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person_profile-Nova Pilbeam

Nova Pilbeam Died at age: 95

Actor | Producer

Fullname:

Nova Pilbeam

Date of Birth:

Nov 15, 1919

Country of birth:

UK

Died:

Jul 17, 2015

Biography of

Nova Pilbeam

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Nova Margery Pilbeam (15 November 1919 – 17 July 2015) was an English film and stage actress. Pilbeam gained attention as a child stage actress. This led to much work in her teen years. She appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), in which she plays a girl who is abducted, following this with her lead performance as Lady Jane Grey in Tudor Rose (1936). She had a starring role in Hitchcock's Young and Innocent (1937), which she regarded as "the sunniest film I was involved with", and formed a constructive professional relationship with Hitchcock.

    She appeared in an early British television drama in 1939. That year David O. Selznick wanted Pilbeam for the lead in Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), and thought she could be an international film star. However, her agent was worried about the length of a five-year contract; meanwhile, Hitchcock, whose outlook on the film was not the same as Selznick's, auditioned hundreds of others over many months, at last giving the role to Joan Fontaine.

    Unlike some of her peers, Pilbeam never made a film in Hollywood. She continued acting, with appearances in at least nine British films along with many stage roles, throughout the 1940s. One of her last films was The Three Weird Sisters (1948). She remained working on stage for a short while longer, appearing at the Duchess Theatre in Toni Block's play Flowers for the Living in February 1950.

    Pilbeam married Pen Tennyson, a great-grandson of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson and an assistant director to Hitchcock, in 1939. Tennyson became a film director the year they were married, but died in a plane crash in 1941 while working as part of the Admiralty's instructional films unit. She was married to BBC Radio journalist Alexander Whyte from 1950 until his death in 1972. Their child Sarah Jane was born in 1952.

    In her last years, Pilbeam lived in Dartmouth Park, north London. She died on 17 July 2015 in London, aged 95.

Photos of

Nova Pilbeam

Photos ( 5 Photos

Filmography of

Nova Pilbeam

Found 13 Movies in total

Counterblast

Tracy Heart ( Actor )

... 1948

The Three Weird Sisters

Claire Prentiss ( Actor )

... 1948

Green Fingers

Alexandra Baxter ( Actor )

... 1947

Yellow Canary

Betty Maitland ( Actor )

... 1943

The Next of Kin

Beppie Leemans ( Actor )

... 1942

Banana Ridge

Cora Pound ( Actor )

... 1942

Spring Meeting

Baby Furze ( Actor )

... 1941

Pastor Hall

Christine Hall ( Actor )

... 1940

Cheer Boys Cheer

Margaret Greenleaf ( Actor )

... 1939

Young and Innocent

Erica Burgoyne ( Actor )

... 1937

Tudor Rose

Lady Jane Grey ( Actor )

... 1936

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Betty Lawrence ( Actor )

... 1934

Little Friend

Felicity Hughes ( Actor )

... 1934