by Stephen Vagg
Our series on people who almost, but not quite, became movie stars examines British actor Anne Heywood who, it seemed, was up for anything (on camera, at least).
Anne Heywood is not a well-remembered actress, which is odd considering that she was beautiful, played leads in feature films for over almost two decades, had a high-profile marriage with a producer, and played so many sexually charged leading roles. At her peak, Heywood depicted characters who (among other things) masturbated naked in front of mirrors, had sex with women, were men before gender reassignment surgery, got raped by black janitors and started to enjoy it, and got impregnated while a nun. She never quite became a movie star, despite over two decades of effort, at least not outside Italy, but it was a hell of a ride.
Heywood was born in 1931 as “Violet Pretty”. Her mother died when Violet/Anne was only 13, so she had to leave school early and spend a lot of time helping to raise her brothers. However, she was ambitious for something more, winning beauty contests throughout the country – fourteen titles in two years apparently, including Miss Birmingham Carnival Queen 1947, Miss Brighton 1950 and Britain’s Bathing Beauty Queen (the forerunner to Miss Great Britain) 1950. This led to an appearance as a beauty contestant in the comedy Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951) where she was one of the many support cast who became more famous than the film’s star, Pauline Stroud (others included Diana Dors, Joan Collins, Dana Wynter, Jean Marsh and Kay Kendall). Heywood then spent the next few years touring with a stage variety show run by Carroll Levis, as well as appearing on television and radio. In 1955, she signed a seven-year contract with the Rank Organisation, who gave her a new name (she recognised that her old one sounded unrealistic, even if it was real).
Rank had a good record of finding attractive female starlets with strong personalities, signing them to long term contracts, putting them in mediocre films, then getting upset when they found the starlets too hot to handle and prone to rebel. That’s what happened with Diana Dors, Kay Kendall, Susan Shaw, Jill Ireland, Beth Rogan, Maureen Swanson, and Belinda Lee, and it would eventually happen with Anne Heywood.
At first, things were all rosy between actress and studio, and Heywood rose rapidly through the ranks: she began with decorative parts in Checkpoint (1956) and Doctor at Large (1957), then was loaned out to low budget experts the Danzingers to star in The Depraved (1957) (alongside Carroll Levis). Rank gave her a juicy support part in Dangerous Exile (1957), a fun French Revolutionary adventure tale starring Belinda Lee, then promoted her to leading roles: Violent Playground (1958), a social realist crime drama with Stanley Baker; Floods of Fear (1958), a thriller set in the USA with imported star Howard Keel; The Heart of a Man (1959), a Frankie Vaughan musical; Upstairs and Downstairs (1959), a comedy with Michael Craig. The studio also loaned her out to an Italian company to make a peplum, Carthage in Flames (1960).
This really was a proper star-building effort from Rank for Anne Heywood. These were “A” films from the studio, made by big-at-the-time British directors (Ralph Thomas, Herbert Wilcox, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden), and Carthage in Flames had a large budget. Rank even tried to launch Heywood as a singer, releasing a single by her from Heart of a Man on its record label.
It’s remarkable in a way, especially as Heywood hadn’t arrived at the studio off the back of anything notable, like a popular or critically acclaimed movie, or stage performance. She had fame as a beauty contest winner, it’s true, but that was a while ago, and the studio had changed the name under which she had achieved that fame. Rank may have been determined to boost Heywood in part because it had recently fired several other actresses it had been building into stars – Belinda Lee and Maureen Swanson – due to their personal life antics; no doubt the studio hoped to prove it could turn anyone into a star. And Heywood clearly had tremendous drive and ability to get publicity, so that would have been appealing. Oh, and she could act.
It didn’t work, though – none of Heywood’s films for Rank were hits. In fairness to her, all the movies basically cast her as “the girl”, with the meaty parts going to men.
Rank then loaned out Heywood to United Artists to play “the girl” in A Terrible Beauty (1960), a film about the IRA with Robert Mitchum and Richard Harris. It was produced by Raymond Stross, an independent British filmmaker who specialised in edgy stories that used imported American stars in the lead (Flesh is Weak, A Question of Adultery, The Angry Hills). According to Heywood, she and Stross fell in love at first sight, despite him being married; Stross soon got a divorce to wed Anne (his ex remarried quickly, so it worked out well for everyone).
Yet again, Rank found itself with a female contract player who was causing headlines due to a romance with a married man. The studio did not offer her any more roles, at least none that she wanted to do. “I’m fed up with playing wishy-washy good girls,” Heywood said. “I want to play women with sex appeal.” In particular, Heywood would have been aware of how Belinda Lee revitalised her career post-Rank playing sexy parts in Italy. “I’ve got plenty of sex appeal,” insisted Heywood. “British films just didn’t give me the chance to use it. They are written around men.” In December 1960, Heywood broke off her contract with Rank two years early.
She did comedies, Petticoat Pirates (1961) and Stork Talk (1962), then starred in three films all produced by her husband aimed at turning Heywood into a star: The Brain (1962), a version of Donovan’s Brain from Freddie Francis; The Very Edge (1963), a thriller where Heywood is raped and stalked; and Ninety Degrees in the Shade (1965), as a woman having an affair with a married man. Audiences didn’t particularly seem to care, although The Brain has gained a cult fanbase.
Heywood made a Hollywood film shot in Peru, High Jungle, but filming was abandoned after star Eric Fleming (from TV’s Rawhide) drowned during filming. She had better luck establishing herself in the US with The Fox (1967), produced in Canada by her husband from a novella by DH Lawrence; Heywood played a Canadian farmer living with Sandy Dennis whose life is interrupted by the arrival of Keir Dullea. Heywood utterly committed to the part – going nude, masturbating on camera, doing sex scenes with Duncan and Dullea. The movie was done with taste by director Mark Rydell and had just the right amount of sexual content for 1967 audiences: it was a huge hit.
So, she’d made it!
Or had she?
Heywood returned to sexually explicit material with a nunsploitation film shot in Italy, The Lady of Monza (1969). She played the title role, a nun accused of breaking celibacy and plotting murder. It was a big hit in Italy. For Paramount, she and Stross made Midas Run (1969) with Richard Crenna, who says Heywood arranged for the script to be changed to suit her. She was in The Chairman (1969) with Gregory Peck. Although second billed, she was only in it for five minutes. Later on, she played the female led in Trader Horn (1973), a cheap remake starring Rod Taylor.
If Heywood struggled to get a foothold in Hollywood, she was in much demand in Italy: The Killer is on the Phone (1972), a giallo; The Nun and the Devil (1973), more nunsploitation; First Time on the Grass (1974), a romance; Satan’s Wife (1979), a horror movie.
And for her husband, Heywood did two more remarkably gutsy performances: I Want What I Want (1972), playing a man who has a sex change; and Good Luck, Miss Wycoff (1977), as a lonely teacher sexually assaulted by a black janitor (from a script by Polly Platt and a novel by William Inge and very ‘70s television direction from Marvin Chomsky). Neither managed to recapture the success of The Fox although both have plenty for a viewer to chew over. We’re particularly surprised there isn’t more critical discussion over Miss Wyckoff, considering its frank content and Polly Platt authorship – there is certainly a lot going on.
In the 1980s, Heywood mostly worked in television – including a role in Don Sharp’s What Waits Below (1984). Stross passed away in 1988, dying in Heywood’s arms, and she retired from acting. By all accounts, they genuinely adored each other. She remarried and died in 2023.
We’ve got a lot of time for Anne Heywood. She was brave and had a tremendous work ethic. She wanted to make something special of her life, so she did whatever was needed – whether entering some silly beauty contest, compering a show, learning how to sing. She took this attitude into movies, where she totally committed – going nude, making out with other women and black men, changing gender, being assaulted. These were not “done” things at the time for most established white actresses.
Heywood never became a true star, even after The Fox – there was something a little distant about her persona perhaps; she lacked the warmth, identification and empathy of, say, a Julie Christie, Diana Dors or Margaret Lockwood. Her acting had its limitations and many of her movies badly needed better directors.
But she didn’t die wondering, that’s for sure.
