Celia Johnson Biography

Celia Johnson was an English actress who bewitched the audience with her performance on both stage and the screen from 1920s to 1970s. No other English stage actress could reach the zenith which she did during her acting career spanning more than sixty years. She came from a well-educated, respected and prosperous English middle class family and performed more on the stage than the screen. A typical characteristic of this actress was that she would pronounce some vowels by adding a y-noise to it which would make her speech highly distinctive from others. She became famous on the stage within a very short period for her natural, fresh, sensitive and interesting performance which did not have any false note or sentimentality or trickery. She was not suited to do heroic roles because her voice lacked the power at low levels which was a drawback. While others got all classical roles, she got only roles in mainstream plays. She became a part of the new generation of natural actors who were good at acting supervised by directors rather than actor-managers. She gained her fame and popularity from both West End and Broadway stages in London and New York respectively.