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Photo of Margaret Lockwood

Margaret Lockwood

Actor
Born September 15, 1916Died July 15, 1990 (73 years)
Margaret Lockwood, CBE (15 September 1916 – 15 July 1990) was an English actress, notable for her performance in the 1945 Gainsborough movie, The Wicked Lady.

Margaret Mary Lockwood Day was born in Karachi, British India (now Karachi, Pakistan), to an English administrator of a railway company and his Scottish wife. Lockwood's family returned to the United Kingdom when she was a child, along with her brother. She attended Sydenham High School for girls, and a ladies school in Kensington, London.

She began studying for the stage at an early age at the Italia Conti, and made her debut in 1928, at the age of 12, at the Holborn Empire, where she played a fairy in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In December of the following year, she appeared at the Scala Theatre in the pantomime The Babes in the Wood. In 1932, she appeared at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in Cavalcade.

Lockwood then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where she was seen by a talent scout and signed to a contract. In June 1934, she played Myrtle in House on Fire at the Queen's Theatre, and on 22 August 1934 appeared as Margaret Hamilton in Gertrude Jenning's play Family Affairs when it premiered at the Ambassadors Theatre; Helene Ferber in Repayment at the Arts Theatre in January 1936; Trixie Drew in Henry Bernard's play Miss Smith at the Duke of York's Theatre in July 1936; and back at the Queen's in July 1937 as Ann Harlow in Ann's Lapse.

Lockwood entered films in 1934, and in 1935 she appeared in the film version of Lorna Doone. In 1938 she starred in her most successful film, Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, in which she first appeared with Michael Redgrave. In 1940, she played the role of Jenny Sunley, the self-centered, frivolous wife of Michael Redgrave's character in The Stars Look Down. In the early 1940s, Lockwood changed her on-screen image to play villainesses in both contemporary and period films, becoming the most successful actress in British films during that period. Her greatest success was in the title role in The Wicked Lady (1945), a film which was controversial in its day and brought her considerable publicity. In 1946 Lockwood gained the Daily Mail National Film Awards First Prize for most popular British film actress.

She made a return to the stage in a record-breaking national tour of Noel Coward's Private Lives in 1949, and also played Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion at the Edinburgh Festival of 1951, and the title role in Peter Pan in 1949, 1950, and 1957 (the latter with her daughter as Wendy). Her subsequent long-running West End hits include an all-star production of Wilde's An Ideal Husband (1965/66, in which she played the villainous Mrs Cheveley), Somerset Maugham's Lady Frederick (1970), Relative Values (Noel Coward revival, 1973), and the thrillers Spider's Web (1955, written for her by Agatha Christie), Signpost to Murder (1962), and Double Edge (1975).

In 1969, she starred as barrister Julia Stanford in the TV play, Justice is a Woman. This inspired the Yorkshire Television series, Justice, which ran for three seasons (39 episodes) from 1971 to 1974, and featured her real-life partner, John Stone, as fictional boyfriend, Dr Ian Moody. Lockwood's role as the feisty Harriet Peterson won her Best Actress Awards from the TV Times (1971) and The Sun (1973). Her last professional appearance was as Queen Alexandra in Royce Ryton's stage play, Motherdear (Ambassadors Theatre, 1980). She was created a CBE in the New Year Honours of 1981.

Margaret Lockwood had married and been divorced from Rupert Leon. She lived her final years in seclusion and died in the Cromwell Hospital, Kensington, London from cirrhosis of the liver, aged 73. She was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium. She was survived by her daughter, actress Julia Clark (née Margaret Julia Leon, born 1941).
Movies & Shows on Plex
  • The Lady Vanishes
  • The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella
Known For
  • The Lady Vanishes
  • Night Train to Munich
  • Cast a Dark Shadow
  • The Wicked Lady
  • The Man in Grey
  • Highly Dangerous
  • The Stars Look Down
  • The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella
  • Bedelia
  • Jassy
  • The Girl in the News
  • Susannah of the Mounties
  • Trent's Last Case
  • Bank Holiday
  • Give Us the Moon
  • A Girl Must Live
  • Cardboard Cavalier
  • Midshipman Easy
  • I'll Be Your Sweetheart

Filmography

1984
James Mason: The Star They Loved to Hate · as Barbara (archive Footage)
1976
1972
Whodunnit? (UK) (TV Series) · as Panellist
1971
Justice (1971) (TV Series) · as Harriet Peterson
1967
ITV Playhouse (TV Series) · as Julia Stanford
1965
Play of the Month (TV Series) · as Louise Harrington
1963
The Human Jungle (TV Series) · as Jean Forrest
1960
BBC Sunday-Night Play (TV Series) · as Ana De Mendoza, Princess Of Eboli
1955
ITV Play of the Week (TV Series) · as Anna
1955
ITV Television Playhouse (TV Series) · as Elizabeth Claire
1955
Cast a Dark Shadow · as Freda Jeffries
1954
Trouble in the Glen · as Marissa Mengues
1953
Laughing Anne · as Laughing Anne
1952
Trent's Last Case · as Margaret Manderson
1950
Highly Dangerous · as Frances Gray
1950
Sunday Night Theatre (TV Series) · as Ann Veronica Stanley
1949
Madness of the Heart · as Lydia Garth
1949
Cardboard Cavalier · as Nell Gwynne
1947
Jassy · as Jassy Woodroofe
1947
Hungry Hill · as Fanny Rosa
1946
Bedelia · as Bedelia Carrington
1945
The Wicked Lady · as Barbara Worth
1945
1945
A Place of One's Own · as Annette Allenby
1944
A Lady Surrenders · as Lissa Campbell
1944
Give Us the Moon · as Nina
1943
Dear Octopus · as Penny Randolph
1943
The Man in Grey · as Hesther Shaw Barbary
1942
Alibi · as Helene Ardouin
1941
Quiet Wedding · as Janet Royd
1940
The Stars Look Down · as Jenny Sunley
1940
The Girl in the News · as Anne Graham
1940
Night Train to Munich · as Anna Bomasch
1939
Rulers of the Sea · as Mary Shaw
1939
A Girl Must Live · as Leslie James
1939
Susannah of the Mounties · as Vicky Standing
1938
The Lady Vanishes · as Iris Matilda Henderson
1938
Bank Holiday · as Catherine Lawrence
1938
To the Victor · as Jeannie Mcadam
1937
Doctor Syn · as Imogene Clegg
1936
The Street Singer · as Jenny Green
1936
The Beloved Vagabond · as Blanquette
1936
The Amateur Gentleman · as Georgina Huntstanton
1935
Midshipman Easy · as Donna Agnes
1935
Man of the Moment · as Vera Barton
1934
Lorna Doone · as Annie Ridd

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