Yvonne Mitchell
Encyclopedia
Yvonne Mitchell was an English stage, television and film actor. She was born Yvonne Frances Joseph, but in 1946 changed her name by deed poll
to Yvonne Mitchell (without the Frances). Her mother's maiden name was Mitchell. After beginning her acting career in theatre, Mitchell progressed to films in the late 1940s. Her roles include Julia
in the 1954 BBC
adaptation of George Orwell
's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
. She retired from acting in 1977.
, and her own autobiography was published in 1957.
(1949), although she had played an uncredited minor role in Love on the Dole
eight years earlier. She appeared in several prominent film roles over the following three decades, winning a British Film Award
for The Divided Heart
(1954) and the Silver Bear for Best Actress
at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival
for Woman in a Dressing Gown
(1957). She also appeared in the role of Mildred in the controversial 1959 film Sapphire
.
On television, Mitchell was voted Television Actress of the Year for 1953 by the Daily Mail
newspaper, mainly for her role as Cathy in the Nigel Kneale
/Rudolph Cartier
adaptation of Emily Brontë
's novel Wuthering Heights
. The following year, she appeared in another Kneale / Cartier literary adaptation when she took the role of Julia with Peter Cushing
as Winston Smith
in their adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four
.
She starred as Lea in the BBC's 1973 TV production of Colette's Cheri. She continued to act occasionally on television until the late 1970s, appearing in guest roles in series such as Out of the Unknown
(in 1966); her final screen role was in the BBC
science-fiction series 1990
(1977).
Deed poll
A deed poll is a legal document binding only to a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an active intention...
to Yvonne Mitchell (without the Frances). Her mother's maiden name was Mitchell. After beginning her acting career in theatre, Mitchell progressed to films in the late 1940s. Her roles include Julia
Julia (1984)
Julia is a fictional character in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Her last name is never given in the novel but she is called Dixon in the 1954 BBC TV production....
in the 1954 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
adaptation of George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme)
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a British television adaptation of the novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in December 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed...
. She retired from acting in 1977.
Writing career
Outside of acting, Mitchell was also an established author, writing several books for children and adults as well as winning awards for playwriting. She wrote an acclaimed biography of the French writer ColetteColette
Colette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
, and her own autobiography was published in 1957.
Career
Already an experienced stage actor, she made her speaking debut in film in The Queen of SpadesThe Queen of Spades (1949 film)
The Queen of Spades is a fantasy-horror film based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. It stars Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans and Yvonne Mitchell. A poor Russian officer tries to learn the secret of an aged countess's success at the card table.Despite a limited budget, it was...
(1949), although she had played an uncredited minor role in Love on the Dole
Love on the Dole (film)
Love on the Dole is a 1941 British drama film starring Deborah Kerr and Clifford Evans. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Walter Greenwood.- Plot summary :...
eight years earlier. She appeared in several prominent film roles over the following three decades, winning a British Film Award
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
for The Divided Heart
The Divided Heart
The Divided Heart is a black-and-white British film directed by Charles Crichton and released in 1954. The film is a drama, based on a true story and written by Jack Whittingham and Richard Hughes. It was produced by Michael Truman and edited by Peter Bezencenet, with cinematography by Otto Heller...
(1954) and the Silver Bear for Best Actress
Silver Bear for Best Actress
The Silver Bear for Best Actress is the Berlin International Film Festival's award for achievement in performance by an actress.-Awards:- External links :*...
at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival
7th Berlin International Film Festival
The 7th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from June 21 to July 2, 1957.-Jury:* Jay Carmody * Jean de Baroncelli* John Sutro* Dalpathal Kothari* Fernaldo Di Giammatteo* Bunzaburo Hayashi* Miguel Alemán hijo...
for Woman in a Dressing Gown
Woman in a Dressing Gown
Woman in a Dressing Gown is a 1957 British film directed by J. Lee Thompson. Yvonne Mitchell won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival....
(1957). She also appeared in the role of Mildred in the controversial 1959 film Sapphire
Sapphire (film)
Sapphire is a 1959 British crime drama. It focused on racism in London toward immigrants from the West Indies. The film was directed by Basil Dearden, and stars Nigel Patrick, Earl Cameron and Yvonne Mitchell. It received the BAFTA Award for Best Film and screenwriter Janet Green won a 1960 Edgar...
.
On television, Mitchell was voted Television Actress of the Year for 1953 by the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
newspaper, mainly for her role as Cathy in the Nigel Kneale
Nigel Kneale
Nigel Kneale was a British screenwriter from the Isle of Man. Active in television, film, radio drama and prose fiction, he wrote professionally for over fifty years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and was twice nominated for the British Film Award for Best Screenplay...
/Rudolph Cartier
Rudolph Cartier
Rudolph Cartier was an Austrian television director, filmmaker, screenwriter and producer who worked predominantly in British television, exclusively for the BBC...
adaptation of Emily Brontë
Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother...
's novel Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë published in 1847. It was her only novel and written between December 1845 and July 1846. It remained unpublished until July 1847 and was not printed until December after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre...
. The following year, she appeared in another Kneale / Cartier literary adaptation when she took the role of Julia with Peter Cushing
Peter Cushing
Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE was an English actor, known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the handsome but sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, amongst many other roles, often appearing opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally...
as Winston Smith
Winston Smith
Winston Smith is a fictional character and the protagonist of George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The character was employed by Orwell as an everyman in the setting of the novel, a "central eye ... [the reader] can readily identify with"...
in their adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme)
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a British television adaptation of the novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in December 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed...
.
She starred as Lea in the BBC's 1973 TV production of Colette's Cheri. She continued to act occasionally on television until the late 1970s, appearing in guest roles in series such as Out of the Unknown
Out of the Unknown
Out of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was an independent dramatisation of a separate science fiction short story...
(in 1966); her final screen role was in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
science-fiction series 1990
1990 (TV series)
1990 is a British then-futuristic political drama television series produced by the BBC and shown in 1977 and 1978.- Plot :The series is set in a dystopian future in which Britain is under the grip of the Home Office's Department of Public Control , a tyrannically oppressive bureaucracy riding...
(1977).
Selected filmography
- The Queen of SpadesThe Queen of Spades (1949 film)The Queen of Spades is a fantasy-horror film based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. It stars Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans and Yvonne Mitchell. A poor Russian officer tries to learn the secret of an aged countess's success at the card table.Despite a limited budget, it was...
(1949) - Turn the Key SoftlyTurn the Key SoftlyTurn the Key Softly is a 1953 British drama film, directed by Jack Lee and starring Yvonne Mitchell, Joan Collins, Kathleen Harrison and Terence Morgan...
(1953) - The Divided HeartThe Divided HeartThe Divided Heart is a black-and-white British film directed by Charles Crichton and released in 1954. The film is a drama, based on a true story and written by Jack Whittingham and Richard Hughes. It was produced by Michael Truman and edited by Peter Bezencenet, with cinematography by Otto Heller...
(1954) - EscapadeEscapade (1955 film)Escapade is a 1955 British comedy drama film directed by Philip Leacock and starring John Mills, Yvonne Mitchell and Alastair Sim. It was based on a long-running West End play by Roger MacDougall.-Main cast:* John Mills - John Hampden...
(1955) - Yield to the NightYield to the NightYield to the Night is a 1956 British crime drama film starring Diana Dors as a murderess sentenced to hang and spending her last days in the condemned cell in a British women's prison...
(1956) - Woman in a Dressing GownWoman in a Dressing GownWoman in a Dressing Gown is a 1957 British film directed by J. Lee Thompson. Yvonne Mitchell won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival....
(1957) - Passionate SummerPassionate SummerPassionate Summer is a 1958 British drama film directed by Rudolph Cartier and starring Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers and Yvonne Mitchell. It is also known by the alternative title Storm Over Jamaica. It was based on a novel by Richard Mason...
(1958) - Tiger BayTiger Bay (film)Tiger Bay is a 1959 British crime drama film directed by J. Lee Thompson and produced and co-written by John Hawkesworth. It stars John Mills as a police superintendent who investigates a murder, his daughter Hayley Mills, in her first major film role, as a girl who witnesses the murder, and Horst...
(1959) - SapphireSapphire (film)Sapphire is a 1959 British crime drama. It focused on racism in London toward immigrants from the West Indies. The film was directed by Basil Dearden, and stars Nigel Patrick, Earl Cameron and Yvonne Mitchell. It received the BAFTA Award for Best Film and screenwriter Janet Green won a 1960 Edgar...
(1959) - Conspiracy of HeartsConspiracy of HeartsConspiracy of Hearts is a 1960 British film. It stars Lilli Palmer, Sylvia Syms and Albert Lieven. Its plot involves Italian nuns smuggling Jewish children out of an internment camp near their convent to save them from the Holocaust. It was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Film Promoting...
(1960) - The Trials of Oscar WildeThe Trials of Oscar WildeThe Trials of Oscar Wilde also known as The Man with the Green Carnation and The Green Carnation, is a 1960 British film based on the libel and subsequent criminal cases involving Oscar Wilde and the Marquess of Queensberry. It was produced by Irving Allen, written by Allen and Ken Hughes and...
(1960) - Johnny NobodyJohnny NobodyJohnny Nobody is a 1961 UK drama film brought to the screen by Viceroy Films Limited under the production of John R. Sloan with executive production from Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli. The original story was by Albert Z. Carr with the screenplay by Patrick Kirwan. It was directed by the...
(1961) - The Main Attraction (1962)
- Genghis KhanGenghis Khan (1965 film)Genghis Khan is a 1965 film depicting the life and conquests of the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan. It was released in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1965 by Columbia Pictures, and was directed by Henry Levin, and starred Omar Sharif, who that same year starred in another epic, Doctor...
(1965) - The Great WaltzThe Great Waltz (1972 film)The Great Waltz is a 1972 American musical film directed by Andrew L. Stone and starring Horst Buchholz, Mary Costa and Nigel Patrick. It is based on The Great Waltz and was Stone's final film.-Cast:* Horst Buchholz as Johann Strauss Jr....
(1972) - Demons of the MindDemons of the MindDemons of the Mind is a British period horror film, produced by the Hammer studio. It was directed by Peter Sykes and its cinematographer was Arthur Grant. The cast includes Gillian Hills , Robert Hardy, Patrick Magee, Michael Hordern, and Shane Briant...
(1972) - The Incredible SarahThe Incredible SarahThe Incredible Sarah is a 1976 British drama film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Glenda Jackson. It presents dramatization of the acting career of Sarah Bernhardt.-Cast:* Glenda Jackson - Sarah Bernhardt* Daniel Massey - Victorien Sardou...
(1976)