Diana Wynyard

Diana Wynyard was an English stage and film actress. Born in Lewisham, south London, she began her career on the stage, performing with repertory companies in Liverpool and London before appearing on Broadway in Rasputin and the Empress in 1932 with Ethel, John, and Lionel Barrymore. Fox Film Corporation borrowed her for Cavalcade (1933), and her performance as a wife and mother earned her a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, the first for a British actress. After a handful of film roles, she returned to Britain and concentrated on theater work, later returning to film in On the Night of the Fire (1939) opposite Ralph Richardson and Gaslight (1940), where she played the frightened heroine. Her remaining film appearances were often maternal supporting roles, including Island in the Sun (1957). She also had a flourishing postwar stage career as a Shakespearean leading lady, and was appointed a CBE in 1953.