Vida Hope
Vida Hope (16 December 1910 – 23 December 1963) was a British film actress.[1]
Life and career
Born in Liverpool, Lancashire to theatrical parents she travelled widely as a child.[2] She was “forbidden to go on the stage“ and therefore became a typist in an advertising office aged 16, going on to write copy.[2] At this time however she took every chance she got to take part in amateur dramatics, managing to get the lead roles in plays by Shaw, Ibsen and Chekhov.[2]
Following the role of the Fairy Wish-Fulfilment in the pantomime The Babes in the Wood at the Unity Theatre, she was offered a role by Herbert Farjeon in a revue The Little Revue in 1939, and worked in his revues for over three years.[2] She gave much support and formed a strong friendship with Dirk Bogarde, in his first West End play in 1940, Diversions.[3] During the Second World War she became a regular performer at the Players' Theatre, where her repertoire included 'Casey Jones', 'Daddy Wouldn’t Buy Me a Bow-wow', 'Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron', 'The Lady Wasn't Going that Way' and 'You May Pet Me as Much as You Please'.[4] She played a leading role alongside Alec Guinness in the Academy Award nominated film The Man in the White Suit, as Bertha, in 1951.
Hope appeared in a range of roles in a production of Peer Gynt at the New Theatre in London (1944-45) and later directed Valmouth at the Lyric, Hammersmith (1958) and The Boy Friend at the Bristol Hippodrome (1958–59)[5]
She was married to the film editor and director Derek Twist and appeared in several of his films.
She died on 23 December 1963 in Chelmsford, Essex, in a road accident at the age of 53.
Partial filmography
- The 39 Steps (1935) - Usherette[6]
- Champagne Charlie (1944) – Rosie[6]
- English Without Tears (1944)
- The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1946) – Fanny Squeers[6]
- Hue and Cry (1947) – Mrs. Kirby
- The Mark of Cain (1947) – Jennie
- They Made Me a Fugitive (1947) – Mrs Fenshaw[6]
- It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) – Mrs Wallis[6]
- Woman Hater (1948)
- For Them That Trespass (1949) – Olive Mockson[6]
- Paper Orchid (1949) – Jonquil Jones[6]
- The Interrupted Journey (1949) – Miss Marchmont[6]
- Double Confession (1950) – Madam Zilia
- The Woman in Question (1950) – Shirley Jones[6]
- The Man in the White Suit (1951) – Bertha[6]
- Green Grow the Rushes (1951) – Polly Bainbridge[6]
- Angels One Five (1952) – W.A.A.F.
- Emergency Call (1952) – Brenda[6]
- The Long Memory (1952) – Alice Gedge[6]
- Women of Twilight (1952) – Jess Smithson[6]
- The Broken Horseshoe (1953) – Jackie Leroy[6]
- Marilyn (1953) - Rosie[6]
- Fast and Loose (1954) – Gladys[6]
- Charley Moon (1955) – staging of the musical numbers[6]
- In the Doghouse (1961) – Mrs Crabtree[6]
References
- ↑ Profile, ftvdb.bfi.org.uk; accessed 4 April 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Some of the Company – Vida Hope (autobiographical note). In : Late Joys at The Players' Theatre. T V Boardman & Co Ltd, London, New York, 1943., p83
- ↑ Bogarde, Dirk. A Postillion Struck by Lightning. Triad/Panther Books, Frogmore, 1978, p268.
- ↑ List of Songs. In : Late Joys at The Players' Theatre. T V Boardman & Co Ltd, London, New York, 1943, p113-115.
- ↑ List of appearances for Vida Hope at the Theatricalia site accessed 10 April 2015.
- ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 6.16 6.17 6.18 BFI page of films with Vida Hope accessed 10 April 2015.
External links
- Vida Hope at the Internet Movie Database
