Margaret Lockwood
Date of birth: 1916-09-15
Place of birth: Karachi, British India [now Pakistan]
Known for: Acting
Also known as: Маргарет Локвуд, Margaret Mary Day Lockwood
Biography
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).
Movie Credits
The Lady Vanishes
1938-10-07
On a train headed for England a group of travelers is delayed by an avalanche. Holed up in a hotel i
Jury's Evidence
1936-01-01
The Foreman of an Old Bailey jury refuses to accept circumstantial evidence and helps solve murder c
James Mason: The Star They Loved to Hate
1984-01-01
Retrospective of the life and movie work of British actor James Mason. The documentary presents inte
Spider's Web
1955-04-04
Cast a Dark Shadow
1955-09-20
Edward "Teddy" Bare is a ruthless schemer who thinks he's hit the big time when he kills his older w
The Wicked Lady
1945-11-15
A married woman finds new thrills as a masked robber on the highways.
Doctor Syn
1937-08-25
A highly respected clergyman is actually a former pirate who exacts vigilante justice in this Britis
Honours Easy
1935-07-31
Unhinged art dealer William Barton seeks revenge on a man who ruined his career years ago. He does s
Night Train to Munich
1940-08-31
Czechoslovakia, March 1939, on the eve of World War II. As the German invaders occupy Prague, invent
A Place of One's Own
1945-03-20
An elderly couple move into an old, supposedly haunted abandoned house. A young girl comes to live w
The Man in Grey
1943-08-06
After marrying a dour and disinterested lord for status, a young woman falls in love with a stage ac
Madness of the Heart
1949-12-20
A blind Englishwoman weds a French nobleman and moves into his family's chateau, but she quickly rea
The Stars Look Down
1940-01-22
Davey Fenwick leaves his mining village on a university scholarship intent on returning to better su
Bank Holiday
1938-01-27
A 1930s British summer Bank Holiday starts at midday on Saturday with a rush for the trains to the s
The Slipper and the Rose
1976-03-25
Prince Edward wants to marry for love, but the King and court of the Kingdom of Euphrania are anxiou
Susannah of the Mounties
1939-06-13
This classic family drama stars Shirley Temple as young orphan Susannah Sheldon, the sole survivor o
Bedelia
1946-07-08
Bedelia Carrington is living happily, it appears, in Monte Carlo with her husband Charlie Carrington
Trent's Last Case
1952-09-22
When a wealthy business man is found dead reporter Philip Trent is sent to investigate. Against the
Highly Dangerous
1950-12-06
A US newsman and a British entomologist spy on germ-warfare research in a mythical country.
Girl in the News
1940-08-28
An elderly lady manages to sneak some pills away from her nurse and dies of an overdose. The nurse i
Rulers of the Sea
1939-11-08
The struggle of a man to build a steam ship to take him across the Atlantic in spite of all setbacks
Trouble in the Glen
1954-06-15
Major Jim "Lance" Lansing, an American ex-pilot of the U.S. Air Corps, returns to Scotland after the
Alibi
1942-08-10
In 1930s France a bar hostess helps a man prove himself innocent of murder.
Hungry Hill
1947-01-07
Life becomes a tragedy for the wife of an Irish heir to a 19th-century family feud and fortune.
Man of the Moment
1935-09-01
Love blossoms after a young man rescues a pretty girl who attempted to drown herself.
Owd Bob
1938-01-26
Adam McAdam is an old, dour sheepherder whose life is devoted to his faithful dog, the whiskey bottl
Midshipman Easy
1935-11-01
Set during the Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic War, Mr Midshipman Easy has just joined the Roy
Quiet Wedding
1941-04-19
A young couple become engaged, but enjoy a number of comedic aventures before their wedding day.
Jassy
1947-08-13
In 19th century England, Jassy is a young Gypsy girl blessed with the gift of second sight. Pursued
Look Before You Love
1948-01-06
Romance in Rio for a girl of the embassy staff.
The White Unicorn
1947-10-29
In a home for delinquent girls, the worst offender exchanges reminiscences with the warden.
Laughing Anne
1953-09-01
Story of love affair of captain who runs ship in Java Seas and a French saloon singer. From a story
Love Story
1944-11-20
After discovering that she has only a short time left to live, concert pianist Lissa travels to Corn
Give Us the Moon
1944-07-31
Set just after the end of WWII (but filmed in the middle of it) in a time of general euphoria at hav
Cardboard Cavalier
1949-03-31
A historical romance between Lord Lovelace and Nell Gwynn. In Cromwellian England, royalists commiss
The Beloved Vagabond
1936-08-24
Flying from one charming lady---eluding another---and almost losing both!
The Street Singer
1937-03-01
Following an argument with his co-star during the rehearsals for a new stage show, famous singer Ric
The Amateur Gentleman
1936-04-26
A former boxing champion, now an innkeeper, is accused of stealing a watch from a party of guests at
Pygmalion
1948-02-08
Can Professor Higgins transform flower-girl Eliza Dolittle into a great lady?
A Girl Must Live
1939-09-24
A run-away school-girl falls among chorus girls planning to marry into the nobility.
Justice Is a Woman
1969-07-14
Julia Stafford is asked to defend a posh youth, an outsider in a conservative Scottish town, who is
Lorna Doone
1934-12-09
High drama, set in the English moorland of the 1600s. John Ridd wants revenge on the criminal Doone
I'll Be Your Sweetheart
1945-07-30
In turn-of-the-century London a young music publisher fights both competitors and piracy in a time w
Dear Octopus
1943-09-20
Three generations of a family gather together to celebrate a golden wedding anniversary, while the f
Someday
1935-11-18
“Curley Blake is a lift operator in a block of flats. He is in love with Emily, the cleaning girl. W
The Case of Gabriel Perry
1935-04-30
An unstable Victorian doctor murders a woman.