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
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 1st Academy Awards to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a lead ...
.
Early life
Sarah Miles was born in
Ingatestone
Ingatestone is a village and former civil parish in Essex, England, with a population of 5,409 inhabitants at the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census. Just north lies the village of Fryerning; the two now forming the parish of Ingatestone ...
, Essex, in
South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of 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. 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
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
.
[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
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936.
George w ...
, and had a cuddle with the seamstress in the White Lodge at Richmond." Unable to speak until the age of nine because of a
stammer[Barry Ega]
"I can't wait to get off this planet"
''The Independent'' (Ireland), 16 September 200
13 April 2010 and
dyslexia
Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...
,
[Lynn Barbe]
"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
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...
(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
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier ( ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...
; 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
Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American film and theatre director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Hollywood ...
's ''
The Servant'' (1963), and "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
Laurence Harvey (born Zvi Mosheh Skikne; 1 October 192825 November 1973) was a Lithuanian-born British actor and film director. He was born to Lithuanian Jewish parents and emigrated to Union of South Africa, South Africa at an early age, before ...
, ''
The Ceremony'' (1963). She did ''
Ring Round the Moon'' (1964) for TV.
On 16 June 1965,
Ken Annakin's ''
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines,'' a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
period comedy film
The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...
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, 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
''I Was Happy Here'' (U.S. title: ''Time Lost and Time Remembered''; also known as ''Passage of Love'') is a 1966 British drama film directed by Desmond Davis and starring Sarah Miles and Cyril Cusack. The screenplay was by Edna O'Brien and Davi ...
'' (1966), directed by
Desmond Davis
Desmond Stanley Tracey Davis (24 May 1926 – 3 July 2021) was a British film and television director, best known for his 1981 film ''Clash of the Titans (1981 film), Clash of the Titans''.
Early life and career
Desmond Davis was born in Wandsw ...
.
In 1966, Miles gained another BAFTA nomination, this time as
Best Actress. She had a "peripheral" part in
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni ( ; ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is best known for his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents", ''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and '' ...
's ''
Blowup''.
At Antonioni's death in 2007, she referred to him as "a rogue and a tyrant and a brilliant man".
Robert Bolt
After acting in several plays from 1966 to 1969, Miles was cast as Rosy in the leading title role of
David Lean
Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor, widely considered one of the most important figures of Cinema of the United Kingdom, British cinema. He directed the large-scale epi ...
'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
Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage and screen actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved leading man star status in the film '' Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by '' The Third M ...
, 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."
Miles married the film's screenwriter,
Robert Bolt. He wrote and directed ''
Lady Caroline Lamb'' (1972) starring Miles in the title role. 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
''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by English author Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. The novel is a bildungsroman and depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip. It is Dickens' second novel, after ''Dav ...
'' (1974), '' Requiem for a Nun'' (1975), and ''Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others.
H ...
'' (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
The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every Januar ...
.
Miles appeared in '' The Big Sleep'' (1978), ''Venom
Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...
'' (1981), '' Walter and June'' (1983), ''Ordeal by Innocence
''Ordeal by Innocence'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 3 November 1958 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retai ...
'' (1984), ''Steaming
Steaming is a method of cooking using steam. This is often done with a food steamer, a kitchen appliance made specifically to cook food with steam, but food can also be steamed in a wok. In the American Southwest, steam pits used for cooking ha ...
'' (1985), ''Harem
A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...
'' (1986) and '' Queenie'' (1987).
She received great acclaim for ''Hope and Glory''. Interviewer Lynn Barber
Lynn Barber (born 22 May 1944) is a British journalist who has worked for many publications, including ''The Sunday Times''.
Early life
Barber was born in Bagshot and attended Lady Eleanor Holles School in southwest London. While she was stud ...
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
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
in 1987, Miles worked for the second and last time with Trevor Howard
Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage and screen actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved leading man star status in the film '' Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by '' The Third M ...
, 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. 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 Touch'' (1992), '' Dandelion Dead'' (1994), ''Jurij'' (2001) and ''The Accidental Detective'' (2004).
She most recently (2008) appeared in ''Well
A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
'' at the Trafalgar Studios
Trafalgar Theatre is a West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. The Grade II listed building was built in 1930 with interiors in the Art Deco style as the Whitehall Theatre; it regularly staged ...
and the Apollo Theatre opposite Natalie Casey
Natalie Casey (born 15 April 1980) is a British actress, presenter, narrator and singer. She portrayed Carol Groves in the television show ''Hollyoaks'' (1996–2000) and Donna Henshaw in '' Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps'' (2001– ...
.
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
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...
, and wrote '' Ryan's Daughter'', as well. 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." 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
Television
Books
Sarah Miles has written the following books:
*
*
*
*
Other work
In 1995, Miles was one of the readers of Edward Lear
Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limerick (poetry), limericks, a form he popularised. ...
poems on a specially made spoken word audio CD bringing together a collection of Lear's nonsense songs.
References
External links
*
*
*
Interview with Sarah Miles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miles, Sarah
1941 births
Living people
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
English film actresses
English stage actresses
People educated at Roedean School, East Sussex
People from Ingatestone
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actors with dyslexia
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
Actresses from Essex
Actors from the Borough of Brentwood