Vida Hope (16 December 1910 – 23 December 1963) was a British stage and film actress, [1] who also directed stage productions.
Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, to theatrical parents, she travelled widely as a child. [2] She was "forbidden to go on the stage", so at age 16, became a typist in an advertising office, going on to write copy. [2] At this time, however, she took every chance she got to take part in amateur dramatics, managing to get the lead roles in plays by Shaw, Ibsen, and Chekhov. [2]
Following the role of the Fairy Wish-Fulfilment in the pantomime The Babes in the Wood at the Unity Theatre, London, she was, in 1939, offered a role by Herbert Farjeon in The Little Revue and worked in his revues for over three years. [2] In 1940, she gave much support to and formed a strong friendship with Dirk Bogarde, in his first West End play, Diversions. [3] During the Second World War, she became a regular singer at the Players' Theatre, where her repertoire included "Casey Jones", " Daddy Wouldn’t Buy Me a Bow-wow", " Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron", "The Lady Wasn't Going that Way" and "You May Pet Me as Much as You Please". [4]
She played a prominent role alongside Alec Guinness in the Academy Award-nominated film The Man in the White Suit as Bertha, in 1951.
Hope appeared in a range of roles in a production of Peer Gynt at the New Theatre in London (1944–45), [5] directed the 1953 London production of The Boy Friend (and is also credited as director on the 'original cast' recording of 1954 starring Julie Andrews) [6] and later directed Valmouth at the Lyric, Hammersmith (1958) and a revival of The Boy Friend at the Bristol Hippodrome (1958–59). [7]
She was married to the film editor and director Derek Twist, and appeared in several of his films. She died in a road accident, on 23 December 1963, in Chelmsford, Essex, aged 53.