Mona Washbourne

Acting

Mona Washbourne

Born 1903-11-27 · Solihull, Warwickshire, England, UK

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mona Lee Washbourne (27 November 1903 – 15 November 1988) was an English actress of stage, film, and television. Her most critically acclaimed role was in the film Stevie (1978), late in her career, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award. Mona Washbourne was born in Solihull, Warwickshire and began her entertaining career training as a concert pianist. In 1948, after several years acting professionally on stage, and numerous stage musical performances, she began appearing in films. Her film credits include the horror movie The Brides of Dracula (1960), Billy Liar (1963), and The Collector (1965). She is probably best known to American audiences for her role as housekeeper Mrs. Pearce in My Fair Lady (1964). She also appeared as the stern and caustic Mrs. Bramson in the remake of Night Must Fall (also 1964), and the matron in the film If.... (1968). She appeared at both the Royal Court Theatre in London and on Broadway in 1970 in David Storey's Home. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. In 1975 she appeared on the West End stage with James Stewart in a revival of Mary Chase's play Harvey, in the role originally taken by Josephine Hull. Washbourne won the 1981 New York Film Critics' Circle Awards for Best Supporting Actress in Stevie (1978). In 1981 Washbourne appeared in Granada Television's TV miniseries adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as Nanny Hawkins. One of her last television appearances was in Where's the Key? (1983), a BBC play about Alzheimer's disease. Mona Washbourne was married to actor Basil Dignam (1905-1979), whom she wed in 1940. She died in 1988, aged 84, in London.

Acting credits

Casino Royale poster
5.3

Sir James Bond is called back out of retirement to stop SMERSH. In order to trick SMERSH, James thinks up the ultimate plan - that every agent will be named 'James Bond'. One of the Bonds, whose real name is Evelyn Tremble is sent to take on Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat, but all the Bonds get more than they can handle.

Casino Royale

1967

My Fair Lady poster
7.5

A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.

My Fair Lady

1964

The Million Pound Note poster
7.0

An impoverished American sailor is fortunate enough to be passing the house of two rich gentlemen who have conceived the crazy idea of distributing a note worth one million pounds. The sailor finds that whenever he tries to use the note to buy something, people treat him like a king and let him have whatever he likes for free. Ultimately, the money proves to be more troublesome than it is worth when it almost costs him his dignity and the woman he loves.

The Million Pound Note

1954

The Brides of Dracula poster
6.7

A young teacher on her way to a position in Transylvania helps a young man escape the shackles his mother has put on him. In so doing she innocently unleashes the horrors of the undead once again on the populace, including those at her school for ladies. Luckily for some, Dr. Van Helsing is already on his way.

The Brides of Dracula

1960

The Blue Bird poster
5.5

Peasant children Mytyl and Tyltyl are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the fairy Berylune. On their journey, they're accompanied by the anthropomorphized presences of a Dog, a Cat, Light, Fire, and Bread, among other entities.

The Blue Bird

1976

if.... poster
7.0

In an English boys' boarding school, social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects in the Upper Sixth. Three Lower Sixth students, Wallace, Johnny and leader Mick Travis decide on a shocking course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and for all.

if....

1968

The Collector poster
7.4

A man kidnaps a woman and holds her hostage just for the pleasure of having her there.

The Collector

1965

O Lucky Man! poster
6.8

An ambitious coffee salesman has a series of improbable and ironic adventures seemingly designed to challenge his naive idealism.

O Lucky Man!

1973

Identikit poster
6.4

A mentally disturbed woman arrives in Rome to find a city fragmented by autocratic law, leftist violence, and her own increasingly unhinged mission to find the most dangerous liaison of all.

Identikit

1974

Betrayed poster
5.8

When the Dutch resistance brings in Carla Van Oven to spy on the Nazis, Col. Pieter Deventer initially suspects she could be a double agent. Van Oven eventually convinces Deventer of her character, and when she is sent into occupied territory, she joins up with a rebel leader known as "The Scarf". As the resistance endures severe losses and their missions fail, Deventer starts to wonder whose side Van Oven is fighting on.

Betrayed

1954

Billy Liar poster
6.8

A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.

Billy Liar

1963

Doctor in the House poster
6.5

The first of the seven "Doctor" films, based on Richard Gordon's novels and released between 1954 and 1970. Simon Sparrow is a newly arrived medical student at St Swithin's hospital in London. Falling in with three longer-serving hopefuls he is soon immersed in the wooing, imbibing and fast sports-car driving that constitute 1950s medical training. There is, however, always the looming and formidable figure of chief surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt to remind them of their real purpose.

Doctor in the House

1954

The Bed Sitting Room poster
5.9

In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room.

The Bed Sitting Room

1969

Yield to the Night poster
6.9

Locked in her cell, a murderer reflects on the events that have led her to death row.

Yield to the Night

1956

The Winslow Boy poster
7.0

In pre-WWI England, a youngster is expelled from a naval academy over a petty theft, but his parents raise a political furor by demanding a trial.

The Winslow Boy

1948

Pygmalion poster
NR

When 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

1981

Fragment of Fear poster
5.9

Reformed drug addict Tim Brett (David Hemmings) is vacationing in Italy with his aunt. When she is murdered, he tries to investigate. Soon his whole life spins out of control.

Fragment of Fear

1970

Stranger in Town poster
6.9

A vacationing journalist investigates the mysterious death of a composer and debunks the theory that it was suicide.

Stranger in Town

1957

No artwork available
NR

Part of BFI collection "Police and Thieves." Follows the work of a probation officer and the people he tries to help.

Probation Officer

1950

The Games poster
7.4

From Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy, Australia and behind the Iron Curtain. They are the most superbly conditioned animals in the world. They are also the pawns of powerful nations, the victims of dangerous drugs and the object of many men's ambitions. Once every four years they come together... for the Olympic Games.

The Games

1970

Lost poster
6.8

U.S. Embassy employee Lee Cochrane and his wife, Sue, receive a shock when they discover that their 18-month-old son, Simon, has disappeared in London. He was last seen with their nanny, and the couple seemingly have no leads that might help police Detective Craig in his investigation. The media sensationalizes the incident, causing an unnecessary distraction as the couple prepares to confront the culprit face-to-face.

Lost

1956

The Old Curiosity Shop poster
4.8

A kindly shop owner whose overwhelming gambling debts allow a greedy landlord to seize his shop of dusty treasures. Evicted and with no way to pay his debts, he and his granddaughter flee.

The Old Curiosity Shop

1975

Adam and Evelyne poster
7.0

A handsome gambler unwittingly becomes guardian of an orphaned, teenaged girl.

Adam and Evelyne

1949

Adventure in the Hopfields poster
7.0

A little girl accidentally breaks her mother's favourite ornament and goes hop-picking to replace it.

Adventure in the Hopfields

1954