Sylvia Syms

Acting

Sylvia Syms

Born 1934-01-06 · Woolwich, London, England, UK

Sylvia May Laura Syms, OBE (January 6, 1934 - January 27, 2023) was an English actress of film, television, and stage. One of the major players in films from the mid-1950s until mid-1960s, she was nominated for a BAFTA Award for her role in Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957). She is also known for her roles in films like Ice-Cold in Alex (1958), No Trees in the Street (1959), Victim (1961), and The Tamarind Seed (1974).

Acting credits

What a Girl Wants poster
6.3

American Daphne Reynolds heads to Europe in search of the father she's never met. But instead of finding a British version of her boho mother, she learns the love of her mom's life is an uptight politician. The only problem now is that her long-lost father is engaged to a fiercely territorial social climber with a daughter who makes Daphne's life miserable.

What a Girl Wants

2003

The Queen poster
6.9

The Queen is an intimate behind the scenes glimpse at the interaction between HM Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair during their struggle, following the death of Diana, to reach a compromise between what was a private tragedy for the Royal family and the public's demand for an overt display of mourning.

The Queen

2006

A Chorus of Disapproval poster
5.4

Guy Jones (Irons) moves to a small British town and joins the local amateur dramatics society as a way to meet people. However he soon finds the drama offstage far outweighs those onstage.

A Chorus of Disapproval

1989

The Poseidon Adventure poster
5.2

A cruise ship succumbs to a terrorist act and capsizes on New Year's eve. A rag-tag group of survivors, spearheaded by a priest and a homeland security agent, must journey through the upside down vessel and attempt an escape.

The Poseidon Adventure

2005

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead poster
5.5

Will Graham is a former London crime boss who has left his former life to live as a recluse in the forest. Haunted by the blood of those he has murdered, Will wishes never to return. But when his brother commits suicide following a sexual assault at the hands of a volatile car dealer, Will returns to London to discover the cause of his brother's death and administer justice to those responsible.

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

2003

Shining Through poster
6.5

Spirited New Yorker Linda Voss goes to work for international lawyer and secret Office of Strategic Services operative Ed Leland just before World War II. As they fall in love, the United States enters the fight against Hitler, and Linda volunteers to work for Ed spying undercover behind Nazi lines. Assigned to uncover information about a German bomb, Linda also has personal motives to fulfill: discovering the fate of her Jewish family members in Berlin.

Shining Through

1992

Operation Crossbow poster
6.7

Allied agents infiltrate the Nazi rocket complex at Peenemunde in order to obtain their secrets and sabotage the plant. The film alternates between German developments of the V-1 missile and V-2 rocket (with a German cast speaking their own language) and discovery by British Intelligence of the weapon.

Operation Crossbow

1965

Shirley Valentine poster
6.3

Wondering what has happened to herself, now feeling stagnant and in a rut, Shirley Valentine finds herself regularly talking to the wall while preparing her husband's chips and egg. When her best friend wins a trip-for-two to Greece Shirley begins to see the world, and herself, in a different light.

Shirley Valentine

1989

Absolute Beginners poster
5.5

A musical adaptation of Colin MacInnes' novel about life in late 1950s London. Nineteen-year-old photographer Colin is hopelessly in love with model Crepe Suzette, but her relationships are strictly connected with her progress in the fashion world. So Colin gets involved with a pop promoter and tries to crack the big time. Meanwhile, racial tension is brewing in Colin's Notting Hill housing estate...

Absolute Beginners

1986

The Tamarind Seed poster
6.2

During a Caribbean holiday, a British civil servant finds herself falling in love with a Russian agent.

The Tamarind Seed

1974

Asylum poster
6.0

A young psychiatrist applies for a job at a mental asylum and must pass a test by interviewing four patients. He must figure out which of the patients, is in fact, the doctor that he would be replacing if hired.

Asylum

1972

Ice Cold in Alex poster
7.3

A group of army personnel and nurses attempt a dangerous and arduous trek across the deserts of North Africa during the second world war. The leader of the team dreams of his ice cold beer when he reaches Alexandria.

Ice Cold in Alex

1958

The World of Suzie Wong poster
6.6

A Hong Kong prostitute tries modeling and falls for the artist who's painting her.

The World of Suzie Wong

1960

The Desperados poster
4.2

A Confederate and his sons become postwar marauders and face another son who left them, in Texas.

The Desperados

1969

My Teenage Daughter poster
6.3

Magazine editor Valerie Carr lives in London with her two daughters Jan, aged seventeen, and Poppet, thirteen. When Jan is invited to a party at the Savoy, she meets dashing young Tony Ward Black mad about jive, owner of a Bentley, and supposedly running through a legacy. Attracted to the daring young man, she rejects Mark, a young farmer who is in love with her. But it soon becomes apparent to everyone but Jan that neither Tony's fortune nor even his name may be his own, and her association with him will lead her into delinquency and danger.

My Teenage Daughter

1956

Run Wild, Run Free poster
6.2

A young boy, unable to speak, befriends a wild colt with blue eyes and a falcon named "Lady".

Run Wild, Run Free

1969

Danger Route poster
5.6

Jonas Wilde, a British secret agent licensed to kill, wants to resign from his murderous work, but his superiors pressure him into taking on a new assignment-the assassination of a defecting Soviet scientist. In the course of the dangerous mission, he discovers a mole has infiltrated British intelligence.

Danger Route

1967

No Time for Tears poster
6.0

The interwoven dramas of staff and patients in Mayfield Children's Hospital, where the doctors and nurses are in the business of restoring children's lives. One small child risks losing his sight, while twin boys fool the doctors over which one has appendicitis. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, new nurse Margaret Collier suffers pangs of unrequited love for houseman Dr. Nigel Barnes.

No Time for Tears

1957

Child of Mine poster
5.7

A child psychologist adopted two girls whose mother was murdered, but when one begins acting strangely, fear drives her to the crime scene for answer.

Child of Mine

2005

Is Anybody There? poster
6.3

A young boy who lives in an old folks' home strikes up a friendship with a retired magician.

Is Anybody There?

2009

Flame in the Streets poster
6.3

Domestic difficulties develop in a working-class family when their daughter falls in love with a Jamaican man.

Flame in the Streets

1961

The Moonraker poster
6.9

After the battle of Worcester at the end of the Civil War, the main aim of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth is to capture Charles Stuart. The future king's escape depends on the intrepid Earl of Dawlish, who as the Moonraker has already spirited away many Royalists. Dawlish travels to the Windwhistle Inn on the south coast to prepare the escape, where he meets Anne Wyndham, the fiancée of a top Roundhead colonel.

The Moonraker

1958

Ferry to Hong Kong poster
5.6

Mark Conrad, a habitual drunk and troublemaker with a shady past, is expelled by Hong Kong police after one too many bar fights. He's sent to Macao on the Fa Tsan, a ferry owned by Captain Hart. Conrad's papers are out of order and Macao refuses him entry. Unable to go ashore, Conrad is a permanent passenger on the ferry with Hart, who detests him. It's all one long, lazy voyage for Conrad until one fateful trip when an encounter with a typhoon and pirates forces Conrad to choose between an aimless drifter's life and becoming a man again.

Ferry to Hong Kong

1959

Victim poster
7.4

A web of blackmail and murder attracts the attention of a barrister with a seemingly idyllic life, threatening to derail his career on the path of success.

Victim

1961