Dame Celia Johnson (1908-1982) was an English actress, famous for her role in the 1945 film, Brief Encounter, opposite Trevor Howard. She was born in Richmond, Surrey, and trained in acting at RADA. Her stage début was in Major Barbara in 1928. By 1931, she was starring as Ophelia in a New York production of Hamlet. She made relatively few films, of which Brief Encounter is by far the best known. Other films include The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). She generally played a genteel and/or repressed Englishwoman, though she proved in many stage productions to be a talented comedienne.
She was married to Peter Fleming an explorer and writer and brother of Ian Fleming
She was knighted and became a Dame.
