Margaret Leighton

Tall, reedy, thin-browed, light-haired British award-winning theatre actress Margaret Leighton was born in Worchestershire, England, on February 26, 1922, the daughter of a businessman. Expressing an early desire to act, she quit school at age 15 and auditioned and joined Sir Barry Jackson's Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Becoming one of his star students, he hired her as a stage manager and offered her the small role of Dorothy in the stage play 'Laugh with Me' (1938). Thereby, the play marked her professional debut on stage as 'Dorothy. The play was immediately taken to the BBC-TV (Laugh with Me (1938)). During these productive repertory years, she involved herself in the classical plays Chekov, Shakespeare, and Shaw, among others.. In 1944, Margaret made her London debut for the Old Vic Company playing the daughter of the troll king in '"Peer Gynt." Joining the company under the auspices of Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir Ralph Richardson, she earned distinction as a classical stage actress. In 1946, she made her Broadway debut in repertory with productions of "Henry IV, Part I," and "Henry IV, Part II" (as Lady Percy), "Uncle Vanya" (as Yelena), "Oedipus Rex" (attendant to Jocasta) and "The Critic" (Mrs. Dangle). The opulent actress with strikingly odd, yet fascinating facial features stole more than a few plays and films away from the stars with her stunning portrayals of neurotic, brittle matrons. Her unique brand of sophisticated eccentricity went on to captivate both Broadway and London audiences with her many theatre offerings, particularly her portrayals of Celia Coplestone in "The Cocktail Party" (1950) and Orinthia in a revival of "The Apple Cart" (1953). Her New York performance as Mrs. Shankland in Terence Rattigan's drama "Separate Tables" (1956) earned her a Tony Award. She returned to Broadway to play Beatrice in Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" in 1959, before returning in 1962 as Hannah in "The Night of the Iguana" and earning her second "Best Actress" Tony trophy. She would continue to return to Broadway throughout the 1960's with the plays "Tchin-Tchin," "The Chinese Prime Minister," "Slapstick Tragedy" and the 1967 heralded production of "The Little Foxes," first playing Birdie before taking over the role of Regina. During the 1950's and 1960's, Margaret would alternate between British and U.S. filming. She made her British debut as Catherine Winslow in Rattigan's The Winslow Boy (1948) starring Robert Donat, then co-starred opposite David Niven in the period biopic Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948). Hitchcock used her next in one of his lesser known romantic crime films Under Capricorn (1949) before entangling herself in a romantic triangle with Celia Johnson and Noël Coward in The Astonished Heart (1950), which was both written and directed by Coward. In the crimer Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951), Margaret plays a Scotland Yard sergeant who pulls the master sleuth (Walter Pidgeon) out of retirement to infiltrate a vicious gang together, while in the mystery crime drama, Murder on Monday (1952), the touching drama The Holly and the Ivy (1952) and the saucy comedy A Novel Affair (1957), she reunited with her Old Vic theatre mentor Sir Ralph Richardson. Margaret married (1947) and divorced (1955) noted publisher Max Reinhardt (of Reinhardt & Evans), known for his collection of letters and photographs from playwright and novelist George Bernard Shaw. Her second husband would be actor Laurence Harvey who starred in the British crime thriller The Good Die Young (1954) in which Margaret made a co-starring appearance as his abused wife. They would marry later in 1957. Margaret earned her first top cinematic billing as Helen Teckman in The Teckman Mystery (1954) and reunited with David Niven in the military film Court Martial (1954). Playing a Southern aristocrat in the U.S. filming of William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury (1959) starring Yul Brynner, she followed that in the 1960's with a co-star part opposite Peter Sellers in the comedy Waltz of the Toreadors (1962) and an all-star American cast headed by Henry Fonda in the potent political drama The Best Man (1964). The black comedy The Loved One (1965) and the dramatic 7 Women (1966), playing one of several ladies in peril at a Chinese mission, followed. Appearing in TV-movie versions of literary classics including "Arms and the Man," "As You LIke It" and "The Confidential Clerk," Margaret began to make guest appearances on TV programs such as "Suspicion," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour," "Playhouse 90," "Ben Casey," "Burke's Law," "The F.B.I.," "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. and "Judd for the Defense," in addition to a recurring role on "Dr. Kildare." Divorced from Harvey in 1961, Margaret's third and final marriage to actor Michael Wilding in 1964 was an enduring matchup. The couple went on to co-star in the period piece Lady Caroline Lamb (1972). Other notable screen credits around that time include Marriage a la Mode (1955), Waltz of the Toreadors (1962), The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969) and the TV-movie, Great Expectations (1974) as Miss Havisham. Margaret would receive her only Oscar nomination for her support role in The Go-Between (1971) starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates as Christie's manipulative, class-conscious mother. In 1971, Margaret was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but didn't let it slow her down for quite some time. She continued to perform in such movies as X, Y and Zee (1972), The Nelson Affair (1973) and the TV horror offering Frankenstein: The True Story (1973). By 1975 when she was no longer capable of walking, she continued to act giving an over-the-top comic performance in A Dirty Knight's Work (1976). She breathed her last on January 13, 1976. Margaret had no children by any of her marriages.