Jennifer Hilary
Jennifer Mary Hilary (born 14 December 1942, Frimley, Surrey, England, United Kingdom — died 6 August 2008, London, England, United Kingdom)[1] was a British actress of stage, film and television. Her first acclaimed stage performance was as "Milly" in Henry James' The Wings of the Dove, which marked her debut on the West End.
Hilary trained at RADA,[2] and began her acting career with the Liverpool Playhouse in April 1961. Her first role was as Nina in The Seagull. She would go on to play such characters as Lady Teazle (The School for Scandal), Isabel (The Enchanted), Cilla Curtis (Amateur Means Lover) and Cecily Cardew (The Importance of Being Earnest). She went on to act with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.[citation needed]
She made her Broadway debut in Jean Anouilh's The Rehearsal in 1963. The following year she played "Zoe" at the West End in James Saunders' A Scent of Flowers. Michael Redgrave included her in the cast of Turgenev's A Month in the Country in 1965. She went on to play "Sasha" in Chekhov's Ivanov at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway the following year.
In 1967, back in London, she played "Ginny" in the hit production of Alan Ayckbourn's Relatively Speaking. Other appearances in London would include Samuel Taylor's Avanti! (1968; which was later made into a film starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills), Dennis Cannan's Dear Daddy (1976), J.B. Priestley's I Have Been Here Before, and Dennis Potter's Sufficient Carbohydrate (1983).
Contents |
[edit] Later years
Later in life she founded a specialist flower arranging business. She was called upon to provide striking floral arrangements for very special occasions, including actor Michael Williams's memorial service in 2001 at Covent Garden.[3]
[edit] Selected filmography
- Becket (1964)
- The Heroes of Telemark (1965)
- The Idol (1966)
- One Brief Summer (1970)
- North Sea Hijack (1979)
- Five Days One Summer (1982)
[edit] Awards
In 1961 she was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal.[2]
[edit] Death
She died on 6 August 2008, aged 65, from cancer.
