Virginia McKenna
Virginia McKenna | |
---|---|
Born | Virginia Anne McKenna 7 June 1931 |
Alma mater | Royal Central School of Speech and Drama |
Occupation(s) | Stage and screen actress, author |
Years active | 1952–present |
Spouses | |
Children | 4 |
Dame Virginia Anne McKenna
Early life
McKenna was born in
Career
Aged 19, McKenna spent six months at Dundee Repertory Theatre. She worked on stage in London's West End theatre, making her debut in Penny for a Song. She attracted attention on TV appearing in Winter's Tale with Sir John Gielgud and Shout Aloud Salvation.[4][5]
McKenna's first film was
From 1954 to 1955, she was a member of the
McKenna returned to films with Simba (1955), a drama about the Mau Mau, playing Dirk Bogarde's love interest. Rank signed her to a long term contract[10] and director Brian Desmond Hurst said "She has a terrific future, properly handled. She has all the qualities of a young Bergman and a young Katharine Hepburn.[11] McKenna was also in The Ship That Died of Shame (1955).
Stardom
McKenna was given the lead role in the war time drama
Travers and McKenna received an offer to go to Hollywood to appear in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957). Travers played Robert Browning and McKenna had the support part of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's sister. The movie flopped at the box office. The same year, Travers and McKenna, along with Margaret Rutherford and Peter Sellers, co-starred in the comedy The Smallest Show on Earth, made back in Britain.
McKenna had another hit with
She and Travers were reunited in Passionate Summer (1959), then she had a support part in MGM's The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). McKenna and Travers were also in Two Living, One Dead (1961), shot in Sweden. She was in an adaptation of A Passage to India for the BBC in 1965.
Born Free
McKenna is best remembered for her 1966 role as
McKenna appeared in An Elephant Called Slowly. The film features her close friend conservationist George Adamson and also elephants Eleanor (brought up by conservationist Daphne Sheldrick) and young Pole Pole. The subsequent premature death of Pole Pole in London Zoo led to McKenna and her husband to establish Zoo Check in 1984 with their eldest son Will Travers.[15] Zoo Check was renamed Born Free Foundation in 1991. In 1984 McKenna was involved with a protest against the poor conditions at Southampton Zoo which was closed a year later.[16]
Later career
McKenna occasionally acted in films, notably Waterloo (1970), Swallows and Amazons (1974), The Gathering Storm (1974), and Beauty and the Beast (1976).
Onstage, in 1979 she won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a British musical for her performance opposite Yul Brynner in The King and I. Over the years she appeared in more films but was also very active with television roles and on stage where she continues to make occasional appearances.
McKenna has been responsible for helping create and furnish the
McKenna is still actively involved at Born Free Foundational as a Trustee.[18]
Honours
McKenna was appointed
Personal life
McKenna and Travers had four children together, one of whom is Will Travers. She is the grandmother of actress Lily Travers.
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 Life 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, but these were replaced by a photograph when the album was reissued on the Rim label in 1979.
Her audiobook work includes The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett,[21] and narration of The Lonely Doll by Dare Wright.
McKenna is a vegetarian.[22] She is a patron of Cinnamon Trust, a national charity that helps elderly people to keep their pets.[23]
Her autobiography, The Life in My Years, was published by Oberon Books in March 2009.[24]
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 | Adela Quested | (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 | |
1972–1973 | The Edwardians
|
Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick | BBC Television miniseries |
1974 | Swallows and Amazons | Mother | |
The Gathering Storm | Clemmie Churchill | (TV) | |
1975 | Cheap in August: Shades of Green | Mary Watson | (TV)Thames Television Series |
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 | |
2005 | A Murder is Announced
|
Belle Goedler | |
2010 | Love/Loss | Mary | |
2012 | Leona Calderon | Elderly British Lady | [25] |
2016 | Golden Years | Martha Goode | |
Ethel & Ernest[26] | Lady of the House | (voice) | |
2019 | Widow's Walk | Myrtle |
Non-fiction films
- The Lions are Free is the real life continuation of Born Free. This film tells about what happened to the lions that were in the film Born Free. Bill Travers, who had starred with McKenna, wrote, produced and directed the film, along with James Hill, the director of Born Free. Travers and Hill went to a remote area in Kenya to visit with the noted conservationist George Adamson. The film has scenes of George and Bill interacting with lions who are living free.
- Christian: The Lion at World's End is a documentary (with a re-enaction sequence at the beginning) about the now-famous lion's journey from a London store to George Adamson's reserve in Kenya. Virginia McKenna and her husband, Bill Travers, had a chance meeting with Christian and his owners Ace Bourke and John Rendall. Through McKenna and Travers' connection with George Adamson, the lion was successfully brought to Africa and taught how to fend for himself.
Bibliography
- On Playing With Lions, (with Bill Travers) Collins, (1966) ISBN 0-00-241607-7[27]
- Some of My Friends Have Tails, Collins (1971) ISBN 0-00-262752-3
- Into the Blue, Aquarian Press, (1992) ISBN 1-85538-254-7
- Journey to Freedom, (with help from ISBN 1-898784-73-6.
Discography
- Two Faces of Love LP, Gold Star 15-030, 1975. Reissued as Rim RIM 5001, 1979.
- The Love That I Have (Violette)/Homage to Renoir 45 rpm single, Sovereign SOV 125, 1974.
- The Love That I Have/Send in the Clowns 45 rpm single, RIM 002, 1979.
References
- ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 14 March 2011.
- ^ "The History of Born Free". bornfree.org.uk. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
- ^ V&A, Theatre and Performance Special Collections, Elsie Fogerty Archive, THM/324
- ^ "ON STAGE AND SCREEN". The Advertiser. Vol. 95, no. 29, 489. South Australia. 18 April 1953. p. 7. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
- ^ a b "VIRGINIA McKENNA CAUSES SENSATION". Daily Mercury. Vol. 86, no. 275. Queensland, Australia. 17 November 1952. p. 14. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
- ^ infotextmanuscripts.org: Criterion Programme, June 1953
- ^ "ENGLISH OTERS GOBBLE AT THEIR FIRST T.V. POLL". The Argus. Victoria, Australia. 7 May 1955. p. 13. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
- ^ Thornton, Michael. "Virginia McKenna, her fiery marriage and the husband who cheated on her with a Moroccan gigolo". Ghana Nation. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
- ProQuest 114348031. Library login required
- ^ "Filin Fan Fare". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 23, no. 4. Australia. 22 June 1955. p. 31. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
- The Mail. Vol. 44, no. 2, 208. South Australia. 2 October 1954. p. 68. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
- ^ "BRITISH FILMS MADE MOST MONEY: BOX-OFFICE SURVEY" The Manchester Guardian 28 December 1956: 3
- ^ The Most Popular Film Star In Britain. The Times (London, England), Friday, 7 December 1956; pg. 3
- ^ Wiseman, Thomas (22 November 1956). "Mr Davis Takes on Hollywood". Nottingham Evening Post. p. 9.
- ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ Gale, Jez. "The beasts that brought Southampton to life". Southern Daily Echo. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
- ^ "Welcome to Eilean Bàn". eileanban.org. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
- ^ "Meet our UK team". bornfree.org.uk. Archived from the original on 3 December 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
- ^ "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N9.
- ^ Virginia McKenna: "My damehood belongs to those fighting to end animal suffering", The Herald (Glasgow). Retrieved 31 December 2022.
- ^ "The Secret Garden Audio Book Download for your iPod : download from Silksoundbooks". silksoundbooks.com. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ "First Impressions: Virginia McKenna". lady.co.uk. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
- ^ "Companion animals and the elderly". cinnamon.org.uk. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
- ^ "The Life in My Years by Virginia McKenna". bloomsbury.com. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
- ^ "Leona Calderon". Archived from the original on 20 February 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
- ^ "Voice Cast Announced". 3 August 2015.
- ^ "Bibliography – BooksFilmsMovies". fatheroflions.org. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
External links
- Virginia McKenna at IMDb
- Born Free Foundation
- Photos from Virginia Mckenna and the Lions from the film Born Free
- http://www.eileanban.org/ home to the Gavin Maxwell museum, author of Ring of Bright Water. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
- 2004 Virginia McKenna Brief profile
- The Cinnamon Trust, cinnamon.org.uk. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
- British Entertainment History Project interview, historyproject.org.uk. Retrieved 30 December 2022.