
Acting
Wendy Hiller
Born — Died
1912-08-15 — 2003-05-14
Place of birth
Bramhall, Cheshire, England, UK
Known for
Acting
Credits
65 titles
Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE (15 August 1912 – 14 May 2003) was an English actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Separate Tables (1958).
Known for
6.1The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
Great Performances
1971
6.6Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
Play for Today
1970
5.3Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George Lowther. McCleery had previously produced the live series Cameo Theatre which introduced to television the concept of theater-in-the-round, TV plays staged with minimal sets. Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse recalled: When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theater: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week’s show. That was over 50 years ago, and I’m trying to think; I believe the TV art director is his own set decorator —yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery’s chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity.
Matinee Theater
1955
5.2A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.
BBC Play of the Month
1965
5.4An American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. Studio One, presented by Westinghouse, was one of the first of the anthology TV programs. The episodes were often abridged remakes of movies from years gone by and many future well-known television and movie actors appeared in the productions.
Studio One
1948
6.8A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.
Tales of the Unexpected
1979
Film credits
1990s · 3 titles
6.5Nancy Franklin was so overwhelmed by the film 'I Know Where I'm Going!' (1945) that she traveled from New York to the Western Isles of Scotland to see the places where it was made and to find out more about the people who made it. This documentary retraces her steps on a subsequent visit.
I Know Where I'm Going! Revisited
1994
3.7Adapted from their letters and journals, this is a portrayal of the unique 25-year friendship shared by Dame Laurentia McLachlan (Benedictine nun), Sir Sydney Cockerell (museum curator), and George Bernard Shaw (playwright/critic).
The Best of Friends
1991
10.0A reporter is assigned a then-and-now piece on a 50-year old photospread of three society beauties. One of them, Lady Alice Munroe, now the widowed Grafin von Holzendorf, has agreed to be interviewed.
The Countess Alice
1993
1980s · 15 titles
8.1A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity.
The Elephant Man
1980
7.9Anne Shirley, now a schoolteacher, has begun writing stories and collecting rejection slips. She acts as Diana's maid of honor, develops a relationship with Gilbert Blythe, and finds herself at Kingsport Ladies' College. But while Anne enjoys the battles and the friends she makes, she finds herself returning to Avonlea.
Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel
1987
6.6An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man being tried for the murder of a socialite.
Witness for the Prosecution
1982
4.8Egyptologist Robin Ellis and American reporter Eva Marie Saint uncover King Tut's burial site but wealthy profiteer Raymond Burr tries to make sure that the valuable artifacts in its chambers never leave the country.
The Curse of King Tut's Tomb
1980
6.6A penniless middle-aged spinster scrapes by giving piano lessons in the Dublin of the 1950s. She makes a sad last bid for love with a fellow resident of her rundown boarding house, who imagines she has the money to bankroll the business he hopes to open.
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
1987
6.9A perfect typical LA couple find their happily-ever-after life broken when the husband confronts his long-repressed attraction for other men.
Making Love
1982
7.5In 1945, the Carlions assemble at an English country house for a family gathering. During the event, they must determine who is to take over the family brewing empire, since the present head of the business, Sir Frederick, is getting old. The results of the 1945 general election causes a major stir, and some angry farmers occupy a barn.
Country
1981
A traditional rural English Christmas, reluctantly spent with the predominantly geriatric family (who all have their quirks and eccentricities) ends in tragedy after a practical joke goes horribly wrong.
Ending Up
1989
4.0Two British women claim to have been thrown into a time warp where they saw Marie Antoinette as they were strolling through the gardens at Versailles Palace in France. After they tell their story to a psychic society, they find themselves the objects of derision and their jobs are threatened.
Miss Morison's Ghosts
1981
8.5A young orphan girl, Portia, goes to live with her well-to-do aunt and uncle. As she is groomed to become a lady, she is confused by the young man who seems to be courting her. Surrounded by pretentious people who have no clue how to deal with teenagers, she soon loses her naïveté and thinks of running away.
The Death of the Heart
1987
6.0Aegeon of Syracuse has come to Ephesus to seek his son, who went in search of his missing twin and mother months ago. Too bad that Ephesus has just declared war on Syracuse, and will instantly put to death any Syracusean found within their borders unless a ransome's paid. Meanwhile, the son, Antipholus, and his servant, Dromio (also an identical twin), keep running into strangers who seem to know them...
The Comedy of Errors
1983
his three-part miniseries begins with elderly Lady Slane (Wendy Hiller) sitting watchfully by the deathbed of her husband. Tended by her equally aged French maid Genoux (Eileen Way), who has served her faithfully for a lifetime, Lady Slane deals with a succession of advice from her large flock of middle-aged children. The family is chagrined by, but honors, her choice to live a modest country retirement at some distance, in Hampstead Heath. Lady Slane competently comes to terms to lease and restore a crumbling house, aided by an aging land agent Gervase Bucktrout (Maurice Denham). Once settled, an acquaintance from 50 years past, Mr. Fitzgeorge (Harry Andrews), visits the cottage to rekindle memories of their brief, deep, but unfulfilled brush as soul-mates in colonial India when Lady Slane was a devoted young wife and mother. Great-granddaughter Deborah (Jane Snowden), who has been trapped by a socially desirable but passionless engagement, regularly visits to confide and seek wisdom.
All Passion Spent
1986
Adaptation from Oscar Wilde's play.
The Importance of Being Earnest
1981
An elderly couple are reunited after fifty years.
The Kingfisher
1983
An aging school teacher remembers times gone by and thinks about her own past.
Attracta
1983
1970s · 6 titles
7.1In 1935, when his train is stopped by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before.
Murder on the Orient Express
1974
6.0A luxury liner carries Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany in a desperate fight for survival.
Voyage of the Damned
1976
9.0The 1972 BBC adaptation of Ibsen’s epic dramatic fantasy about a man in search of his soul.
Peer Gynt
1972
5.7A group of potential heirs gather in a forbidding old house to learn which of them will inherit a fortune. Later, they learn that a flesh-rending maniac is loose.
The Cat and the Canary
1978
8.0Richard II, who ascended the throne as a child, is a regal and stately monarch. He believes he is the rightful ruler of England, ordained by God, yet he is a weak and ineffective king - wasteful in his spending habits, unwise in his choise of chansellors, and detached from his country and its people. When he seizes the land of his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, both the commoners and the barons decide that their king has gone too far...
Richard II
1978
An elderly recluse dies in the process of changing her will. The change would have meant that the servants would continue to live in her house - now it seems they will be homeless.
Last Wishes
1978
1960s · 6 titles
7.3A depiction of the conflict between King Henry VIII of England and his Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, who refuses to swear the Oath of Supremacy declaring Henry Supreme Head of the Church in England.
A Man for All Seasons
1966
6.0Julian Berniers returns from Illinois with his young bride Lily Prine to the family in New Orleans. His spinster sisters Carrie and Anna welcome the couple, who arrive with expensive gifts. The sisters hope Julian will help with their expenses, and he tells them that while his profitable factory went out of business, he did manage to save money. It turns out that Julian pulled off a real estate scam and took off with the money. Carrie is obsessed with her brother. Her jealousy of Lily pushes her to discover the shady land deal for herself and she does everything she can to wreck their marriage.
Toys in the Attic
1963
6.5The son of a working-class British mining family has dreams of pursuing an art career, but when he strikes up an affair with an older, married woman from the town it enrages his kind but possessive mother.
Sons and Lovers
1960
5.6A young man journeys from a difficult childhood to maturity, exploring social injustice, personal development, and the complexities of human relationships.
David Copperfield
1969
NRThe 152nd issue of the long running industry cinemagazine. Includes the articles: '35 Years After', 'Stormy Genius' ( documenting the filming of 'Sons and Lovers'), 'East Wemyss' and 'Lot 150'.
Mining Review 13th Year No. 8
1960
Based on Anton Chekhov's short story, "About Love". Starring John Gielgud as Chekhov.
From Chekhov with Love
1968
1950s · 7 titles
7.1The lives of a disparate group of unfulfilled people converge at a small, seaside English hotel.
Separate Tables
1958
7.0A broke British nobleman targets his Canadian uncle, but other relatives get in the way.
How to Murder a Rich Uncle
1957
5.5As Kenya's Mau Mau uprising tears the country apart, former childhood friends Kimani (Sidney Poitier), a native, and Peter (Rock Hudson), a British colonist, find themselves on opposite sides of the struggle in this provocative drama. Though each is devoted to his cause, both wish for a more moderate path -- but their hopes for a peaceful resolution are thwarted by rage, colonial arrogance and escalating violence on both sides.
Something of Value
1957
7.0A British naval officer has a brief affair with a woman in England and never knows that she bears him a son. 20 years later the boy is on a ship under his command when he is tracking a German Raider. When the boy is captured after his ship is sunk, he finds a way to slow the German's progress while a lethal hunt for him goes on.
Sailor of the King
1953
5.8After financial improprieties are discovered at the Eastern trading company where he works, Peter Willems flees the resulting disgrace and criminal charges. He persuades the man who gave him his start in life, the merchant ship captain Lingard, to bring him to a trading post on a remote Indonesian island where he can hide out.
Outcast of the Islands
1951
10.0Documentary arguing the case for equal pay for women. Women are seen employed in their homes, in factories, teaching, nursing, in politics and in the professions. There are also some newsreel shots of marching suffragettes.
To Be a Woman
1951
NRGeorge Bernard Shaw’s illustrious friends pay tribute to his talents – with anecdotes, artefacts and one-liners.
Bernard Shaw
1957
1940s · 2 titles
7.1Plucky Englishwoman Joan Webster travels to the remote islands of the Scottish Hebrides in order to marry a wealthy industrialist. Trapped by inclement weather on the Isle of Mull and unable to continue to her destination, Joan finds herself charmed by the straightforward, no-nonsense islanders around her, and becomes increasingly attracted to naval officer Torquil MacNeil, who holds a secret that may change her life forever.
I Know Where I'm Going!
1945
6.8Idealistic young Barbara is the daughter of rich weapons manufacturer Andrew Undershaft. She rebels against her estranged father by joining the Salvation Army. Wooed by professor-turned-preacher Adolphus Cusins, Barbara eventually grows disillusioned with her causes and begins to see things from her father's perspective.
Major Barbara
1941
1930s · 2 titles
7.0When linguistics professor Henry Higgins boasts that he can pass off Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a princess with only six months' training, Colonel George Pickering takes him up on the bet. Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins her rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred. But the plucky young woman is not the only one undergoing a transformation.
Pygmalion
1938
7.0Working class family win £5oo and move to the country. They quickly run into the snooty upper class establishment who resent the newcomers.
Lancashire Luck
1937
Series credits
6.1The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
Great Performances
1971
6.6Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
Play for Today
1970
5.3Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George Lowther. McCleery had previously produced the live series Cameo Theatre which introduced to television the concept of theater-in-the-round, TV plays staged with minimal sets. Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse recalled: When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theater: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week’s show. That was over 50 years ago, and I’m trying to think; I believe the TV art director is his own set decorator —yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery’s chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity.
Matinee Theater
1955
5.2A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.
BBC Play of the Month
1965
5.2A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.
BBC Play of the Month
1965
5.4An American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. Studio One, presented by Westinghouse, was one of the first of the anthology TV programs. The episodes were often abridged remakes of movies from years gone by and many future well-known television and movie actors appeared in the productions.
Studio One
1948
6.8A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.
Tales of the Unexpected
1979
7.0ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.
ITV Playhouse
1967
7.1An annual American awards ceremony honoring cinematic achievements in the film industry. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a statuette, officially the Academy Award of Merit, that is better known by its nickname Oscar.
The Oscars
1953
7.8A television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955
6.0The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and produced by BBC Television. It was transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985 and spanned seven series. Development of the series began in 1975 when Messina saw that Glamis Castle would make a perfect location for an adaptation of Shakespeare's play As You Like It. On returning to London, he envisioned an entire series devoted exclusively to the dramatic works of Shakespeare. After encountering numerous problems trying to produce the series, Messina eventually pitched the idea to the BBC’s departmental heads and the series was greenlighted. The series as a whole received generally negative reviews from critics.
The BBC Television Shakespeare
1978
6.0Screenplay was a drama anthology television series, broadcast on BBC between 1986 and 1993. Numerous episodes were produced including one named "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" starring Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie.
ScreenPlay
1986
Profiles in Courage is an American historical anthology series that was telecast weekly on NBC from November 8, 1964 to May 9, 1965. The series was based on the recently President John F. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize winning book, Profiles in Courage.
Profiles in Courage
1964
8.8Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
8.4Anne Shirley, now a schoolteacher, has begun writing stories and collecting rejection slips. She acts as Diana's maid of honor, develops a relationship with Gilbert Blythe, and finds herself at Kingsport Ladies' College. But while Anne enjoys the battles and the friends she makes, she finds herself returning to Avonlea.
Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel
1987
8.0A half-hour anthology series.
Lilli Palmer Theatre
1955
5.4Sir Paul Berowne - a prominent Government Minister - turns to his old friend Adam Dalgleish following a series of threatening letters delivered to his London home. The minister's wife is in an adulterous affair with a prominent surgeon and she makes no secret of it. Berowne's only daughter is involved in left-wing politics and rejects her conservative father. Adding to his woes, his own mother favoured her son who was killed in an IRA terrorist ambush over Paul. The informal investigation has barely began when Dalgliesh is faced with a series of bizarre deaths that turn the case into an urgent assignment. —DumbeBlonde
A Taste for Death
1988
5.0Clochemerle is a 1972 British–West German television comedy based on Gabriel Chevallier's 1934 novel of the same name, with Ray Galton and Alan Simpson adapting the text. Filmed on location in France, it starred Roy Dotrice, Wendy Hiller, Cyril Cusack, Kenneth Griffith, and Cyd Hayman, with narration by Peter Ustinov. In the small French village of Clochemerle, Mayor Barthelemey Piechut plans for the erection of a 'pissoir' (gentlemen's public convenience) in the town square. Unfortunately, the rest of the rural inhabitants aren't as impressed.
Clochemerle
1972
An anthology series with the premise that there is a story behind every door.
Knock on Any Door
1965
7.5Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy was a British television series which first aired on ITV in 1986. It depicts Lord Mountbatten's time as Viceroy of India shortly after the Second World War in the days leading up to Indian independence.
Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy
1986
BBC anthology series of classic plays.
Stage 2
1971
Six of Britain's top television playwrights were given the opportunity to write the plays they had always wanted to write.
Plays of Today
1969
8.0Lady Slane, the wife of a recently deceased politician, retreats to a cottage in the countryside. In the process, she must attempt to discard her old public profile and find a new way of living.
All Passion Spent
1986
NR“The Growing Summer,” on the ITV network, tomorrow (8.15) features Wendy Hiller. “The Growing Summer,” a novel for children by Noel Streatfeild, has been dramatised for television by Eric Thompson. The story, in seven episodes, is the second series presented in London Weekend Television's “Heyday Theatre". The series has been filmed in colour on location at Bantry Bay, Southern Ireland, which was Miss Streatfeild’s original setting for her book. “The Growing Summer” is a story about four children who have been sent to stay with eccentric Great Aunt Dymphna, while their parents are abroad. They are joined by the mysterious Stephan (played by Louis Selwyn). The story tells how the children's personalities are developed under the guidance of their Great Aunt, a whimsical, almost magical old lady, played by Wendy Hiller. The children are played by Hoagy Davies (Alex), Zuleika Robson (Penny), Mark Ward (Robin), and Laura Hartong (Naomi).
The Growing Summer
1968
