Celia Johnson

Acting

Celia Johnson

Born 1908-12-18 · Richmond, Surrey, England, UK

Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson DBE (18 December 1908 – 25 April 1982) was a British actress. She began her stage acting career in 1928, and subsequently achieved success in West End and Broadway productions. She also appeared in several films, including the romantic drama Brief Encounter (1945), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was nominated for BAFTA Awards on five occasions, and won twice, for her work in the film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), and for the television production Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, a BBC Play for Today broadcast in 1973. Much of her later work was for television, and she continued performing in theatre for the rest of her life. She died suddenly from a stroke at age 73. Description above from the Wikipedia article Celia Johnson licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Brief Encounter poster
7.7

Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.

Brief Encounter

1945

Les Misérables poster
7.1

In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

Les Misérables

1978

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie poster
6.9

A headstrong young teacher in a private school in 1930s Edinburgh ignores the curriculum and influences her impressionable 12-year-old charges with her over-romanticized worldview.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

1969

In Which We Serve poster
6.7

The story of the HMS Torrin, from its construction to its sinking in the Mediterranean during action in World War II. The ship’s first and only commanding officer is Captain E.V. Kinross, who trains his men not only to be loyal to him and the country, but—most importantly—to themselves.

In Which We Serve

1942

No artwork available
NR

A lonely, elderly lady strikes up a friendship with a driving instructor.

Love Affair

1974

This Happy Breed poster
7.1

A chronicle of the lives of the Gibbons family, from shortly after the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second.

This Happy Breed

1944

A Kid for Two Farthings poster
6.7

Joe is a young boy who lives with his mother, Joanna, in working-class London. The two reside above the tailor shop of Mr. Kandinsky, who likes to tell Joe stories. When Kandinsky informs Joe that a unicorn can grant wishes, the hopeful lad ends up buying a baby goat with one tiny horn, believing it to be a real unicorn. Undaunted by his rough surroundings, Joe sets about to prove that wishes can come true.

A Kid for Two Farthings

1955

Romeo and Juliet poster
7.6

Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

Romeo and Juliet

1978

All's Well That Ends Well poster
6.5

Helena loves Bertram, but he's of noble birth, while she's just a doctor's daughter. But Bertram is at the court of the King of France, who is ill, and Helena has a remedy that might cure him and win her the right to marry Bertram. But does Bertram want to marry her?

All's Well That Ends Well

1981

The Captain's Paradise poster
5.7

Mediterranean ferryboat captain Henry St James has things well organized - a loving and very English wife Maud in Gibraltar, and the loving if rather more hot-blooded Mistress, Nita in Tangiers. A perfect life. As long as neither woman decides to follow him to the other port.

The Captain's Paradise

1953

The Hostage Tower poster
4.8

A flamboyant master criminal and several specialists stage an audacious scheme to capture the Eiffel Tower and hold as hostage one of its visitors, the U.S. President's mother, while the head of a UN security force tries to stop them.

The Hostage Tower

1980

The Good Companions poster
7.0

The story revolves around the Dinky Doos, a provincial musical troupe living from hand to mouth.

The Good Companions

1957

The Cherry Orchard poster
7.0

Madame Ranevskaya is a spoiled, aging aristocratic lady who returns from a trip to Paris to face the loss of her magnificent Cherry Orchard estate after a default on the mortgage. In denial, she continues living in the past, deluding herself and her family, while the beautiful cherry trees are being axed down by the re-possessor Lopakhin, her former serf, who has his own agenda.

The Cherry Orchard

1971

The Potting Shed poster
NR

The patriarch of the family is dying and James, his estranged son, appears unexpectedly. He can remember nothing about a mysterious moment that occurred in the family's potting shed when he was age 14. Family members who recall the event are unwilling to describe it to him.

The Potting Shed

1981

The Dame of Sark poster
NR

1976 play. During the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands, Dame Sybil Hathaway comes up against her invading masters.

The Dame of Sark

1976

Letter from Home poster
7.0

Two evacuee children living in the United States receive a letter from their mother, Mrs Taylor, telling them of her life in Blitz-era London. Glimpses of the events of Mrs Taylor's typical day, including ration shopping and fire warden training, belie the letter's innocuous statements.

Letter from Home

1941

I Believe in You poster
6.8

A drama about parole officers to follow the successful Ealing police story of "The Blue Lamp"(1950) . Various sub-plots follow the parole officers and their charges.

I Believe in You

1952

The Holly and the Ivy poster
6.5

An English clergyman's neglect of his grown children, in his zeal to tend to his parishioners, comes to the surface at a Christmas family gathering.

The Holly and the Ivy

1952

The Astonished Heart poster
4.8

Several years after graduation, best friends Barbara (Celia Johnson) and Leonora (Margaret Leighton) reconnect as if not a day has gone by. But Leonora could do without Barbara's husband, Christian (Noel Coward), whom she finds arrogant and off-putting ... at first. One evening alone together, romance is set ablaze, leaving Christian with a lot of explaining to do to Barbara.

The Astonished Heart

1950

A Bolt of Lightning poster
7.0

The story of James Otis who was a part of the American revolution. He contested in court the right of the British to search colonists' homes.

A Bolt of Lightning

1951

No artwork available
8.0

Three generations of a family gather together to celebrate a golden wedding anniversary, while the family secretary has the unenviable task of smoothing out all the deep-set hostilities and jealousies.

Dear Octopus

1943

Staying On poster
7.0

A british colonel and his wife decide to remain in India after the departure of the British raj in the 1940s.

Staying On

1980

The Cellar and the Almond Tree poster
NR

The Countess lives in her East European palace, oblivious to the new regime that has moved in. After the war Volubin, a Marxist writer, is instructed to obtain from her the keys to her wine-cellar, which are needed for a celebration dinner. First shown in 1970, this play charts the transition of dictatorial power in the 20th century.

The Cellar and the Almond Tree

1970

The Emperor's New Hat poster
NR

For 51 years, the Comtesse has bought a new hat to celebrate her wedding anniyear, she invites her granddaughter Sylvie to the ceremony.

The Emperor's New Hat

1977