Withers, Googie (1917–)

views updated

Withers, Googie (1917–)

British stage and film actress. Born Georgette Lizette Withers, Mar 12, 1917, in Karachi, India (now Pakistan); dau. of Edgar Clements Withers (British captain) and Lizette Catarina Wilhelmina (van Wageningen) Withers (Dutch); m. John McCallum (actor), in 1948; children: Joanna McCallum (actress).

Equally at home with comedy and tragedy, made stage debut at 12 in The Windmill Man (1929), followed by Private Lives (1945), Hamlet (1958), The Constant Wife (1960), Woman in a Dressing Gown (1962), Exit the King (1963), The Cherry Orchard (1971), An Ideal Husband (1971), The Importance of Being Earnest (1979), Time and the Conways (1983) and The Chalk Garden (1986), among others; appeared in 1st film The Girl in the Crowd (1934); came to prominence as a Dutch resistance leader in One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), then starred as another Dutch woman in The Silver Fleet (1943); other films include The Lady Vanishes (1938), Bulldog Sees It Through (1940), Once Upon a Dream (1949), Night and the City (1950), Devil on Horseback (1954), Port of Escape (1955), Time After Time (1985), Country Life (1995) and Shine (1996); appeared on tv in Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey" (1986) and "Hotel du Lac" (1986).

See also Women in World History.