Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson DBE (December 18, 1908 – April 26, 1982) was an English actress, famous for her role in the 1945 film, Brief Encounter, opposite Trevor Howard, for which she received her only Oscar nomination.
She was born in Richmond, London and was educated at St Paul's Girls School in London. She trained in acting at RADA. Her stage début was in Major Barbara in 1928. By 1931, she was starring as Ophelia in a New York production of Hamlet.
She made relatively few films, of which Brief Encounter is by far the best known. Other notable films include In Which We Serve (1942), The Captain's Paradise (1953),This Happy Breed (1944), I Believe in You (1952) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). She generally played a genteel and/or repressed Englishwoman, though she proved in many stage productions to be a talented comedian. For her role as Miss McKay in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, she received the BAFTA Award as Best Supporting Actress.
She was married to Peter Fleming, an explorer and writer who was a brother of Ian Fleming, from 1935 until his death in 1971.
She was created a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1958, and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1981.
She died at home in Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, following a stroke in 1982, at the age of 73, survived by her 3 children. One is the actress Lucy Fleming, a star of the 1970s BBC science-fiction drama series Survivors.
Awards
Preceded by
Ingrid Bergman
for The Bells of St. Mary's
NYFCC Award for Best Actress
1946
for Brief Encounter
Succeeded by
Deborah Kerr
for Black Narcissus
Preceded by
Billie Whitelaw
for Charlie Bubbles
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1969
for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Succeeded by
Susannah York
for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
External links
Celia Johnson at the Internet Movie Database
Celia Johnson at Screen Online
Celia Johnson at Find-A-Grave
Celia Johnson bio
Persondata
NAME
Johnson, Celia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION
Actor
DATE OF BIRTH
1908-12-18
PLACE OF BIRTH
Richmond, Surrey, England
DATE OF DEATH
1982-4-26
PLACE OF DEATH
Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, England
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Johnson"
Categories: English actor stubs | 1908 births | 1982 deaths | BAFTA winners (people) | English stage actors | Royal National Theatre Company members | Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire | English film actors | People from Richmond, London | Old Paulinas
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