JENNIFER HILARYBritish actress Jennifer Hilary, who found fame and success in the West End and on Broadway, died in London on 6 August, 2008, aged 65.
She made her name in the early years of her career by playing a string of ethereal stage beauties, notable Milly Theale in a production of The Wings of a Dove. With her reputation growing, success followed success, as she became known in her twenties for a succession of leading roles that took her from the West End to the glittering heights of New York’s Broadway.
Jennifer Hilary was born on 14 December, 1942, in Frimley, Surrey. She spent a few formative years in Cairo where her father worked for the aircraft industry, before returning to England, where she attended Elmhurst Ballet School in Surrey. Her ballet career, however, was cut short by her height, at which point she switched her aspirations to the theatre. She attended RADA and was considered to be an outstanding student.
Following graduation she was courted by various repertory companies, all of which recognised her burgeoning talent. She chose the Liverpool Playhouse, which itself was undergoing a renaissance period, and for her faith and confidence she landed roles in plays of the caliber of The Seagull, School for Scandal and The Importance of Being Earnest, all in 1961.
Later she played Miranda in The Tempest and Cressida in Troilus and Cressida while at the Birmingham Rep. These roles brought her to the attention of Broadway directors who cast her in a performance of Jean Anouilh’s The Rehearsal, in which she played the governess Lucille, who is heartlessly seduced by an aristocrat.
In 1964 she replaced Susannah York in Christopher Taylor’s production of The Wings of a Dove in London’s West End. This would prove to be one of her career-defining roles as she gave a critically appreciated delicate and evocative performance.
She appeared in several notable productions in the 1960s, alongside a range of talented performers including a young Sir Ian McKellen, Ingrid Bergman and Richard Briers. She was directed by Sir Michael Redgrave and Alan Ayckbourn and appeared in plays written by Dennis Potter, Samuel Taylor and J.B. Priestley.
In 1999, she gave one of the best performances of her career in Noel Coward’s Cavalcade in Glasgow, for which she received glowing reviews for her mesmeric performance.
As well as her successes in the theatre, Miss Hilary also worked a great deal in television, appearing in Pie in the Sky and Midsomer Murders, as well as acting in plays made for television. She also starred in films such as Becket in 1964 and The Heroes of Telemark in 1966.
In her final years she moved away from the stage and acting to enjoy a second career as a specialist flower arranger. She succeeded in this line of work and was often commissioned to provide arrangements for opening nights and gala events. For a memorial service for the actor Michael Williams in 2001 she transformed the porch pillars and the interior of St Paul's, Covent Garden, to evoke the garden of the country home of Mr Williams and his wife Judi Dench.
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