Michael Wilding (actor)

Michael Wilding (July 23, 1912 – July 8, 1979) was an English actor.

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Born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England, Wilding was a successful commercial artist when he joined the art department of a London movie studio in 1933. He soon embarked on an acting career.

He appeared in numerous British motion pictures, often opposite Anna Neagle, but had a less productive career in Hollywood. Some of his most memorable screen performances are in Sailors Three (1940), In Which We Serve (1942), Piccadilly Incident (1946), Spring in Park Lane (1948), Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950) and The World of Suzie Wong (1960).

Wilding had four wives, Kay Young (married 1937, divorced 1951), actress Elizabeth Taylor (married 1952, divorced 1957), Susan Neill (married 1958, divorced 1962), and actress Margaret Leighton (married 1964 until her death in 1976).

He and Taylor had two sons, Michael Howard Wilding (born January 6, 1953) and Christopher Edward Wilding (born February 27, 1955).

In the 1960s, he was forced to cut back on his movie appearances due to illness. His last appearance was in an uncredited, non-speaking cameo in Lady Caroline Lamb (1972), which co-starred his last wife, Margaret Leighton.

Michael Wilding died at age 66 in Chichester, West Sussex, due to head injuries suffered from a fall down a flight of stairs during an epileptic seizure. His body was cremated and the ashes were scattered.

Filmography

• Bitter Sweet (1933) ... Extra (uncredited)
• Channel Crossing (1933) ... Passenger boarding ferry
• Heads We Go (1933)
• Late Extra (1935)
• When Knights Were Bold (1936) ... Extra (uncredited)
• Wedding Group (1936)
• There Ain't No Justice (1939) ... Len Charteris
• The Big Blockade (1940) ... Captain
• Tilly of Bloomsbury (1940) ... Percy Welwyn
• Convoy (1940) ... Dot
• Sailors Three (1940) ... Johnny Wilding
• Sailors Don't Care (1940) ... Dick
• The Pink Fox (1940) ... Dickie Benson
• The Farmer's Wife (1941) ... Richard Coaker
• Spring Meeting (1941) ... Tony Fox-Collier
• Kipps (1941) ... Ronnie Walshingham
• Cottage to Let (1941) ... Alan Trently
• Ships with Wings (1942) ... Lt. David Grant
• In Which We Serve (1942) ... "Flags," Second Lieutenant
• Secret Mission (1942) ... Pvt. Nobby Clark
• 1943 (1943) ... Constantine
• Dear Octopus (1943) ... Nicholas Randolph
• English Without Tears (1944) ... Tom Gilbey
• Piccadilly Incident (1946) ... Capt. Alan Pearson
• Carnival (1946) ... Maurice Avery
• The Courtneys of Curzon Street (1947) ... Sir Edward Courtney
• An Ideal Husband (1947) ... Viscount Arthur Goring
• Spring in Park Lane (1948) ... Richard
• Under Capricorn (1949) ... Hon. Charles Adare
• Maytime in Mayfair (1949) ... Michael Gore-Brown
• Stage Fright (1950) ... Det. Insp. Wilfred "Ordinary" Smith
• Into the Blue (1950) ... Nicholas Foster
• The Law and the Lady (1951) ... Nigel Duxbury/Lord Henry Minden
• The Lady with a Lamp (1951) ... Sidney Herbert (Lord Herbert of Lea)
• Derby Day (1952) ... David Scott
• Trent's Last Case (1952) ... Philip Trent
• Torch Song (1953) ... Tye Graham
• The Egyptian (1954) ... Akhnaton (the Pharaoh)
• The Glass Slipper (1955) ... Prince Charles
• The Scarlet Coat (1955) ... Maj. John Andre (British Adjutant General)
• Zarak (1956) ... Maj. Ingram
• Danger Within (1959) ... Maj. Charles Marquand
• The World of Suzie Wong (1960) ... Ben Marlowe
• The Naked Edge (1961) ... Morris Brooke
• The Best of Enemies (1962) ... Burke
• A Girl Named Tamiko (1963) ... Nigel Costairs
• The Sweet Ride (1968) ... Mr. Cartwright
• Rose rosse per il fuehrer (1968) ... English General ... aka Red Roses for the Fuhrer (USA)
• Waterloo (1970) ... Sir William Ponsonby
• Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) ... Lord Holland