--- name: "Googie Withers" canonical: "https://film.one/person/googie-withers" fi1m_id: "googie-withers" imdb_id: "nm0936727" tmdb_id: 14306 wikidata_id: "Q449070" roles: ["Actor"] born: "12 March 1917" died: "15 July 2011" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 85 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-10-07T11:05:28.616991+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Googie Withers ## Identity Googie Withers - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/googie-withers - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** googie-withers - **IMDb ID:** nm0936727 - **TMDB ID:** 14306 - **Wikidata ID:** Q449070 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googie_Withers, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q449070, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0936727/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/14306 Actor. Born 12 March 1917 in Karachi, British India. Died 15 July 2011. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 12 March 1917, Karachi, British India - **Died:** 15 July 2011 - **Active:** 1938–1996 - **Also known as:** Georgette Lizette Withers, Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers - **Average Fi1m score:** 85, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 88 (1), 1990s 82 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googie_Withers, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q449070, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0936727/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/14306 ## Streaming the US now - **HBO Max:** [*The Lady Vanishes*](https://film.one/film/the-lady-vanishes.md) (88) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Googie Withers > Googie Withers is worth seeking out for the intelligence and sensuality she brings to complicated women. Her substantial dramatic roles offer a fuller introduction than the supporting appearances in *The Lady Vanishes* and *Shine*. Googie Withers is most persuasive playing women who are frustrated without being helpless. Her Rose Sandigate in *It Always Rains on Sunday* (1947) is a trapped housewife, but there is more to the performance than suffering. Withers gives her resilience and passion, qualities that make her circumstances harder to bear. We rate her for making such women worth understanding without tidying away their faults or asking us to approve of everything about them. *The Lady Vanishes* (1938) finds her in the supporting role of Blanche, before the substantial dramatic opportunities of the 1940s. Alfred Hitchcock's railway mystery is tense, funny and sharp about the excuses people make for ignoring trouble. Margaret Lockwood supplies the urgency, even when the plotting becomes fussy. Withers's appearance belongs to an early period largely spent in minor parts, comedies and quota quickies. We recommend the film warmly, with the proviso that it is a limited introduction to her. The change is clearer in *One of Our Aircraft Is Missing* (1942), which casts her as Dutch resistance figure Jo de Vries in one of her first major dramatic roles. Her work with directors Robert Hamer and Michael Powell, and her association with Ealing melodramas, deserve attention beyond those early supporting appearances. We would also make room for *On Approval* (1944): her ability to hold her own in ensemble comedy is worth remembering when the troubled women threaten to become the whole account of her work. *Shine* (1996) gives us a much later supporting appearance, as Katharine Susannah Prichard, under Scott Hicks's direction. We were moved by the parental pressure on David Helfgott, whom Geoffrey Rush and Noah Taylor make worth caring about. The storytelling takes shortcuts, but the performances earn its warmth, though Withers is not the centre of our response to it. That is no reason to overlook the appearance, but it is a reason not to let it stand for a career that included substantial dramatic roles and high comedy. For a fuller introduction to Withers herself, start with *It Always Rains on Sunday*. ## Biography Googie Withers was an English actress and dancer. Born Georgette Lizette Withers in Karachi, British India, in 1917, she trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and made her stage debut at the age of twelve. She appeared in more than sixty films, beginning with The Girl in the Crowd (1934). Withers became a prominent figure in British cinema during and after the Second World War. Her notable roles include Blanche in The Lady Vanishes (1938), Jo de Vries in One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), Joan Cortland in Dead of Night (1945), Rose Sandigate in It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) and Helen Nosseross in Night and the City (1950). She married actor John McCallum in 1948 and later settled in Australia, where they worked extensively in theatre. Her final screen role was as Katharine Susannah Prichard in Shine (1996). She received the CBE and AO. *Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, theguardian.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Shine* (1996), Fi1m 82, as Katharine Susannah Prichard — [page](https://film.one/film/shine.md) - *The Lady Vanishes* (1938), Fi1m 88, as Blanche — [page](https://film.one/film/the-lady-vanishes.md) ## Complete filmography (56) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Shine* (1996), as Katharine Susannah Prichard — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/shine.md) - *Country Life* (1994), as Hannah - *Ending Up* (1989), as Marigold - *Melba* (1988), series, as Lady Armstrong - *Northanger Abbey* (1987), as Mrs Allen - *Made In Ealing: The Story of Ealing Studios* (1986), as Interviewee - *Hotel du Lac* (1986), as Mrs. Pusey - *Time After Time* (1986), as Leda Klein - *Screen Two* (1985), series, as Leda Klein - *Within These Walls* (1974), series, as Faye Boswell - *Knightsbridge* (1972), as Muriel - *Nickel Queen* (1971), Actor - *Thirty-Minute Theatre* (1965), series, as Muriel Stokes - *Port of Escape* (1956), as Anne Stirling - *Devil on Horseback* (1954), as Mrs. Cadell - *Derby Day* (1952), as Betty Molloy - *The Magic Box* (1952), as Sitter in Bath Studio - *Lady Godiva Rides Again* (1951), as Susan Foster (actress in clip, "The Shadow of the Orient") (uncredited) - *White Corridors* (1951), as Dr. Sophie Dean - *Traveller's Joy* (1950), as Bumble Pelham - *Night and the City* (1950), as Helen Nosseross - *Once Upon a Dream* (1949), as Carol Gilbert - *Miranda* (1948), as Clare Martin - *It Always Rains on Sunday* (1947), as Rose Sandigate - *The Loves of Joanna Godden* (1947), as Joanna Godden - *Pink String and Sealing Wax* (1945), as Pearl Bond - *Dead of Night* (1945), as Joan Cortland (Segment "Linking Story" & "The Haunted Mirror") - *They Came to a City* (1944), as Alice - *On Approval* (1944), as Helen Hale - *The Silver Fleet* (1943), as Helène van Leyden - *We Serve* (1942), Actor - *One of Our Aircraft Is Missing* (1942), as Jo de Vries - *Back-Room Boy* (1942), as Bobbie - *Busman's Honeymoon* (1940), as Polly - *She Couldn't Say No* (1939), as Dora - *The Gang's All Here* (1939), as Alice Forrest - *Trouble Brewing* (1939), as Mary Brown - *Dead Men Are Dangerous* (1939), Actor - *Murder in Soho* (1939), as Lola Matthews - *The Lady Vanishes* (1938), as Blanche — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/the-lady-vanishes.md) - *Convict 99* (1938), as Lottie - *Strange Boarders* (1938), as Elsie - *Kate Plus Ten* (1938), as Lady Moya - *Paradise for Two* (1937), as Miki - *The Green Cockatoo* (1937), Actor - *Action for Slander* (1937), as Mary - *Pearls Bring Tears* (1937), as Doreen - *Accused* (1936), as Ninette Duval - *Crime Over London* (1936), as Miss Dupres - *Crown v. Stevens* (1936), as Ella Levine - *She Knew What She Wanted* (1936), as Dora - *All at Sea* (1936), as Daphne Tomkins - *Dark World* (1935), as Annie - *Her Last Affaire* (1935), as Effie - *The Love Test* (1935), as Minnie - *The Girl in the Crowd* (1935), as Sally ## Gallery - ![Sujet : Dead of night Contient : coupures de presse Langue : français (1946)](https://film.one/media/person/86795/gallery-e0852b9854a4.jpg) Sujet : Dead of night Contient : coupures de presse Langue : français (1946) — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Recueil._%22Au_coeur_de_la_nuit%22_film_de_Alberto_Cavalcanti%2C_Charles_Crichton%2C_Basil_Dearden_et_Robert_Hamer_-_btv1b10521303g_%2813_of_52%29.jpg/1280px-Recueil._%22Au_coeur_de_la_nuit%22_film_de_Alberto_Cavalcanti%2C_Charles_Crichton%2C_Basil_Dearden_et_Robert_Hamer_-_btv1b10521303g_%2813_of_52%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Googie Withers](https://film.one/media/person/86795/gallery-123ca2fac283.jpg) Googie Withers — Image via TMDB - ![Googie Withers](https://film.one/media/person/86795/gallery-446c9aa97c51.jpg) Googie Withers — Image via TMDB - ![Googie Withers](https://film.one/media/person/86795/gallery-00a4caef859f.jpg) Googie Withers — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Other awards — 1 won - Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia 1980: Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/googie-withers