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Last updated on the 11 June 2024 by Maeve
Mini Biography
Born: 15 September 1916, Karachi, British India.
Margaret Lockwood became one of the most popular film stars of the 1930s and 1940s. She is best known for her roles in thrillers and melodramas, such as The Lady Vanishes, The Man in Grey, and The Wicked Lady.
Margaret Lockwood was born in Karachi, British India, to an English railway administrator and his Scottish wife. She moved to England with her family in 1920 and attended various schools in London. She started her acting career on stage at the age of 12 and later enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she was discovered by a talent scout.
Lockwood made her film debut in 1934 and soon rose to fame with her performances in Lorna Doone, The Lady Vanishes, and Night Train to Munich. She became a leading lady of Gainsborough Pictures, a studio that specialised in lavish costume dramas and romantic thrillers. She often played femme fatale and bad girls, earning the nickname “the Queen of the British Cinema”.
Margaret Lockwood was married once, to Rupert Leon, a stockbroker, from 1937 to 1950. They had one daughter, Julia Lockwood, who also became an actress. Lockwood had several affairs with her co-stars and directors, including Michael Redgrave, Stewart Granger and Carol Reed. She was also involved in a high-profile libel case against the magazine Picturegoer, which accused her of being a Nazi sympathizer.
Lockwood continued to act in films, television, and theatre until the late 1970s. She received a BAFTA nomination for her role in Cast a Dark Shadow and a CBE for her services to drama. She died of cirrhosis in 1990, at the age of 73. She is buried at Putney Vale Cemetery in London.
Suggested viewing
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Bftv 9.0 / IMDb 7.7
An avalanche strands travellers in a quaint European town. Upon boarding the departing train, a young woman realises her elderly companion mysteriously vanished. Accused of delusion by fellow passengers, she teams up with a charming stranger to unravel the truth, their pursuit laced with blossoming romance and danger lurking in the shadows.
Top cast: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, May Whitty, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Cecil Parker, Linden Travers, Mary Clare, Googie Withers.
The Wicked Lady (1945)
Bftv 8.5 / IMDb 6.8
Stifled by her gilded cage, a bored noblewoman steals her friend’s fiancé and becomes a highwaywoman for thrills. Disguised as the notorious Captain Jerry Jackson, she finds both danger and passion when encountering the real outlaw, their forbidden romance threatened by her husband’s suspicion and the law’s pursuit. Can she outrun her double life before her mask falls, revealing the wicked lady within?
Top cast: Margaret Lockwood, James Mason, Patricia Roc, Griffith Jones, Michael Rennie, Felix Aylmer, Enid Stamp-Taylor, Jean Kent, Francis Lister.
The Man in Grey (1943)
Bftv 8.0 / IMDb 6.5
In 18th-century England, a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage finds solace in the arms of a dashing stranger. But shadows lurk, as the enigmatic “Man in Grey” manipulates their lives, fuelled by revenge and dark secrets. Past and present collide as love, betrayal and hidden identities threaten to tear them apart, leaving them to fight for their happiness in a world where appearances deceive.
Top cast: Margaret Lockwood, Phyllis Calvert, James Mason, Stewart Granger, Harry Scott, Beatrice Varley, Martita Hunt, Helen Hayes, Raymond Lovell.
Night Train to Munich (1940)
Bftv 8.5 / IMDb 7.2
Nazi shadows fall across Prague. A scientist and his daughter find themselves pawns in a deadly game. A British agent, disguised as a charming Nazi officer, races to rescue them. But loyalties blur on a thrilling train journey through danger-filled landscapes, where love, deception and the fate of a secret weapon collide in a desperate fight for escape.
Top cast: Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Paul Henreid, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, James Harcourt, Felix Aylmer, Wyndham Goldie, Roland Culver.
Cast a Dark Shadow (1955)
Bftv 8.0 / IMDb 7.0
A cunning husband orchestrates his wealthy wife’s “accident,” only to find her fortune elusive. Undeterred, he sets his sights on another widow, but her shrewdness proves a challenge. His murderous desires resurface, entangled with a desperate maid and a web of deceit. As shadows close in, can he silence the past and claim his prize, or will his dark deeds cast a deadly shadow upon him?
Top cast: Margaret Lockwood, Dirk Bogarde, Kay Walsh, Kathleen Harrison, Robert Flemyng, Mona Washbourne, Philip Stainton, Walter Hudd.
Justice (1971)
Bftv 9.0 / IMDb 7.9
A tenacious female barrister, Harriet Peterson, tackles the male-dominated legal world, fiercely defending clients in challenging cases. Personal struggles intertwine with courtroom drama as she fights for justice, confronting ethical dilemmas and societal prejudices. Romance and danger simmer, pushing Harriet to the limits in her pursuit of truth and equality.
Top cast: Margaret Lockwood, John Stone, John Bryan’s, Philip Stone, Anthony Valentine, Rosie Collins, Carolyn Courage, Carleton Hobbs, Michael Coles.
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