Katie Johnson (English actress)

Bessie Kate Johnson (18 November 1878 – 4 May 1957) was an English actress who appeared on stage from 1894 and on screen from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Biography
In 1908 she married the actor Frank Goodenough Bayly (1873 – 28 November 1923, Newcastle upon Tyne). The couple had two children, William Frank Goodenough Bayly (1910-1973) and Johnson Goodenough Bayly (1915-1980).

She first appeared in a film at age 53, in 1932, but never received critical acclaim for her performances until 1955, when she starred, aged 76, in the Ealing Studios comedy The Ladykillers as Mrs Louisa Wilberforce. The role earned her a British Film Academy award for best British actress. She died less than two years afterwards having only appeared in a single further film.

She also appeared in the BBC science fiction serial The Quatermass Experiment (1953) and played a spy in I See a Dark Stranger (1946).

Selected filmography

 * After Office Hours (1932) – Miss Wilesden
 * A Glimpse of Paradise (1934) – Mrs. Fielding
 * Laburnum Grove (1936) – Mrs. Radfern
 * Dusty Ermine (1936) – Emily Kent
 * Farewell Again (1937) – Mother of soldier in hospital (uncredited)
 * The Last Adventurers (1937) – (uncredited)
 * Sunset in Vienna (1937) – Woman in Café (uncredited)
 * The Dark Stairway (1938) – (uncredited)
 * Marigold (1938) – Santa Dunlop
 * Gaslight (1940) – Alice Barlow's Maid (uncredited)
 * Two for Danger (1940) – (uncredited)
 * Freedom Radio (1941) – Granny Schmidt
 * Jeannie (1941) – Mathilda
 * The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942) – Train Passenger (uncredited)
 * Talk About Jacqueline (1942) – Ethel
 * Tawny Pipit (1944) – Miss Pyman
 * He Snoops to Conquer (1944) – Ma – George's Landlady (uncredited)
 * Love Letters (1945) – Nurse (uncredited)
 * The Years Between (1946) – Old Man's Wife
 * I See a Dark Stranger (1946) – Old Lady on Train
 * Meet Me at Dawn (1947) – Henriette – Mme. Vermomel's Housekeeper
 * Code of Scotland Yard (1947) – Music Box Seller. (uncredited)
 * Death of an Angel (1952) – Sarah Oddy
 * I Believe in You (1952) – Miss Mackiln
 * Lady in the Fog (1952) – 'Mary Stuart' – Old Inmate at Murder Scene
 * The Large Rope (1953) – Grandmother
 * Three Steps in the Dark (1953) – Mrs. Riddle
 * The Rainbow Jacket (1954) – (uncredited)
 * The Delavine Affair (1954) – Mrs. Bissett
 * Out of the Clouds (1955) – Passenger (uncredited)
 * John and Julie (1955) – Old Lady
 * The Ladykillers (1955) – Mrs. Wilberforce (The Old Lady)
 * How to Murder a Rich Uncle (1957) – Alice (final film role) – (released posthumously, in June 1957)

Additional sources

 * Film academy awards, The Times, 13 February 1956, pg. 5
 * Obituary, The Times, 9 May 1957, pg. 12
 * Will, The Times, 29 July 1957, pg. 10