Joan Greenwood, of the plummy feline voice, was born in the well-to-do
London district of Chelsea, the daughter of renowned portrait painter
Sydney Earnshaw Greenwood (1887-1949).
Dancing from the age of eight, she took ballet lessons and later
enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Graduating at age
18, Joan made her theatrical debut in Molière's
"Malade Imaginaire" at the Apollo Theatre. Performing some time later
in Clare Boothe Luce's "The Women",
she was noticed by Leslie Howard,
who cast the diminutive lass as his leading lady in his wartime flag
waver The Gentle Sex (1943). 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).
The theatre saw her in classical plays with the
Donald Wolfit Company, ranging from
George Bernard Shaw's "Heartbreak
House" to
William Shakespeare's
"Hamlet" (as Ophelia), and Henrik Ibsen's
"Hedda Gabler". On screen she gave a strong, sensitive performance in
Eric Ambler's psychological thriller
Jim Ackland unter Mordverdacht (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
Königsliebe (1948).
Above all, she is fondly remembered for a trio of classic Ealing
comedies, conveying a measure of eroticism while remaining
quintessentially "correct" and "properly British". She purred her way
through
Adel verpflichtet (1949)
(as the beguiling, but manipulative Sibella) and as Scottish Peggy
Macroon she taunted straight-laced
Basil Radford in
Freut euch des Lebens! (1949). She was
Lady Caroline Lamb in
Vom sündigen Poeten (1949) and
she dutifully undermined idealistic, naive inventor Sidney Stratton
(Alec Guinness) in
Der Mann im weißen Anzug (1951).
In between her two other major screen roles--Gwendolen Fairfax in
Ernst sein ist alles (1952)
and lascivious Lady Bellaston in
Tom Jones (1963)--Joan had a brief
spell in Hollywood, paired again with Stewart Granger for
Fritz Lang's gothic period melodrama
Das Schloss im Schatten (1955). 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".
Joan Greenwood died following a period of ill health on February 28, 1987, less than a
week before her 66th birthday.
