life and education
Born in
She attended
Career
Her stage début, and first professional role, was as Sarah in
She returned to London, where she appeared in a number of minor productions, before establishing herself with a two-year run in The Wind and the Rain (1933–35).[4] She married the journalist Peter Fleming in 1935, and in 1939 gave birth to their first child, a son.[4] Her theatre career flourished with her portrayals of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (1940) and the second Mrs. de Winter in Rebecca (1940); the production of the latter was halted when the theatre was destroyed by a Luftwaffe bomb in September 1940.[citation needed]
During the
Lean and Coward sought Johnson for the next production, Brief Encounter (1945). She accepted the role with misgivings because of her family responsibilities, but was interested in the part, writing to her husband, "There is no getting away from the fact that it is a very good part and one which I should love to play. I have found myself already planning how I should play bits and how I should say lines..."[3] A romantic drama about a conventional middle-class housewife who falls in love with a married doctor she meets in the refreshment room at a railway station, the film was well-received, and is now regarded as a classic. Johnson was awarded the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
After the war, Johnson concentrated on her family life, which included two daughters born in 1946 and 1947 and her occasional acting work was secondary for the following decade.[4]
In 1957 she acted with
Awards
For her role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), she received the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1958, "for services to the theatre",[4] and was raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1981.
Personal life and death
Johnson was married to Peter Fleming (who during the Second World War became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Special Operations Executive, and who was known as the author of travel literature such as Brazilian Adventure and non-fiction works including the Siege at Peking) from 1935 until Fleming's death from a heart attack in 1971, while on a shooting expedition near Glencoe in Argyll, Scotland. He was the brother of the James Bond creator, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Commander, and MI6-SIS Information Research Division (IRD) spy Ian Fleming.
They had three children:
- Nicholas Peter Val Fleming (3 January 1939 – 9 May 1995),[citation needed] spent most of his life at the Fleming family home in Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, as a farmer. He was also a journalist, and the author of thriller novels published in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and a non-fiction historical work, August 1939. From his early twenties he lived with his partner Christopher Balfour, a merchant banker.[6]
- Kate Fleming (born 1946),[citation needed] now Kate Grimond, is married to John Grimond (son of politician Jo Grimond), former foreign editor of the news magazine The Economist, now writer-at-large for the publication; the couple have three children. She is the author of Celia Johnson: A Biography (1991).
- apocalyptic fiction series Survivors. She is married to the actor and writer Simon Williams.
Since the late 1990s, the two sisters, Kate Grimond and Lucy Fleming, have co-owned the Ian Fleming estate.[citation needed]
Johnson distanced herself from her acting career while her children were young, preferring to devote her attention to her family. She was described as a woman "always ready to laugh" and "maternal in a light-hearted way" and her daughter recalled that she was often torn between her desire to care for her family and her need to be involved in the "mechanics" of acting.[3]
In 1982, she was touring with Sir
Legacy
On 18 December 2008, to mark the centenary of her birth, a blue plaque was unveiled at her childhood home in Richmond. Among the guests at the ceremony were her daughters, Lucy Fleming and Kate Grimond. In The Times, Grimond noted that the "tragedy of theatre" is that even the best performances fade from memory, and that her mother's current reputation rests almost entirely on her performance in Brief Encounter. Grimond noted that the advent of video allowed the film to be seen by a new audience, and that modern appraisals of the film had led to its being regarded as a classic.[3]
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1941 | A Letter from Home | English Mother | Short Documentary |
1942 | In Which We Serve | Mrs. Alix Kinross | |
1943 | Dear Octopus | Cynthia | aka The Randolph Family |
1944 | This Happy Breed | Ethel Gibbons | National Board of Review Award for Best Actress |
1945 | Brief Encounter | Laura Jesson | New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actress |
1950 | The Astonished Heart | Barbara Faber | |
1951 | I Believe in You | Matty Matheson | Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role |
1952 | The Holly and the Ivy | Jenny Gregory | |
1953 | The Captain's Paradise | Maud St. James | Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role |
1955 | A Kid for Two Farthings | Joanna | |
1957 | The Good Companions | Miss Trant | |
1969 | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | Miss Mackay | BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role |
1973 | Play for Today | Mrs. Palfrey | Episode: "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
|
1976 | Dame of Sark | Dame Sibyl Hathaway | TV movie |
1978 | Les Misérables | Sister Simplice | TV movie |
1980 | The Hostage Tower | Mrs. Wheeler | TV movie |
Staying On | Lucy Smalley | TV movie Granada Nominated – British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
| |
1981 | Celebrity Playhouse | Mrs. Callifer | Episode: "The Potting Shed" Nominated – British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
|
References
- ^ Obituary Variety, 28 April 1982.
- ^ "Celia Johnson Biography". IMDb. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f Grimond, Kate (18 December 2008). "Growing up with a movie icon Celia Johnson as mum". The Times. London. Retrieved 4 May 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Blue plaque for actress Celia Johnson". English Heritage. 18 December 2008. Archived from the original on 7 May 2009. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
- ^ "My encounter with Celia Johnson - Simon Williams".
- ^ Hope, Jonathan (9 June 1995). "OBITUARIES: Nichol Fleming". The Independent. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
- ^ Douglas-Home 2004.
Further reading
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2004. (accessed 4 January 2009).