Michael Wilding

British actor Michael Wilding (1912-1979) worked steadily in British films for nearly three decades. Though never a star of the first rank, he had leading roles in numerous films, including several musicals in which he co-starred with Anna Neagle. Wilding moved to Hollywood and was featured in two Hitchcock films, Under Capricorn (1949) and Stage Fright (1950).


British postcard, no. 256. Back: 'This is a real photograph'.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 356. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Productions.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 417. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Michael Wilding and Anna Neagle in the romantic comedy Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 716. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding in Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 723. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production.

Never a star of the first rank

Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding was born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England, in 1912. After leaving school, Michael wanted to be a portrait and commercial artist. He left home at age 17 and trained for the career by traveling around nightclubs and cafes in Brussels, Antwerp, and Paris, earning a living by sketching portraits.

In 1933, he approached a London film studio for a job as a set designer in the art department. Instead, they invited him to come to work as an extra due to his dashing good looks.

At age 21, he debuted as an extra in Bitter Sweet (Herbert Wilcox, 1933) starring Anna Neagle. He was sent to Austria to play opposite Mabel Poulton in Pastorale, which didn't get released.

Horrified at his performance he decided to go into rep theatre to learn his job properly and was accepted by Watford Repertory Theatre. In 1934, he made his stage debut in 'The Ringer'. A year later, he made his West End debut in 'Chase the Ace' (1935), and then he returned to films.

He had bigger film parts in the sports drama There Ain't No Justice (Pen Tennyson, 1939), Convoy (Pen Tennyson, 1940), and Tilly of Bloomsbury (Leslie S. Hiscot, 1940). He had a good role in Sailors Three (Walter Forde, 1940), and Sailors Don't Care (Oswald Mitchell, 1940).

Wilding worked steadily in British pictures for nearly three decades. Though never a star of the first rank, he had leading roles in numerous films, including a part in the classic In Which We Serve (Noël Coward, David Lean, 1942), the story of a British Naval ship, H.M.S. Torrin, from its construction to its sinking in the Mediterranean during action in World War II.


British Real Photograph postcard, no. 285.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 414. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, and Josephine Fitzgerald in Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 711. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding in Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 713. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding in Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 941. Photo: British Lion. Michael Wilding in Into the Blue (Herbert Wilcox, 1950).

Featuring in two of Hitchcock's lesser efforts

Michael Wilding finally became a film name with Dear Octopus (Harold French, 1943), starringMargaret Lockwood. He followed it with English Without Tears (Harold French, 1944). After the war, he starred opposite Paulette Goddard in An Ideal Husband (Alexander Korda, 1947) based on the play by Oscar Wilde.

In the following years, Wilding co-starred with Anna Neagle in such musicals as Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948), and Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1948).

Wilding moved to Hollywood and was featured in two of Hitchcock's lesser efforts, Under Capricorn (Alfred Hitchcock, 1949) with Ingrid Bergman and Stage Fright (Alfred Hitchcock, 1950) starring Marlene Dietrich.

Wilding's last film role was a two-line cameo in Lady Caroline Lamb (Robert Bolt, 1972), in which he co-starred with his fourth wife, Margaret Leighton. Michael Wilding passed away in 1979 in London, England. An epileptic seizure triggered Wilding's fall down a long flight of stairs. The head injuries received in that fall proved fatal. He was 66.

He was married to Kay Young (1937-1951), Elizabeth Taylor (1952-1957), Susan Neill (1958-1962), and Margaret Leighton (1964 -1976 - her death). The first three marriages ended in a divorce and he had two sons with Elizabeth Taylor, Christopher Edward Wilding, and Michael Wilding Jr.

Allegedly, he had a homosexual affair with playwright Noël Coward in the mid-1930s. In 1964, Wilding filed a $3 million libel suit against gossip columnist Hedda Hopper for implying that he was gay in her book, 'The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth'. The suit was settled for $100,000.


British [?] signed photo.


British postcard in "The People' series by Show Parade Picture Service, London, no. 1037 Photo: Herbert Wilcox Productions.


British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, no. 151. Photo: M.G.M. Michael Wilding in Torch Song (Charles Walters, 1953).


Vintage postcard. Photo: Lloyd Film.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 413. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Lana Morris and Michael Wilding in Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948).

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.