Wendy Hiller
English film and stage actress (1912-2003)
Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller (15 August 1912 – 14 May 2003) was an English film and stage actress whose performing career spanned nearly 60 years.
Quotes
edit- I was afraid that if I went to Hollywood, I might be faced with the danger of being built up into a player who always features in the same kind of roles.
- [1] Wendy share her feelings about role in 1938.
- I sometimes think to myself, in the middle of doing G.B.S., What on Earth am I doing? It's not like acting another writer's words.
- [2] Wendy speak on the G.B.S play in 1989.
- I just thought I’d always wanted to show off; quite honestly, acting is showing off.
- [3] Wendy speak on her 80th birthday in 1992.
- Thinking back, I don't know how I had the courage. That's one of the unkindest things nature does; it takes away your courage.
- [4] Wendy talk about nature in 1992.
- Oh, I think a little posterity must always be nice, After I'm dead I'll probably be a cult and they'll have entire seasons of me at the National Film Theatre. Thank God I won't have to watch them all.
- [5] Wendy speak on how she want to be remembered in 2003.
- I didn't appreciate it at the time, When you're young, you're stupid. If someone had said to me, Will you play Saint Joan"l with six rehearsals? and then halfway across the Atlantic came the cable, Would I play Pygmalion as well?, I mean I'd have a sort of nervous collapse now. Then, I didn't.
- [6] Wendy speak on childhood in 2003.
Quotes about Hiller
edit- In one sense, Wendy was a kind of anti-star: one husband, one house (in Beaconsfield), one family. Although she did occasionally travel to Hollywood (notably in 1958 for Separate Tables) and Broadway (where her greatest success was in The Aspern Papers in 1962), she lived a relatively domestic life.
- Sheridan Morley in "Dame Wendy Hiller" The Telegraph (16 May 2003)
- She was never afraid of over-acting when she felt instinctively that the role required her to do so and, as Princess Charlotte, she was in turn so fierce and so gentle that, on some evenings, after she had died in the second act it seemed a waste of time continuing with the play.
- Robert Morley speaking about her performance in The First Gentleman]] (1945), as cited in "Obituaries: Dame Wendy Hiller" The Independent (17 May 2003).
- This photo of Wendy Hiller and me with the palace of Versailles fountains in the background was taken in 1981 on the set of Miss Morison's Ghosts. It means a lot to me because not only was it a lovely experience, but it was also the start of a great friendship that lasted 22 years.
- As the protagonist, I became louder and louder each time we re-shot it until I decided to cut right back for the final take. She said, "I knew you’d get it." She understood in the nicest possible way that if I was worth my bread and butter, I would realise shouting wasn’t the way forward.
- Hannah Gordon "My favourite photograph" Sunday Express (25 October 2015).
