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Margaret Leighton: Actress from England (1922 - 1976) | Biography
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Margaret Leighton
Actress from England

Margaret Leighton

Margaret Leighton
The basics

Quick Facts

Intro Actress from England
Was Actor Stage actor Film actor Television actor
From United Kingdom
Field Film, TV, Stage & Radio
Gender female
Birth 26 February 1922, Barnt Green, United Kingdom
Death 13 January 1976, Chichester, United Kingdom (aged 53 years)
Star sign Pisces
Family
Spouse: Michael Wilding (writer)Max ReinhardtLaurence Harvey
The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

Margaret Leighton, CBE (26 February 1922 – 13 January 1976) was an English actress, active on stage and television, and in film. Her film appearances included (her first credited debut feature) in Anatole de Grunwald's The Winslow Boy (1948). For The Go-Between (1971), she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Leighton began her career on stage in 1938, before joining the Old Vic and making her Broadway debut in 1946. A four-time Tony Award nominee, she twice won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: for the original Broadway productions of Separate Tables (1957) and The Night of the Iguana (1962). She also won an Emmy Award for a 1970 television version of Hamlet.

Life and career

Born in Barnt Green, Worcestershire, Leighton made her stage debut as Dorothy in Laugh with Me (1938), which also was performed that year for BBC Television. She became a star of the Old Vic. Her Broadway debut was as the Queen in Henry IV (1946), starring Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson during a visit of the Old Vic to the U.S., and the company performed a total of five plays from its repertoire before returning to London.

After appearing in two British films, including the starring role of Flora MacDonald opposite David Niven in Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948) and in the popular The Winslow Boy (also 1948), the actress acted in Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn (1949) and the crime/mystery Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951). In America, she portrayed the wife of an American presidential candidate in the 1964 film The Best Man.

Leighton won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in Separate Tables (1956); she won another Tony in that category for The Night of the Iguana (1962), playing Hannah Jelkes (a role played by Deborah Kerr in the film version) opposite Bette Davis's Maxine Faulk. Leighton was nominated for Best Actress in a Play for Much Ado About Nothing (1959) and for Tchin-Tchin (1962). Her last appearance on Broadway was as Birdie Hubbard in a revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (1967).

She had a noteworthy list of TV appearances, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey and Burke's Law. She won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Drama for Hamlet (1970) and she was nominated for an Emmy in 1966 for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama for four episodes of Dr. Kildare. Her final TV performance was in the first season of Space: 1999 where she played Queen Arra in the episode "Collision Course."

For her film role as Mrs. Maudsley in The Go-Between (1971), Leighton won the British BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the role. She received a BAFTA nomination for Best British Actress for her role as Valerie Carrington in Carrington V.C. (1954).

Personal life

Leighton had three husbands: publisher Max Reinhardt (1947–55); actor Laurence Harvey (1957–61); and actor Michael Wilding (1964–76, her death). She had no children. She was appointed a CBE in 1974. Leighton died of multiple sclerosis in 1976, aged 53, in Chichester, Sussex.

Awards and nominations

Year Award Work Result
1955 BAFTA Award for Best British Actress Carrington V.C. Nominated
1957 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play Separate Tables Won
1960 Much Ado About Nothing Nominated
1962 The Night of the Iguana Won
1963 Tchin-Tchin Nominated
1966 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance in a Drama Dr. Kildare Nominated
1971 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Hamlet Won
1972 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress The Go-Between Nominated
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Won
The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 12 Feb 2020. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
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References
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Margaret-Leighton-English-actress
https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/leighton-margaret-1922-1976
https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f4aa306
https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-best-man-v4936
https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/margaret-leighton-49433#Awards
https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b185a49
https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/margaret-leighton-49433
https://www.allmovie.com/artist/margaret-leighton-p41693/other_appearances
https://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=10175
https://www.emmys.com/bios/margaret-leighton
http://awards.bafta.org/award/1972/film/supporting-actress
https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1972
http://awards.bafta.org/award/1955/film/british-actress
https://www.allmovie.com/artist/margaret-leighton-p41693
https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/49433
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0500364/
http://catalogo.bne.es/uhtbin/authoritybrowse.cgi?action=display&authority_id=XX1297882
https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb14198232v
https://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb14198232v
https://d-nb.info/gnd/1015885969
http://isni.org/isni/0000000115988603
https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n88100617
https://aleph.nkp.cz/F/?func=find-c&local_base=aut&ccl_term=ica=xx0127970&CON_LNG=ENG
http://data.bibliotheken.nl/id/thes/p069963223
https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6v16t4x
https://www.idref.fr/192207164
https://viaf.org/viaf/14983714
https://www.worldcat.org/identities/containsVIAFID/14983714
Sections Margaret Leighton

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