Quiz

Her relationship with David Lean was best described as torrid and tormented, but even Lean's final wife, Sandra, once told a reporter: "She was terribly in love with him, and although she was an actress, she was in no way a prima donna. Truthfully, I think he should have stayed with her.".

One of her best known roles was as Nancy in Le avventure di Oliver Twist (1948), directed by her then husband David Lean. She disliked this role as Lean would not allow her look as dirty or "more damaged" as she felt the role required.

She appeared with Alec Guinness in five films: Le avventure di Oliver Twist (1948), Last Holiday (1950), La bocca della verità (1958), Whisky e gloria (1960) and La più bella storia di Dickens (1970).

She played the doomed Nancy in Le avventure di Oliver Twist (1948), a film for which she wrote a much-hailed opening sequence. She contributed the wordless opening montage, showing the title character's mother give birth violently, amid gathering storm clouds and wind-raked tree branches. She said her inspiration was a film she had seen as a child that had long haunted her.

Wrote an autobiography towards the end of her life, but due to lack of interest from publishers, it has never seen publication.

Stepmother of Peter Lean from her first marriage and the adoptive mother of Gemma Jaques from her second.

She died seven days before her Eroi del mare (1942), Prigioniero della paura (1947), La famiglia Gibson (1944) and Whisky e gloria (1960) co-star John Mills.