Nova Pilbeam

Nova Margery Pilbeam (15 November 1919 – 17 July 2015) was an English film and stage actress. She played leading roles in two Alfred Hitchcock films of the 1930s, and made her last film in 1948.

Early life Pilbeam was born in Wimbledon, Surrey (now part of the London Borough of Merton). Her parents were Arnold Pilbeam, an actor and theatre manager, and Margery Stopher Pilbeam.

Time magazine reported that the actress, whose first name was an homage to her maternal grandmother from Nova Scotia, opted to keep her birth name, which she considered far less ridiculous than "Myrna Loy" or "Greta Garbo".

Career Pilbeam gained attention as a child stage actress. This led to much work in her teen years. She appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), in which she plays a girl abducted by Peter Lorre's character, following this with her lead performance as Lady Jane Grey in Tudor Rose (1936). She had a starring role in Hitchcock's Young and Innocent (1937), which she regarded as "the sunniest film I was involved with", and formed a constructive professional relationship with Hitchcock.

In her last years, Pilbeam lived in Dartmouth Park, north London. She died on 17 July 2015 in London, aged 95.

Filmography

Little Friend (1934) - Felicity Hughes The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) - Betty Lawrence Tudor Rose (1936) - Lady Jane Grey Young and Innocent (1937) - Erica Burgoyne Prison Without Bars (1939) TV movie - Suzanne, Reformatory Inmate Cheer Boys Cheer (1939) - Margaret Greenleaf Pastor Hall (1940) - Christine Hall Spring Meeting (US: Three Wise Brides) (1941) - Baby Furze Banana Ridge (1942) - Cora Pound The Next of Kin (1942) - Beppie Leemans Yellow Canary (1943) - Betty Maitland This Man is Mine (1946) - Phoebe Ferguson Green Fingers (1947) - Alexandra Baxter The Three Weird Sisters (1948) - Claire Prentiss Counterblast (1948) - Tracy Hart The Shining Hour (1951) TV movie - Judy Linden