Sybil Thorndike

Acting

Sybil Thorndike

Born 1882-10-22 · Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, UK

Acting credits

Stage Fright poster
6.8

A struggling actress tries to help a friend prove his innocence when he's accused of murdering the husband of a high-society entertainer.

Stage Fright

1950

The Prince and the Showgirl poster
6.4

An American showgirl becomes entangled in political intrigue when the Prince Regent of a foreign country attempts to seduce her.

The Prince and the Showgirl

1957

Gone to Earth poster
6.2

Hazel Woods, a beautiful and young Welsh girl, lives a wild, rustic life and loves animals — in particular, her pet fox. She is hotly desired by Jack Reddin, a fox hunting squire who vies for her affection and pursues her, despite the purer amorous intentions of the local pastor.

Gone to Earth

1950

Uncle Vanya poster
5.5

Adaptation of Chekhov's play from the Chichester Festival.

Uncle Vanya

1963

Shake Hands with the Devil poster
6.5

In 1921 Dublin, the IRA battles the "Black & Tans," special British forces given to harsh measures. Irish-American medical student Kerry O'Shea hopes to stay aloof, but saving a wounded friend gets him outlawed, and inexorably drawn into the rebel organization by his former professor Sean Lenihan, who has "shaken hands with the devil" and begun to think of fighting as an end in itself. Complications arise when Kerry falls for a beautiful English hostage, and the British offer a peace treaty that is not enough to satisfy Lenihan.

Shake Hands with the Devil

1959

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby poster
6.7

A fatherless boy tries to make his fortune despite interference from his rich uncle.

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

1947

The Lady with a Lamp poster
6.6

Based on the Reginald Berkeley stage play, this compelling historical drama offers a depiction of the life story of Florence Nightingale, the young 19th-century Englishwoman famously drawn to a career in nursing. Traveling to Turkey during the Crimean War, Florence gains a reputation for being devoted to the care of wounded soldiers and for pioneering higher standards for sanitary hospital conditions.

The Lady with a Lamp

1951

A Passage to India poster
8.0

The BBC's 1965 adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel, screened as part of their Play of the Month strand, adapted by Santha Ramu Rau and John Maynard, and directed by Waris Hussein.

A Passage to India

1965

The Magic Box poster
6.5

Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once young and handsome William Green. He changed his name to include his first wife's for the photographic portrait work he excelled at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved.

The Magic Box

1952

Esmeralda poster
7.0

Silent adaptation of the Victor Hugo classic focusing on the character of Esmeralda rather than Quasimodo.

Esmeralda

1922

The Big Gamble poster
6.0

Irish seaman Vic Brennan persuades his Dublin family to finance a truck-hauling business in the remote African town of Jebanda. The only stipulation is that his cousin Samuel, a timid bank clerk, accompany Vic and his Corsican bride, Marie, to Africa and protect the family fortune.

The Big Gamble

1961

Major Barbara poster
6.8

Idealistic 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

The Weak and the Wicked poster
6.5

Jean Raymond an upper class woman with a gambling addiction, is given a twelve-month prison sentence resulting from her inability to pay her debts. At first she is overwhelmingly depressed by life in the women's prison; gradually, however, her misery is relieved by the many close friends she makes there. This sympathetic drama traces the contrasting lives and often faltering progress of the inmates of a women's prison.

The Weak and the Wicked

1954

Tudor Rose poster
8.1

The tragic story of Lady Jane Grey, the young queen who reigned in England for nine days before she was executed.

Tudor Rose

1936

Hindle Wakes poster
10.0

A Lancashire mill girl has an illicit adventure with the owner's son while on holiday. Based on the once notorious Houghton play.

Hindle Wakes

1931

The Prince, The Showgirl and Me poster
NR

A dramatized retelling of Colin Clark's experience on the 1957 film "The Prince and the Showgirl" based on the diary he kept throughout production, where he worked as third assistant director.

The Prince, The Showgirl and Me

2004

No artwork available
NR

Maurya, who lives in a village on the coast of Ireland, has lost her husband, father-in-law, and five sons to the sea. With a sense of foreboding, she predicts that by nightfall she will have no living sons remaining.

Riders to the Sea

1960

Hand in Hand poster
7.2

Seven-year-olds Michael and Rachel are best friends who do everything together and who have vowed to remain friends "forever and ever and can't be parted for never and never". Unfortunately, the society that Michael and Rachel live in is one of religious intolerance. The fact that Michael is Irish Catholic and Rachel is Jewish is a point of conflict for just about everyone in the community.

Hand in Hand

1961

The Forbidden Street poster
6.9

In Victorian London, young Adelaide is born into luxury, but marries starving artist Henry. His alcoholism and their lack of money lead to many quarrels. During one such fight, Henry slips down a flight of stairs and dies. A neighbor, Mrs. Mounsey, is the only witness, and she blackmails the young widow by threatening to tell the cops that Adelaide killed her husband. Luckily, lawyer Gilbert swoops in to help Adelaide.

The Forbidden Street

1949

No artwork available
10.0

Focuses on the suspenseful, intertwined stories of the Chancery court injustices and the scandalous secrets surrounding Lady Dedlock's past. Part of serial Tense Moments from Great Plays.

Bleak House

1922

Dawn poster
10.0

A nurse helps 210 men escape to England before the Germans catch and execute her.

Dawn

1928

The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens poster
8.0

British television film about the life of Charles Dickens directed by Ned Sherrin and starring Anthony Hopkins, Jenny Agutter and Arthur Lowe. Hopkins performance as Dickens saw him nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 1971.

The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens

1970

Jet Storm poster
7.0

Crisis in the air: A passenger aboard a commercial airplane flying from London to New York threatens to detonate a bomb over the Atlantic.

Jet Storm

1959

Alive and Kicking poster
7.1

Three elderly residents of a nursing home, fed up with their monotonous existence, engineer an escape from their drab surroundings and head for an impromptu holiday on an Irish island.

Alive and Kicking

1959