Joan Greenwood

Silky, English actress Joan Greenwood (1921-1987) made several memorable appearances in classic film comedies of the 1940s and 1950s. Her husky, sultry voice was her trademark, and in 1995 she was ranked number 63 on Empire magazine's list of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history.


British postcard by Astra. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.


British autograph card.


British autograph card.


British postcard.

A special blend of the aristocratic and the sultry

Joan Greenwood was born in Chelsea in 1921 as the daughter of renowned British artist Sydney Earnshaw Greenwood. She danced from the age of eight and took ballet lessons.

Joan was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and made her stage debut at age 18 in Molière's 'Malade Imaginaire' at the Apollo Theatre. Three years later she performed in Clare Boothe Luce's 'The Women' and was seen by Leslie Howard, who cast her opposite himself in the wartime morale-booster The Gentle Sex (Leslie Howard, 1942). From this time onward, Joan began to alternate between stage and screen, comedy and drama. She worked during the London Blitz and toured with the Entertainment National Service Association (ENSA).

In the years following World War II, the gifted Greenwood appeared with Donald Wolfit's theatre company. She possessed a special blend of the aristocratic and the sultry which made her extremely useful for a time in British film. She gave a strong, sensitive performance in Eric Ambler's psychological thriller The October Man (1947). She was also effectively cast opposite Stewart Granger as the fragile, conflicted Sophie Dorothea, imprisoned in a loveless marriage, in Basil Dearden's period romance Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948).

Between 1948 and 1958 she made several memorable screen appearances, most notably as Sibella, the bewitching, blackmailing mistress of anti-hero Dennis Price in the black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949), and as the Honourable Gwendolen Fairfax in the film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (Anthony Asquith, 1952). She also appeared in two Ealing comedies, Whisky Galore! (Alexander Mackendrick, 1949) and as the mercenary lady friend of inventor Alec Guinness in The Man in the White Suit (Alexander Mackendrick, 1952).

In 1954, she starred in her first Broadway production, 'The Confidential Clerk'. Other films in which she appeared include Monsieur Ripois (René Clément, 1954) starring Gérard Philipe, and Father Brown (Robert Hamer, 1954) opposite Alec Guinness.


Vintage postcard. Photo: Eagle Lion.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht.


German postcard by Film-Postkartenverlag Hbg., Bergedorf, no. 159. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.


German collectors card, no. 4408. Photo: Fox Film.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1068, 1959. Photo: J. Arthur Rank. Publicity still for The Importance of Being Earnest (Anthony Asquith, 1952).

More eccentric than sexy

Joan Greenwood had a brief spell in Hollywood, where she appeared in the Gothic Swashbuckler Moonfleet (Fritz Lang, 1955) with Stewart Granger, and Stage Struck (Sidney Lumet, 1958) starring Henry Fonda. I.S. Mowis at IMDb: "She did not enjoy the experience. Eschewing the trimmings of Hollywood stardom, she opted instead for the uncomplicated life at Ealing, where actors 'washed their hair in buckets' and lived on 'toasted sandwiches, chocolates and soup'."

From the 1960s on Joan Greenwood specialised in highly enjoyable character roles, still classy and authoritative but more eccentric than sexy. Her films included the Jules Verne-based Mysterious Island (Cy Endfield, 1961), and Tom Jones (Tony Richardson, 1963), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actress.

In 1960, Greenwood appeared as the title character in a stage production of Henrik Ibsen's 'Hedda Gabler' at The Oxford Playhouse. Starring opposite her as Brack was the actor André Morell. They fell in love and flew in secret to Jamaica, where they were married, remaining together until he died in 1978.

On TV she appeared as Lady Carlton, a quirky romance novelist and landlady to the main characters in the British sitcom Girls On Top (1985) with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.

In 1987 Joan Greenwood died of a heart attack in London five days before her 66th birthday. Her last film was the fine Charles Dickens adaptation Little Dorrit (Christine Edzard, 1988), made the year of her death. She and André Morell had one child, actor Jason Morell.


Trailer Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). Source: Hermthy (YouTube).


Trailer The Importance of Being Earnest (1952). Source: MOVIECLIPS Classic Trailers (YouTube).


Trailer of Mysterious Island (1961). Source: Plamen Plamenov (YouTube).

Sources:  I.S.Mowis (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie - page now defunct), Wikipedia, TCM Movie Database (page now defunct), and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 12 July 2024.