Wendy Hiller ✝

Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller, DBE (15 August 1912 – 14 May 2003) was an English film and stage actress who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly 60 years. Writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation Rating the Movie Stars, described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took command of the screen whenever she appeared on film". Despite many notable film performances, Hiller chose to remain primarily a stage actress. Hiller won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Separate Tables (1958). Her performance as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion (1938) earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Born in Bramhall, Cheshire, the daughter of Frank Watkin Hiller, a Manchester cotton manufacturer, and Marie Stone, she was educated at Winceby House School and at age 18 joined the Manchester Repertory Company, for which she acted and stage-managed for several years. She first found success as slum dweller Sally Hardcastle in the stage version of Love on the Dole in 1934. The play was an enormous success and toured the regional stages of Britain, including Hiller's West End debut in 1935 at the Garrick Theatre. In 1937, she married the play's author Ronald Gow, 15 years her senior. That same year, she made her film debut in Lancashire Luck, scripted by Gow.