Sarah Miles (born 31 December 1941) is a retired English actress. She is known for her roles in films The Servant (1963), Blowup (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970), The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), White Mischief (1987), and Hope and Glory (1987). For her performance in Ryan's Daughter, Miles received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Early life Sarah Miles was born in Ingatestone, Essex, in South East England; her brother was film director, producer, and screenwriter Christopher Miles. Miles's parents were Clarice Vera Remnant and John Miles, of a family of engineers; her father's inability to secure a divorce from his first wife meant Miles and her siblings were illegitimate.A Right Royal Bastard, Sarah Miles, Macmillan, 1993, p. 26 Per Miles's own account, her maternal grandfather, Frank Remnant, was the illegitimate son of Prince Francis of Teck (1870–1910), which would make Miles a second cousin, once removed, of Queen Elizabeth II.Sarah Miles, A Right Royal Bastard (1993), p. 20: "Clarice... the eldest child of Francis (Frank) Remnant, bastard son of Prince Francis of Teck, Queen Mary's brother. Sexy old Frank, as he was known, came over when Mary married Prince George, who became George V, and had a cuddle with the seamstress in the White Lodge at Richmond."Rhoda Koenig, BOOK REVIEW Confessions of a wilful Pusscat: 'A Right Royal Bastard' dated Sunday 12 December 1993 at independent.co.uk. Retrieved 2 December 2011 Unable to speak until the age of nine because of a stammerBarry Egan "I can't wait to get off this planet", The Independent (Ireland), 16 September 2007 archived 13 April 2010 and dyslexia,Lynn Barber "Interview: Out to lunch with Sarah", The Independent, 12 July 1992 she attended Roedean and three other schools, but was expelled from all of them. Miles enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in 1960 with an acting diploma.
Career Early career Shortly after finishing at RADA, Miles performed in an episode of the TV series Deadline Midnight titled "Manhunt". Her film debut was as Shirley Taylor, a "husky, wide-eyed nymphet"David Thomson A New Biographical Dictionary of Film, London: Little Brown, 2002, p.594 in Term of Trial (1962), which featured Laurence Olivier; she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer.
Miles appeared in The Rehearsal (1963) for TV and then played Vera from Manchester in Joseph Losey's The Servant (1963), and in so doing she "thrust sexual appetite into British films" according to David Thomson.
Miles was in a short film directed by her brother, The Six-Sided Triangle (1963), and a feature film directed by and starring Laurence Harvey, The Ceremony (1963). She did Ring Round the Moon (1964) for television.
On 16 June 1965, Ken Annakin's Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, a British period comedy film revolving around the craze of early aviation circa 1910, was released. A pompous newspaper magnate (Robert Morley) is convinced by his daughter (Miles) and her fiancé (James Fox) to organise an air race from London to Paris. A large sum of money is offered to the winner, and hence it attracts a variety of characters to participate. The film received positive reviews, described as funny, colourful, and clever, capturing the early enthusiasm for aviation.
She was in Time Lost and Time Remembered (1966), directed by Desmond Davis.
In 1966, Miles gained another BAFTA nomination, this time as Best Actress. She had a "peripheral" part in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup. At Antonioni's death in 2007, she referred to him as "a rogue and a tyrant and a brilliant man"."Blow-Up director Antonioni dies", BBC News, 31 July 2007
Robert Bolt After acting in several plays from 1966 to 1969, Miles was cast as Rosy in the leading title role of David Lean's Ryan's Daughter (1970). It was critically savaged, which discouraged Lean from making a film for some years, despite Miles's performance gaining her an Oscar nomination and an Oscar win for John Mills, and the film making a substantial profit. In Terence Pettigrew's biography of Trevor Howard, Miles describes the filming of Ryan's Daughter in Ireland in 1969. She recalls, "My main memory is of sitting on a hilltop in a caravan at six in the morning in the rain. There was no other actor or member of the crew around me. I would sit there getting mad, waiting for either the rain to stop or someone to arrive. Film-acting is so horrifically belittling."Terence Pettigrew Trevor Howard: A Personal Biography, London: Peter Owen, 2001, p.149
Miles married the film's screenwriter, Robert Bolt. He wrote and directed Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) starring Miles in the title role.Movies: Bolt of lighting hits the screen... Martin, James. Chicago Tribune 4 Mar 1973: e10. She then appeared in The Hireling (1973).
On 11 February 1973, while filming The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, aspiring screenwriter David Whiting, who was briefly one of her lovers, was found dead in her motel room. She was acquitted of culpability in his death.Ron Rosenbaum, "The Corpse as Big as the Ritz", The Secret Parts of Fortune (reprinted from Esquire) Miles later commented: "It went on for six months. Murder? Suicide? Murder! Suicide! Murder! Suicide! And, gradually, the truth came out, which I'm not going to speak about, but it certainly wasn't me. I had actually saved the man from three suicide attempts, so why would I want to murder him? I really can't imagine." This led to the end of her first marriage to Bolt.
Television Miles starred in some TV movies: Great Expectations (1974), Requiem for a Nun (1975), and Dynasty (1976) as well as the Spanish film Bride to Be (1975).
Her performance as Anne Osborne in The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1976) was nominated for a Golden Globe.
Miles appeared in The Big Sleep (1978), Venom (1981), Walter and June (1983), Ordeal by Innocence (1984), Steaming (1985), Harem (1986) and Queenie (1987).
She received great acclaim for Hope and Glory. Interviewer Lynn Barber wrote of Miles' appearances in Hope and Glory, White Mischief, and her two earliest films that she "has that Vanessa Redgrave quality of seeming to have one skin fewer than normal people, so that the emotion comes over unmuffled and bare."
Filming White Mischief on location in Kenya in 1987, Miles worked for the second and last time with Trevor Howard, who had a supporting role, but was by then seriously ill from alcoholism. The company wanted to fire him, but Miles was determined that Howard's distinguished film career would not end that way. In an interview with Terence Pettigrew for his biography of Howard, she describes how she gave an ultimatum to the executives, threatening to quit the production if they got rid of him. The gamble worked, and Howard was kept on. It was his last major film; he died the following January.
Later career She appeared in A Ghost in Monte Carlo (1990), The Silent Touch (1992), Dandelion Dead (1994), Jurij (2001) and The Accidental Detective (2004).
She most recently (2008) appeared in Well at the Trafalgar Studios and the Apollo Theatre opposite Natalie Casey.
Personal life Miles was married twice to the British playwright Robert Bolt, 1967–1975 and 1988–1995. He wrote and directed the film Lady Caroline Lamb, in which Miles played the eponymous heroine, and also wrote Ryan's Daughter. After his stroke, the couple reunited and Miles cared for him. "I would be dead without her", Bolt said in 1987, "When she's away, my life takes a nosedive. When she returns, my life soars."John Stark "Sarah Miles Stars in An Incredible Story of Scandal and Love—and No, It's Not Her New Film, Hope and Glory, It's Her Life", People, 28:21, 23 November 1987, archive-url, archived 15 October 2017 The couple had a son. Miles stated, in 2007, that she had been drinking her own urine for 30 years for health reasons. In 2016, she reported that she had written a sequel to Ryan's Daughter.
Filmography Year Film Role Notes1962Term of TrialShirley TaylorNominated – BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer1963The ServantVeraNominated – BAFTA Award for Best British ActressThe CeremonyCatherine1965Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying MachinesPatricia RawnsleyI Was Happy HereCass LangdonAlso known as Time Lost and Time Remembered1966BlowupPatricia1970Ryan's DaughterRosy RyanNominated – Academy Award for Best ActressNominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama1972Lady Caroline LambLady Caroline Lamb1973The HirelingLady FranklinThe Man Who Loved Cat DancingCatherine Crocker1974Great ExpectationsEstella1975Bride to BePepita Jiménez1975Requiem for a NunTemple Drake1976The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the SeaAnne OsborneNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama1978The Big SleepCharlotte Sternwood1981Priest of LoveFilm StarVenomDr. Marion Stowe1984Ordeal by InnocenceMary Durant1985SteamingSarah1986Harem (mini series)Lady AshleyVHS Tape – 1992 R&G VIDEO L.P. Sherman Oaks, CA 91403. 1987Hope and GloryGrace RowanNominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleWhite MischiefAlice de Janzé1992Helena2001Days of GraceSissi, La MadreJurijMartina, directrice clinica2003The Accidental DetectiveSmeralda Mazzi Tinghi
Television Year Title Role Notes1961 Deadline Midnight Vi Vernon1965Sunday Night At The London PalladiumHerself1974Great ExpectationsEstella 1976DynastyJennifer Blackwood1983Walter and JuneJune1987QueenieLady Sybil1990A Ghost in Monte CarloEmilie/Mme. Bluet1994Dandelion DeadCatherine ArmstrongTV mini-series2004Poirot: The HollowLady Angkatell
Books Sarah Miles has written the following books:
Other work In 1995, Miles was one of the readers of Edward Lear poems on a specially made spoken word audio CD bringing together a collection of Lear's nonsense songs.
Awards and nominations Year Award Category Nominated work Result BAFTA Awards Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles Term of Trial Best British Actress The Servant Academy Awards Best Actress Ryan's Daughter BAFTA Awards Best Actress Golden Globe Awards Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama Laurel Awards Best Dramatic Performance, Female Cannes Film Festival Special Award The Hireling Golden Globe Awards Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea BAFTA Awards Best Actress Hope and Glory
See also List of Academy Award winners and nominees from Great Britain List of actors with Academy Award nominations List of actors who have appeared in multiple Palme d'Or winners References
External links
Interview with Sarah Miles