Happy Birthday Wendy Hiller

[Risen Star]

Dame Wendy Hiller, the great British actress, would have been 97 years young today. She is buried in Buckinghamshire, England, in the St. Mary's Radnage Church graveyard alongside her husband, whom she was married to for 56 years until his death in 1993. They had two children, a son and a daughter. Wendy died 10 years later at the age of 90. She was predominately a stage actress but was in several films throughout the decades. She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the movie "Separate Tables" in 1958. Queen Elizabeth made her a Dame (female equivalent to knighthood) around 1974.

Below are two links from Youtube showing one of the early and late scenes from the Pascal Film Productions movie "Pygmalion" (1938), based on the famous play by George Bernard Shaw, which Wendy also performed in on stage. This is a film I first saw in late March, and where the young Wendy captured my heart. Although I haven't seen all her films yet, this was her greatest screen performance as far as I'm concerned.

Although not considered a beauty by Hollywood standards, she was a lot more than that. Wendy Hiller, as I saw her in "Pygmalion", is the loveliest woman I've ever seen, and as the film progresses she gets more and more beautiful. And I love her as if she was alive today and in my world.

For those unfamiliar with the story "Pygmalion", it is about a professor who helps change a common English girl with a ney dialect, into a refined Duchess. The movie "My Fair Lady" is also based on Shaw's story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLIkD8wgFm8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW5n2cGecfk

[Moonbatlulu]

One of my favorite Wendy Hiller roles is that of the Grand Duchess Natalia in Murder on the Orient Express .....

she was absolutely perfect all the way through

[PrivateSmiles]

She was awesome. I remember her in the movie "The Children's Hour" with Audrey Hepburn & Shirley McLaine.

Her only equivalent still living & working is Dame Judi Dench, IMO.