Kay Walsh

Acting

Kay Walsh

Born 1911-11-15 · Chelsea, London, England, UK

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Kay Walsh  (born Kathleen Walsh, 15 November 1911,Chelsea, London, England; died 16 April 2005, Chelsea, London) was an English actress and dancer. She grew up in Pimlico, brought up by her grandmother. She began her career as a dancer in West End music halls. Walsh made her film debut in How's Chances? (1934) in a small part, and had a larger role in another 1934 film, Get Your Man. She continued to act in "quota quickies" films for several years. Walsh first met David Lean, then a film editor, in 1936, during the filming of Secret Of Stamboul. They began a relationship and Walsh broke off her engagement to Pownell Pellew. Walsh and Lean married on 23 November 1940. She moved on to higher-prestige films with appearances in two Noel Coward-scripted films, In Which We Serve (1942) and This Happy Breed (1944), both directed by Lean. Walsh had campaigned for Lean to receive co-director credit on In Which We Serve. Walsh contributed dialogue to the 1938 film of Pygmalion, and also devised the scenario for the closing sequence of Lean's film adaptation of Great Expectations (1946), for which she received a writing credit on the latter film. She also devised the opening sequence of Lean's adaptation of Oliver Twist (1948), as well as performing the role of Nancy. Walsh and Lean divorced in 1949, on grounds of infidelity based on Lean's relationship with Ann Todd. Walsh continued to work as a character actress in films through the 1950s, including films with Alfred Hitchcock and Ronald Neame. Her own favourite film role was that of the barmaid Miss D. Coker in Neame's 1958 film of The Horse's Mouth, with Alec Guinness. Between films, she appeared regularly in plays and farces at the Strand and Aldwych Theatres, directed by Basil Dean. She was a semi-regular on the 1979 Anglo-Polish TV series Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. She remained active in films until her retirement in 1981, after the film Night Crossing. Walsh later lived in retirement in London. She died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital from multiple burns, following an accident, aged 93. Her second marriage was to the Canadian psychologist Elliott Jaques, and they adopted a daughter, Gemma, in 1956. This marriage also ended in divorce. Description above from the Wikipedia article Kay Walsh, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Acting credits

Oliver Twist poster
7.6

When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.

Oliver Twist

1948

Scrooge poster
6.8

A musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic ghost tale starring Albert Finney.

Scrooge

1970

The Ruling Class poster
6.4

When the Earl of Gurney dies in a cross-dressing accident, his schizophrenic son, Jack, inherits the Gurney estate. Jack is not the average nobleman; he sings and dances across the estate and thinks he is Jesus reincarnated. Believing that Jack is mentally unfit to own the estate, the Gurney family plots to steal Jack's inheritance. As their outrageous schemes fail, the family strives to cure Jack of his bizarre behavior, with disastrous results.

The Ruling Class

1972

Night Crossing poster
6.1

Two men want to escape from East Germany (under Communist rule) but they will only go if they can take their families with them. Based on a true story.

Night Crossing

1982

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

Vice Versa poster
7.2

Businessman Paul Bultitude is sending his son Dick to a boarding school. While holding a magic stone from India, he wishes that he could be young again. His wish is immediately fulfilled and the two change bodies with each other. Mr Bultitude becomes a school boy who smokes cigars and has a very conservative view on child upbringing, while his son Dick becomes a gentleman who spends his time drinking lemonade and arranging children's parties.

Vice Versa

1948

The L-Shaped Room poster
6.8

Jane is young, French, pregnant and unmarried. Bucking convention, she is uninterested in settling with her baby's father or getting an abortion. After renting a room in a dingy London boarding house, Jane befriends the odd group of inhabitants and starts an affair with one boarder, Toby. As Jane's pregnancy threatens her new relationship, and the reality of single motherhood approaches, she is forced to decide what to do about both her baby and her budding romance.

The L-Shaped Room

1962

The Rainbow Jacket poster
7.0

A champion jockey is banned from racing so spends his time helping a young lad to become the next champion.

The Rainbow Jacket

1954

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

A Study in Terror poster
6.2

When Watson reads from the newspaper there have been two similar murders near Whitechapel in a few days, Sherlock Holmes' sharp deductive is immediately stimulated to start its merciless method of elimination after observation of every apparently meaningless detail. He guesses right the victims must be street whores, and doesn't need long to work his way trough a pawn shop, an aristocratic family's stately home, a hospital and of course the potential suspects and (even unknowing) witnesses who are the cast of the gradually unraveled story of the murderer and his motive.

A Study in Terror

1965

Bikini Paradise poster
8.0

A pair of U.S. Navy officers are marooned on a South Pacific island with a group of women whom want to use them for marriage and mating purposes.

Bikini Paradise

1967

Tunes of Glory poster
7.0

Following World War II in peacetime Scotland, brigade headquarters replaces commanding officer Major Jock Sinclair, a boisterous battalion leader, with the strict, temperamental Lieutenant Colonel Basil Barrow. Resentful toward his replacement, Sinclair undermines Barrow's authority and damages his successor's reputation among the soldiers. Barrow faces an uphill battle in regaining the discipline and respect of his battalion.

Tunes of Glory

1960

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

Last Holiday poster
7.1

George Bird is a salesman of agricultural machinery who finds out that he hasn't long to live. On his doctor's advice, he goes to an exclusive seaside resort to spend his savings on one last holiday.

Last Holiday

1950

Greyfriars Bobby poster
6.9

In Scotland 1865, An old shepherd and his little Skye terrier go to Edinburgh. But when the shepherd dies of pneumonia, the dog remains faithful to his master, refuses to be adopted by anyone, and takes to sleeping on his master's grave in the Greyfriars kirkyard, despite a caretaker with a "no dogs" rule. And when Bobby is taken up for being unlicensed, it's up to the children of Edinburgh and the Lord Provost to decide what's to be done.

Greyfriars Bobby

1961

The Witches poster
6.0

Following a nervous breakdown, Gwen takes up the job of head teacher in the small village of Haddaby. There she can benefit from the tranquillity and peace, enabling her to recover fully. But under the facade of idyllic country life she slowly unearths the frightening reality of village life in which the inhabitants are followers of a menacing satanic cult with the power to inflict indiscriminate evil and death if crossed.

The Witches

1966

Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow poster
6.9

English vicar Dr. Syn becomes a scarecrow on horseback by night to thwart King George III's taxmen.

Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow

1963

Young Bess poster
5.8

The mother died under the executioner's axe; the daughter rose to become England's greatest monarch -- the brilliant and cunning Queen Elizabeth I. Jean Simmons portrays young Bess in this rich tapestry of a film that traces the tumultuous, danger-fraught years from Elizabeth's birth to her unexpected ascension to the throne at a mere 25. Charles Laughton reprises his Academy Award®-winning* role as her formidable father Henry VIII. Deborah Kerr plays her last stepmother (and Henry's last of six wives), gentle Catherine Parr. And Simmons' then real-life husband, Stewart Granger, adds heroics as Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour. In a resplendent world of adventure, romance and court intrigue, Young Bess reigns.

Young Bess

1953

The October Man poster
6.2

Jim Ackland, who suffers from a head injury sustained in a bus crash, is the chief suspect in a murder hunt, when a girl that he has just met is found dead on the local common, and he has no alibi for the time she was killed.

The October Man

1947

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

Keep Fit poster
6.3

A weak, cowardly barber gets fit to win over a beautiful woman. However, she prefers his muscle-bound rival until George challenges him to a boxing match.

Keep Fit

1937

The Horse's Mouth poster
6.8

Gulley Jimson is a boorish aging artist recently released from prison. A swindler in search of his next art project, he hunkers down in the penthouse of would-be patrons the Beeders while they go on an extended vacation; he paints a mural on their wall, pawns their valuables and, along with the sculptor Abel, inadvertently smashes a large hole in their floor. Jimson's next project is an even larger wall in an abandoned church.

The Horse's Mouth

1958

Hunted poster
6.9

An unexpected bond develops between a fugitive killer and a runaway orphan on an odyssey across England.

Hunted

1952

Taste of Excitement poster
6.2

A man has been killed on the Dover/Boulogne car ferry. What is the connection between him and the attempts being made to kill Jane Kerrell, a young girl in her early twenties? As she speeds through the French countryside to the South of France, several attempts are made on her life as she is deliberately forced off the road by another car. But when she reports these attempts, the local Cap Ferrat Police Inspector and the sinister psychiatrist, Dr. Forla believe these attempts are in her imagination and Dr Forla, concludes that Jane is mentally disturbed. At her wits end Jane finds an ally in the young English painter, Paul Hedley who finally believes her life is in danger following an attempt to murder him. When Inspector Malling of Scotland Yard and Mr. Breese arrive in Cap Ferrat trying to uncover the connection between Jane and the murdered man on the ferry, this thrilling puzzle of international intrigue begins to unravel against the backdrop of the French Riviera.

Taste of Excitement

1969

Behind the camera