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Virginia McKenna O.B.E. (born June 7, 1931 in
London|London, UK) is a United Kingdom|British
stage and screen actress.

McKenna trained as an actress at the Central
School of Speech and Drama then worked on stage in
London's West End of London|West End theatres
before making her motion picture debut in 1952.
She continued to appear in both films and on stage
and in 1954/55 was a member of the Old Vic theatre
company. She was married for a few months in 1954
to actor Denholm Elliott and married again in 1957
to actor Bill Travers with whom she remained until
his passing in 1994.

In 1956, McKenna won the BAFTA Award|BAFTA Award
for Best Actress for her performance in the film,
A Town Like Alice and two years later was
nominated for Best Actress again for her role the
WW II Special Operations Executive|SOE agent
Violette Szabo in 1958's Carve Her Name with
Pride. However, McKenna is best remembered for her
1966 role as Joy Adamson in the true-life film
Born Free for which she received a nomination for
the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion
Picture Drama. Her husband co-starred with her and
the experience led them to become active
supporters for wild animal rights and protecting
their natural habitat. The importance of animal
rights led to McKenna and her husband becoming
involved in the "Zoo Check Campaign" in 1984 that
evolved to their establishing the "Born Free
Foundation" in 1991.

On the stage, in 1979 she won the Laurence Olivier
Awards|Olivier Award for Best Actress in a British
musical for her performance opposite Yul Brynner
in The King and I. Over the years she appeared in
more motion pictures but also was very active with
television roles and on stage where she continues
to make occasional appearances. 

Virginia has also been responsible for helping
create and furnish the Gavin Maxwell museum on
http://www.eileanban.org Eilean Bàn, the last
island home of the author and naturalist, most
famous for his book Ring of Bright Water, on which
the film of the same name was based. The title
Ring of Bright Water was a line taken from a poem
by Kathleen Raine.

For her services to wildlife and to the arts, in
2004 Virginia McKenna was made an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire.


Partial filmography: 
*The Cruel Sea (film)|The Cruel Sea (1953)
*A Town Like Alice  (1956)
*The Smallest Show on Earth (1957)
*Carve Her Name with Pride  (1958)
*The Wreck of the Mary Deare  (1959)
*A Passage to India  (1965) (TV)
*Born Free  (1966)
*Ring of Bright Water  (1969)
*Waterloo (movie)|Waterloo (1970)
*The Gathering Storm (1974)|The Gathering Storm
(1974) (TV)
*The Disappearance (1977)
*The Camomile Lawn (1992)  TV miniseries
*September (movie)|September  (1996) (TV)
*Sliding Doors (1998)


=== External links ===
*imdb name|id= 0571441|name=Virginia McKenna

*Website http://www.bornfree.org.uk/index.shtml
for the "Born Free Foundation"

*http://www.eileanban.org/ Eilean Bàn home to the
Gavin Maxwell museum, author of Ring of Bright
Water