Phyllis Calvert
Acting • Born 1915-02-18 – Died 2002-10-08
Biography
Phyllis Calvert (18 February 1915 – 8 October 2002) was an English film, stage and television actress. Born Phyllis Hannah Bickle in Chelsea, she trained at the Margaret Morris School of Dancing and performed from the age of ten, gaining her first film role at the age of 12, in The Arcadians (1927), also known as The Land of Heart's Desire. Calvert performed in repertory theatre and in several films, before making her London stage debut in A Woman's Privilege in 1939. During the following decade, she starred in many romances, including Fanny by Gaslight, with James Mason and Stewart Granger, and My Own True Love, becoming one of Britain's highest paid stars. However, three Hollywood studios failed to pay her what she asked. She first found success in the film adaptation of H. G. Wells' Kipps (1941), but it was The Man in Grey (1943) that confirmed her status. She acted in over 40 films, her later films include Oh! What a Lovely War and The Walking Stick. Calvert had already appeared on television, playing Mrs. March in the 1958 serials Little Women and Good Wives (both adapted from Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women), as well as individual episodes of several other programmes, when, in 1970, she landed the part of an agony aunt with problems of her own in Kate. She made TV appearances in programmes such as Crown Court, Ladykillers, Tales of the Unexpected, Boon, After Henry and The Line Grove Story. She was married to the actor and antiquarian bookseller Peter Murray Hill, with whom she had two children, Ann Auriol (born 1943) and Piers Auriol (born 1954). She died in London in 2002, from natural causes, aged 87.
Filmography
57 credits
Indiscreet
Movie • 1958
Mrs. Margaret Munson
Appointment with Danger
Movie • 1950
Sister Augustine
Two Thousand Women
Movie • 1944
Freda Thompson
The Man in Grey
Movie • 1943
Clarissa Richmond Rohan / Clarissa Rohan
Mr. Denning Drives North
Movie • 1951
Kay Denning
Mandy
Movie • 1952
Christine Garland
Madonna of the Seven Moons
Movie • 1945
Maddalena Labardi
Twisted Nerve
Movie • 1968
Enid Durnley
My Own True Love
Movie • 1948
Joan Clews
All Passion Spent
Movie • 1986
Carrie
Fanny by Gaslight
Movie • 1944
Fanny
The Walking Stick
Movie • 1970
Erica Dainton
Oscar Wilde
Movie • 1960
Constance Wilde
The Woman with No Name
Movie • 1950
Yvonne Winter
They Were Sisters
Movie • 1945
Lucy Moore
Kipps
Movie • 1941
Ann Pornick (adult)
Let George Do It!
Movie • 1940
Mary Wilson
The Magic Bow
Movie • 1946
Jeanne
Broken Journey
Movie • 1948
Mary Johnstone
They Came by Night
Movie • 1940
Sally
Bed
Movie • 1995
Couple Woman
The Battle of the Villa Fiorita
Movie • 1965
Margot
Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It
Movie • 1941
Mrs. Wilkinson
The Root of All Evil
Movie • 1947
Jeckie Farnish
Men of Two Worlds
Movie • 1946
Dr. Caroline Munro
Child in the House
Movie • 1956
Evelyn Acheson
The Woman He Loved
Movie • 1988
Queen Mary
The Young and the Guilty
Movie • 1958
Gladys Connor
Time Out of Mind
Movie • 1947
Kate Fernald
Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt
Movie • 1940
Betty Forsythe
Neutral Port
Movie • 1940
Helen Carter
The Golden Madonna
Movie • 1949
Patricia Chandler
The Young Mr. Pitt
Movie • 1942
Eleanor Eden
Across the Lake
Movie • 1988
Lady Dolly Campbell
The Net
Movie • 1953
Lydia Heathley
Oh! What a Lovely War
Movie • 1969
Lady Dorothy Haig
Mrs. Dalloway
Movie • 1997
Aunt Helena
Uncensored
Movie • 1942
Julie Lanvin
It's Never Too Late
Movie • 1956
Laura Hammond
A Lady Mislaid
Movie • 1958
Esther Wallace
The Death of the Heart
Movie • 1987
Mrs. Heccomb
Two Days to Live
Movie • 1940
Joyce
The Postman
Movie • 1952
Midsomer Murders
TV • 1997
Alice Bly
Tales of the Unexpected
TV • 1979
Mabel Ince
Sherlock Holmes
TV • 1984
Agnes Garrideb
Victoria Wood
TV • 1989
Hilary
Casualty
TV • 1986
Mary
All Passion Spent
TV • 1986
Carrie
Fifties Features - The Women behind the Pictures
TV • 1986
The House of Eliott
TV • 1991
Mrs Gurney
Lady Killers
TV • 1980
Rosaline Fox
Performance
TV • 1991
Woman
Overseas Press Club - Exclusive!
TV • 1957
Tatiana
After Henry
TV • 1988
Auntie Lilian
Kate
TV • 1970
Kate Graham
A Killing on the Exchange
TV • 1987
Alison Tyndall