Celia Johnson

The late English actress, Celia Elizabeth Johnson, was born on 18th December 1908 in Richmond, Surrey. She completed her schooling at St Paul's Girls' School, London in 1926. In her school days, she was a part of the orchestra, took part in theater productions and also acted for a fundraiser charity play for the WWI soldiers in 1916. Later, she graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (London). Her career began in 1928, as a theater artist and her first play was none other than George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara, performed at the Theatre Royal, Huddersfield. She traveled to the US soon enough for a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Her struggle to work in London’s minor productions came to an end in 1933 with The Wind and the Rain in which she got a two–year run. Her career got a high from her outstanding work in Pride and Prejudice as Elizabeth Bennet. During the WWII, she chose to prioritize her family and contribute in the Women's Auxiliary Police Corps. Therefore, she took up work on Radio and also acted in two films- In Which We Serve and This Happy Breed. The films were written and directed by David Lean David Lean is a renowned English film editor, scre >> Read More... and Noël Coward, respectively. The two approached her again for a film in which she is known to have given her career’s best performance- Brief Encounter.

The film won her the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and an Academy Award nomination. This 1945 film had Trevor Howard as the opposite lead, and the story was based on Noël Coward’s one-act play titled Still Life. After a break from acting, she returned to the theater with the 1952 play The Grass is Greener. Celia’s first Award, National Board of Review Award, came her way in 1944 for her work in This Happy Breed. She also won the BAFTA Award in 1969 for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Last but not the least, she was awarded a British Academy Television Award in the category of Best Actress for her lead role as Mrs. Palfrey in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont in 1973. Moreover, she received the honor of the Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1981. She married writer Peter Fleming in 1936, and the couple bore three children- Nicholas Peter Val Fleming, Kate Fleming and Lucy Fleming. Peter died of a heart attack in 1971 while on a shooting expedition in Scotland. At seventy-three, she too died a sudden death from a stroke in 1982, while playing bridge with her friends at home in Oxfordshire. Kate authored Celia Johnson-A biography in 1991. Moreover, a blue plaque was installed in 2008 at her home in Richmond.