Estelle Winwood

A British stage actress who reluctantly moved to Hollywood and became a star of the silver screen, Estelle Winwood is celebrated for her lengthy career, having appeared in dozens of memorable Westerns, dramas, and comedies. After studying at the Lyric Stage Academy in London, Winwood first appeared on stage in Johannesburg, and later on London's West End. She spent the1920s on Broadway, turning down film offers left and right, but eventually caved in and appeared in a few films, making a significant splash in 1937 when she worked alongside Katharine Hepburn in the romantic comedy "Quality Street." She shunned cinema in the '40s, but once television became the hot medium she began to appear in small-screen theater showcases, and popular series like "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." Her next major film role was that of the widow Sheelah Sugrue in Disney's leprechaun tale, "Darby O'Gill and the Little People." Throughout the '60s Winwood worked in everything from the John Huston Western "The Misfits" to the campy "Batman" TV series. In a 1967 role in the film "Camelot," the classic musical about King Arthur's court, she worked alongside two of her famous British contemporaries, esteemed actors Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Harris, and her final film role, in Robert Moore's mystery-comedy "Murder by Death," placed her alongside legends Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, and Peter Sellers. By the time she retired, Winwood had worked as an actress for 80 years, and was the oldest member in the history of the Screen Actors Guild.