Virginia McKenna

Acting

Virginia McKenna

Born 1931-06-07 · London, England, UK

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dame Virginia Anne McKenna, DBE (born 7 June 1931) is a British stage and screen actress, author, activist, and wildlife campaigner. She is best known for the films A Town Like Alice (1956), Carve Her Name with Pride (1958), Born Free (1966), and Ring of Bright Water (1969), as well as her work with The Born Free Foundation.

Acting credits

Sliding Doors poster
6.6

Helen, a London ad executive, is fired from her job and rushes out to catch a train, but, as she runs down, her life suddenly splits off. In one version she catches the train; in the second, she misses it. Her whole life changes in that one second, and the rest of the film depicts what happens in each scenario.

Sliding Doors

1998

Waterloo poster
7.1

After defeating France and imprisoning Napoleon on Elba, ending two decades of war, Europe is shocked to find Napoleon has escaped and has caused the French Army to defect from the King back to him. The best of the British generals, the Duke of Wellington, beat Napolean's best generals in Spain and Portugal, but now must beat Napoleon himself with an Anglo Allied army.

Waterloo

1970

The Cruel Sea poster
6.9

At the start of World War II, Cmdr. Ericson is assigned to convoy escort HMS Compass Rose with inexperienced officers and men just out of training. The winter seas make life miserable enough, but the men must also harden themselves to rescuing survivors of U-Boat attacks, while seldom able to strike back. Traumatic events afloat and ashore create a warm bond between the skipper and his first officer.

The Cruel Sea

1953

The Smallest Show on Earth poster
6.7

Jean and Bill are a married couple trying to scrape a living. Out of the blue they receive a telegram informing them Bill's long-lost uncle has died and left them his business—a cinema in the town of Sloughborough. Unfortunately they can't sell it for the fortune they hoped as they discover it is falling down and almost worthless.

The Smallest Show on Earth

1957

Born Free poster
6.8

At a national park in Kenya, English game warden George Adamson and his wife, Joy, care for three orphaned lion cubs. After the two larger lions are shipped off to a zoo in the Netherlands, the smallest of the three, Elsa, stays with the couple. When Elsa is blamed for causing an elephant stampede in the nearby village, head warden John Kendall demands the young lion either be trained to survive in the wilds of the Serengeti or be sent to a zoo.

Born Free

1966

The Disappearance poster
5.6

The wife of a contract killer disappears. When he is hired by an international organisation to carry out a hit, he suspects they are connected with her disappearance.

The Disappearance

1977

The Wreck of the Mary Deare poster
6.3

A disgraced merchant marine officer elects to stay aboard his sinking cargo ship in order to prove the vessel was deliberately scuttled and, as a result, vindicate his good name.

The Wreck of the Mary Deare

1959

Ethel & Ernest poster
7.5

This hand drawn animated film, based on the award winning graphic novel by Raymond Briggs, is an intimate and affectionate depiction of the life and times of his parents, two ordinary Londoners living through extraordinary events.

Ethel & Ernest

2016

Carve Her Name with Pride poster
6.0

London, England, during World War II. After living a tragic life experience, young Violette Szabo joins the Special Operations Executive and crosses the German enemy lines as a secret agent to aid a French Resistance group.

Carve Her Name with Pride

1958

Holocaust 2000 poster
5.8

An executive in charge of a nuclear power plant in the Mid-East must stop his son-- who turns out to be the Anti Christ -- from blowing it up.

Holocaust 2000

1977

A Town Like Alice poster
6.4

In 1941 Malaysia, the advancing Japanese army captures a lot of British territory very quickly. The men are sent off to labor camps, but they have no plan on what to do with the women and children of the British.

A Town Like Alice

1956

Julius Caesar poster
8.7

The assassination of the would be ruler of Rome at the hands of Brutus and company has tragic consequences for Brutus and the republic.

Julius Caesar

1979

Golden Years poster
6.3

Fate, the pensions crisis and a steadfast refusal to accept the injustice of old age have contrived to force law abiding, retired couple, Arthur and Martha Goode into a life of crime.

Golden Years

2016

The Gathering Storm poster
8.2

Winston Churchill's life in the years leading up to World War II.

The Gathering Storm

1974

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

Leona Calderon poster
NR

Leona Calderon is a retiring altruistic music lover earning her living cleaning establishments and private homes. Having a fun loving nature she is fancied by her landlord who dreams of dancing with her to her favorite tune. Another admirer is a homeless man who gets endears by her jolly disposition and not by her loose pennies for a can of lager. She befriends an isolated elderly English lady, a migrant worker with no visa and a charitable middle age woman. As a breadwinner she looks forward to her much awaited retirement which is now doomed following a diagnoses of cancer. The island where she comes from where she plans to spend her life with her family becomes just a dream. She now faces a dilemma between losing her hard earned savings to medical expenses or losing the time with her family if she spends her retirement in a country where her treatment is free. Leona's wit and fun nature will make you smile, laugh and cry. What happens to this happy lady in this funny world?

Leona Calderon

2013

The Admirable Crichton poster
6.5

A group of people are shipwrecked when their yacht runs aground on a South Pacific island. The usual hierarchy in an upper-class British family breaks down quickly when it becomes apparent that only the servant, Crichton, is capable of surviving on his own and he becomes the community's leader.

The Admirable Crichton

1968

Peter Pan poster
6.0

Peter Pan is a 1976 musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, produced for television as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, starring Mia Farrow as Peter Pan and Danny Kaye as Captain Hook, and with Sir John Gielgud narrating. Julie Andrews sang one of the songs, "Once Upon a Bedtime", off-camera over the opening credits. It aired on NBC at 7:30pm on Sunday, December 12, 1976, capping off the program's 25th year on the air. The program did not use the score written for the highly successful Mary Martin version which had previously been televised many times on NBC. Instead, it featured 14 new and now forgotten songs, written for the production by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.

Peter Pan

1976

Staggered poster
5.3

Very much in love, Neil's wedding plans are sabotaged, beginning when he is abandoned, naked, on a Scottish island. A road trip ensues, with Neil encountering many obstacles as he makes his way to London for what he believes is to be his wedding day. Or is it?

Staggered

1994

Simba poster
6.6

A European family in East Africa finds itself caught up in an uprising by local black Africans against their white colonial masters. Based on the Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya in the early 1950s.

Simba

1955

Swallows and Amazons poster
7.5

On holiday with their mother in the Lake District in 1929 four children are allowed to sail over to the nearby island in their boat Swallow and set up camp for a few days. They soon realise this has been the territory of two other girls who sail the Amazon, and the scene is set for serious rivalry.

Swallows and Amazons

1974

Have a Nice Night poster
6.5

Movie star Barbara Jenkins arrives in Cannes to host an auction of her costumes, under protection of Tom Lepski. She is under surveillance of a political terror group and some wily jewel thieves.

Have a Nice Night

1990

An Elephant Called Slowly poster
7.0

Bill and Ginny are invited by a naturalist friend to take care of his home in Africa while he is away, and they find themselves adopted by three orphan elephants.

An Elephant Called Slowly

1969

Ring of Bright Water poster
5.8

Stuck in a dead-end job, Graham Merrill adopts an otter, Mij, as a pet and then moves to an isolated village in western Scotland. Together they set out to explore the curious and magnificent natural wonders that surround their seaside home. Soon, Graham finds himself falling in love with the beautiful town doctor, Mary. Before long, the three become inseparable friends.

Ring of Bright Water

1969