Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers, CBE, AO was an English entertainer. She was a dancer and actress, with a lengthy career spanning some nine decades in theatre, film, and television. She was a well-known actress and star of British films during and after World War II.
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing is a 1942 British black-and-white war film, mainly set in the German-occupied Netherlands. It was the fourth collaboration between the British writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and the first film they made under the banner of The Archers.
Cecil Parker was an English actor with a distinctively husky voice, who usually played supporting roles, often characters with a supercilious demeanour, in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969.
John Neil McCallum, was an Australian theatre and film actor, highly successful in the United Kingdom. He was also a television producer.
Traveller's Joy is a 1949 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Googie Withers, John McCallum and Maurice Denham. Based on a West End play of the same name by Arthur Macrae, it was the last film released by the original Gainsborough Pictures.
Nickel Queen is a 1971 Australian comedy film starring Googie Withers and directed by her husband John McCallum. The story was loosely based on the Poseidon bubble, a nickel boom in Western Australia in the late 1960s, and tells of an outback pub owner who stakes a claim and finds herself an overnight millionaire.
This Is Your Life is a British biographical television documentary, based on the 1952 American series. It was hosted by Eamonn Andrews from 1955 until 1964, and then from 1969 until his death in 1987. Michael Aspel then took up the role of host until the show ended in 2003. It briefly returned in 2007 as a one-off special presented by Trevor McDonald.
Port of Escape is a 1956 British thriller film directed by Tony Young and starring Googie Withers, John McCallum, Bill Kerr and Joan Hickson.
The Girl in the Crowd is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Michael Powell starring Barry Clifton, Patricia Hilliard, and Googie Withers.
The Love Test is a 1935 British romantic comedy film directed by Michael Powell and starring Judy Gunn, Louis Hayward, David Hutcheson, Googie Withers and Thorley Walters. It was made as a Quota quickie.
Dark World (1935) is a British film directed by Bernard Vorhaus and starring Tamara Desni, Leon Quartermaine, and Googie Withers. The film, released by Fox Film Corporation, is now considered a lost film.
Derby Day is a 1952 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Googie Withers, John McCallum, Peter Graves, Suzanne Cloutier and Gordon Harker. An ensemble piece, it portrays several characters on their way to the Derby Day races at Epsom Downs Racecourse. It was an attempt to revive the success that Neagle and Wilding had previously enjoyed on screen together. To promote the film, Wilcox arranged for Neagle to launch the film at the 1952 Epsom Derby. In the United States, the film was released as Four Against Fate.
Action for Slander is a 1937 British drama film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Clive Brook, Ann Todd and Googie Withers. The plot is about an army officer who is falsely accused at cheating at cards by a man whose wife he had an affair with and struggles to clear his name. It was an adaptation of the 1937 novel Action for Slander by Mary Borden.
The Loves of Joanna Godden is a 1947 British historical drama film directed by Charles Frend and produced by Michael Balcon. The screenplay was written by H. E. Bates and Angus MacPhail from the novel Joanna Godden (1921) by Sheila Kaye-Smith.
Once Upon a Dream is a 1949 British comedy romance film directed by Ralph Thomas in his debut and starring Googie Withers, Griffith Jones, and Guy Middleton. It was a J. Arthur Rank presentation and a Sydney Box production, and was released through General Film Distributors Ltd. The film was made at the Lime Grove Studios with sets designed by the art director Cedric Dawe.
The Night of the Party is a 1934 British mystery thriller film directed by Michael Powell and starring Leslie Banks, Ian Hunter, Jane Baxter, Ernest Thesiger and Malcolm Keen. In the United States it was released as The Murder Party. It was made at the Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush. The art direction was by Alfred Junge, later a regular contributor to the films of Powell and Pressburger.
Viola Keats (1911–1998) was a British stage, film and television actress. The Independent called her "an actress of vigour and conviction." After training at RADA, her first appearance on the London Stage was at the Apollo Theatre in 1933, in The Distaff Side, and the following year she made her Broadway debut in the same play. Her first screen appearance was in 1933 in Too Many Wives, and she went on to have starring roles in films such as A Woman Alone. From the 1950s, her screen work was largely in television, but she continued to work throughout in the theatre, including an Australian tour of A Streetcar Named Desire as Blanche, and in the 1958 Agatha Christie play Verdict at the Strand Theatre. She spent her retirement living in Brighton.
She Couldn't Say No is a 1939 British comedy film directed by Graham Cutts and starring Tommy Trinder, Fred Emney and Googie Withers. It was based on a play Funny Face by Paul Gerard Smith and Fred Thompson. The screenplay features a woman who arranges a burglary to try to recover a stolen diary with compromising details written in it.
Isn't Life Wonderful! is a 1953 British technicolor period comedy film directed by Harold French and starring Cecil Parker, Eileen Herlie and Donald Wolfit. The film was shot at the Elstree Studios of Associated British with sets designed by the art director Terence Verity. It was released in the United States as Uncle Willie's Bicycle Shop, the title of Brock Williams original 1948 novel based on his boyhood experiences.
The Tait Memorial Trust (TMT) is a charitable foundation, which was first established in the United Kingdom, with the chief purpose of providing financial support to outstanding young performing artists from Australia and New Zealand. It aims to help those who wish to pursue post-graduate studies in leading performing art institutions or privately with internationally recognized teachers in the United Kingdom. It also offers performance opportunities in its many concerts and events in London together with advice and mentoring to awardees. The TMT was founded by Isla Baring OAM in memory of her father, Sir Frank Tait and his brothers, who played an important part in the establishment of theatre and the performing arts in Australia. Sir Frank, the youngest of the Tait brothers, carried the firm J. C. Williamson's into its most successful years dominated by the Sutherland-Williamson opera company in 1965 which brought Joan Sutherland back to her homeland.
