Sonia Dresdel
1909 - 1976She was born Lois Obee in Hornsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, England and was educated at Aberdeen High School for Girls.
Her leading role in the 1947 film While I Live gained her a great deal of acclaim. In the film she plays Julia Trevelyan, a spinster living in a lonely cliff top house in Cornwall and haunted by the death of her sister 25 years earlier.
Her most noted role was that of "Mrs. Baines" in the 1948 film version of Graham Greene's The Fallen Idol, which starred Ralph Richardson and Michèle Morgan.
The film received Academy Awards nominations for Best Director (Sir Carol Reed) and Best Screenplay.
She died of undisclosed causes, aged 66.
The Fallen Idol
Carol Reed
Ralph Richardson, Michèle Morgan
Phillipe, the son of an ambassador in London, idolizes Baines, his father's butler, a kind of hero in the eyes of the child, whose perception changes when he accidentally discovers the secret that Baines keeps and witnesses the consequences that adults' lies can cause.
The Fallen Idol
The Trials of Oscar Wilde
Ken Hughes
Peter Finch, Yvonne Mitchell
At the height of his fame, Oscar Wilde angers the Marquis of Queensberry by having what is believed to be a romantic relationship with Queensberry's son Lord Alfred Douglas, who is twenty years Wilde's junior. When Queensberry slanders Wilde, the artist decides to take the matter to court and brings about his own downfall.
The Trials of Oscar Wilde
This Was a Woman
Tim Whelan
Sonia Dresdel, Walter Fitzgerald
The woman here is Sylvia Russell, who is a bit power mad and has some set goals. In order to achieve those goals she is sadistically devoted to her son and daughter, able to possess and direct them; subtly ruins her daughter's marriage by corrupting a servant girl and, then, uses her to compromise her son-in-law; slowly breaks her bumbling, unambitious husband's confidence, finds in her husband's executive friend the man she desires, and then poisons her husband in her own manner in their quiet English manor
This Was a Woman
The Clouded Yellow
Ralph Thomas
Jean Simmons, Trevor Howard
After leaving the British Secret Service, David Somers (played by Trevor Howard) finds work cataloging butterflies at the country house of Nicholas and Jess Fenton. After the murder of a local gamekeeper, suspicion (wrongfully) falls on their niece, Sophie Malraux (Jean Simmons). Somers helps Sophie to escape arrest and they go on the run together. After a cross-country chase they arrive at a coastal city with the intention of leaving the country by ship. All's well that ends well after the true identity of the murderer is revealed.
The Clouded Yellow
While I Live
John Harlow
Sonia Dresdel, Carol Raye
In 1922, young pianist and composer Olwen Trevelyan, troubled and sleepless over her inability to finish the final notes of her composition, falls to her death from the cliffs of Cornwall. 25 years on, Olwen has gained posthumous fame as a result of her tragic death and her haunting uncompleted composition 'The Dream of Olwen'. Her reclusive sister Julia (Sonia Dresdel), who has never come to terms with Olwen's death, becomes convinced that Olwen has returned when she meets an amnesiac woman who looks like her.
While I Live
The Third Visitor
Maurice Elvey
Sonia Dresdel, Guy Middleton
Suave supercilious Carling (Karel Stepanek) receives several callers to his isolated house, all of whom hold a grudge against him. Next morning a corpse is found, and later identified as his by one of the visitors.
The Third Visitor
