Editing Yvonne Mitchell

{{Short description|English actress (1915–1979)}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Yvonne Mitchell 1949.jpg
| name = Yvonne Mitchell
| birthname = Yvonne Frances Joseph
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1915|7|7}}
| birth_place = London, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1979|3|24|1915|7|7}}
| death_place = [[Westminster]], London, England
| yearsactive = 1939–1977
| alma mater= [[London Theatre Studio]]
| spouse = {{marriage|Derek Monsey|1952|1979|end=died}}
| children = 1
}}

'''Yvonne Mitchell''' (born '''Yvonne Frances Joseph'''; 7 July 1915<ref>Reference books give her year of birth as 1925. However, her name appears in the birth indexes for England and Wales for the July–September quarter of 1915.</ref> – 24 March 1979) was an English actress and author. After beginning her acting career in theatre, Mitchell progressed to films in the late 1940s. Her roles include [[Julia (1984)|Julia]] in the 1954 [[BBC]] adaptation of [[George Orwell]]'s novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four (UK TV programme)|Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''. She retired from acting in 1977.

==Early life==
Mitchell was born Yvonne Frances Joseph, but in 1946 changed her name by [[deed poll]] to Yvonne Mitchell (without the Frances).<ref>''London Gazette'', 8 October 1946, p. 5007.</ref> Her parents were Madge (Mitchell) and Bertie Joseph.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=VLcA4VT8JNQVrO5dy5hcOg&scan=1|title=Index entry|access-date=1 January 2011|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jMg9AQAAIAAJ&q=MADGE+Bertie+Joseph |title=Who's who in the Theatre |date=20 November 2010 |access-date=29 March 2016}}</ref> Her cousin was Conservative MP [[Keith Joseph]].<ref name="Film">McFarlane, Brian (28 February 2014). ''The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition''. Oxford University Press. p. 525; {{ISBN|9781526111968}}</ref> She was [[Jewish]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jpress.nli.org.il/Olive/APA/NLI_heb/SharedView.Article.aspx?parm=Rztb5SEURfiw%2FwdqEXbuKH0FTB3GvosOvvhClUn96LR06anLJUWxyMK282RfiNB0Yw%3D%3D&mode=image&href=DAV%2F1951%2F09%2F28&page=21&rtl=true |title=א י ב ו ן בז י ט 111 ל – דבר, 28/09/1951 |website=Jpress.nli.org.il |date=28 September 1951 |access-date=29 March 2016}}</ref> and was educated in Sussex at [[Battle Abbey School]] and [[St Paul's Girls' School]] in London.<ref>Mantell, Edward (1971). ''The Author's & Writer's Who's who: Volume 6''. Burke's Peerage Limited. p. 563.</ref><ref>[https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-157620 "Mitchell, Yvonne"]. ''WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO''. Retrieved 17 July 2021.</ref>

==Acting==
Mitchell trained for an acting career at the [[London Theatre Studio]],<ref>Charles Landstone, Off-stage: A Personal Record of the First Twelve Years of Stage Sponsored Drama in Great Britain (Arts Council of Great Britain, 1953), p. 154</ref> making her professional debut in 1939.<ref name="Film"/> Already an experienced stage actress, she made her speaking film debut in ''[[The Queen of Spades (1949 film)|The Queen of Spades]]'' (1949), although she played an uncredited minor role in ''[[Love on the Dole (film)|Love on the Dole]]'' eight years earlier.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f75ced5|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180228124033/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f75ced5|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 February 2018|title=Yvonne Mitchell|website=BFI}}</ref>

She had several prominent film roles over the next three decades, winning a [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts|British Film Award]] for ''[[The Divided Heart]]'' (1954) and the [[Silver Bear for Best Actress]] at the [[7th Berlin International Film Festival]] for ''[[Woman in a Dressing Gown]]'' (1957).<ref name="berlinale 1957">{{cite web|url=http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1957/03_preistr_ger_1957/03_Preistraeger_1957.html|title=Berlinale 1957: Prize Winners|access-date=31 December 2009|work=berlinale.de}}</ref> She appeared as Mildred in the controversial film ''[[Sapphire (film)|Sapphire]]'' (1959).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/440288/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Sapphire (1959)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref>

Mitchell was voted 'Television Actress of the Year' for 1953 by the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' newspaper, mainly for her role as Cathy in the [[Nigel Kneale]]/[[Rudolph Cartier]] adaptation of [[Emily Brontë]]'s novel ''[[Wuthering Heights (1953 TV play)|Wuthering Heights]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJc8afOZV0QC&q=yvonne+mitchell+daily+mail+award+1953&pg=PA679|title=The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History|author-link1=William Rubinstein|author-link3=Hilary L. Rubinstein|first1=William D.|last1=Rubinstein|first2=Michael|last2=Jolles|first3=Hilary L.|last3=Rubinstein|date=22 February 2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=9781403939104|via=Google Books}}</ref> The next year, she appeared in another Kneale/Cartier literary adaptation in the role of Julia, with [[Peter Cushing]] as [[Winston Smith (Nineteen Eighty-Four)|Winston Smith]], in their adaptation of ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four (UK TV programme)|Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/438460/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref>

She starred as Lea in the 1973 BBC TV production of Colette's ''[[Chéri (novel)|Cheri]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/a0e3c86abb5c475badc12287dfdad792|title=Chéri|date=10 May 1973|issue=2582|pages=47|via=BBC Genome}}</ref> She continued to appear in television guest roles until the late 1970s, in series such as ''[[Out of the Unknown]]'' (in 1966);<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7bd5dbe5|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190211071128/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7bd5dbe5|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 February 2019|title=The Machine Stops (1966)|website=BFI}}</ref> her final screen role was in the [[BBC]] science-fiction series ''[[1990 (TV series)|1990]]'' (1977).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b85187ec7|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019152958/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b85187ec7|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 October 2019|title=The Market Price (1978)|website=BFI}}</ref>

==Writing==
Outside acting, Mitchell was also an established [[author]], writing several books for children and adults as well as winning awards for playwriting. Her plays include ''[[The Same Sky (play)|The Same Sky]]''. She wrote an acclaimed [[biography]] of the French writer [[Colette]], and her own [[autobiography]] was published in 1957.<ref name="Film"/>

==Personal life==

Mitchell was married to the journalist, film and theatre critic and novelist Derek Monsey (1921–1979) and they lived in a village in the [[south of France]].

Mitchell died of [[cancer]], aged 63, in 1979. Monsey died the same year, roughly one month earlier. Their daughter Cordelia Monsey is a theatre director and a long-term associate of both Sir [[Peter Hall (director)|Peter Hall]] and Sir [[Trevor Nunn]].{{citation needed|date=April 2014}} Yvonne Mitchell's grandson is the drummer and violinist, Mitch McGugan.{{citation needed|date=April 2014}}

==Filmography==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Film
! Role
! Director
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1941
| ''[[Love on the Dole (film)|Love on the Dole]]''
| Factory Worker at Gate
| [[John_Baxter_(director)|John Baxter]]
| uncredited
|-
| rowspan=2 | 1949
| ''[[The Queen of Spades (1949 film)|The Queen of Spades]]''
| Lizaveta Ivanova
| [[Thorold Dickinson]]
|
|-
| ''[[Children of Chance (1949 film)|Children of Chance]]''
| Australia
| [[Luigi Zampa]]
|
|-
| 1953
| ''[[Turn the Key Softly]]''
| Monica Marsden
| [[Jack_Lee_(film_director)|Jack Lee]]
|
|-
| 1954
| ''[[The Divided Heart]]''
| Sonja
| [[Charles Crichton]]
|
|-
| 1955
| ''[[Escapade (1955 film)|Escapade]]''
| Mrs. Stella Hampden
| [[Philip Leacock]]
|
|-
| 1956
| ''[[Yield to the Night]]''
| MacFarlane
| [[J. Lee Thompson]]
|
|-
| 1957
| ''[[Woman in a Dressing Gown]]''
| Amy
| J. Lee Thompson
|
|-
| 1958
| ''[[Passionate Summer (1958 film)|Passionate Summer]]''
| Mrs. Pawley
| [[Rudolph Cartier]]
|
|-
| rowspan=2 | 1959
| ''[[Tiger Bay (1959 film)|Tiger Bay]]''
| Anya
| J. Lee Thompson
|
|-
| ''[[Sapphire (film)|Sapphire]]''
| Mildred
| [[Basil Dearden]]
|
|-
| rowspan=2 | 1960
| ''[[Conspiracy of Hearts]]''
| Sister Gerta
| [[Ralph Thomas]]
|
|-
| ''[[The Trials of Oscar Wilde]]''
| Constance Wilde
| [[Ken Hughes]]
|
|-
| 1961
| ''[[Johnny Nobody]]''
| Miss Floyd
| [[Nigel Patrick]]
|
|-
| 1962
| ''[[The Main Attraction (film)|The Main Attraction]]''
| Elenora Moreno
| [[Daniel Petrie]]
|
|-
| 1965
| ''[[Genghis Khan (1965 film)|Genghis Khan]]''
| Katke
| [[Henry_Levin_(film_director)|Henry Levin]]
|
|-
| 1971
| ''[[The Corpse]]''
| Edith Eastwood
| Viktors Ritelis
|
|-
| rowspan=2 | 1972
| ''[[The Great Waltz (1972 film)|The Great Waltz]]''
| Anna Strauss
| [[Andrew L. Stone]]
|
|-
| ''[[Demons of the Mind]]''
| Hilda
| [[Peter_Sykes_(director)|Peter Sykes]]
|
|-
| 1976
| ''[[The Incredible Sarah]]''
| Mam'selle
| [[Richard Fleischer]]
|
|-
| 1977
| ''Nido de Viudas''
| Elvira
| Tony Navarro
|
|-
|1978
|1990 (TV Series)
|Kate Smith
|Wilfred Greatorex
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*{{IMDb name|593814}}
*{{IBDB name}}

{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Yvonne Mitchell
|list =
{{BAFTA Award for Best Actress 1952-1959}}
{{Silver Bear for Best Actress}}
}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Yvonne}}
[[Category:1915 births]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at St Paul's Girls' School]]
[[Category:Alumni of the London Theatre Studio]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]]
[[Category:Best British Actress BAFTA Award winners]]
[[Category:Jewish English actresses]]
[[Category:English film actresses]]
[[Category:English stage actresses]]
[[Category:English television actresses]]
[[Category:Actresses from London]]
[[Category:20th-century English actresses]]
[[Category:Silver Bear for Best Actress winners]]