BENNETT, JILL

born Dec. 24, 1931, Penang, Straits Settlements [now Malaysia] died Oct. 4, 1990, London, Eng. , in full Nora Noel Jill Bennett British actress noted for projecting emotional vulnerability and, alternatively, elegant comedy. The daughter of a rubber plantation owner in Malaya, Bennett attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London (1944-46). In 1949 she joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, where she began a passionate love affair with 60-year-old actor Sir Godfrey Tearle; in her book Godfrey: A Special Time Remembered (1983) she described their four years together as the happiest of her life. Their relationship inspired the play Time Present by John Osborne (1968), in which Bennett won the Variety Club and Evening Standard best-actress awards. Bennett appeared frequently on television and in films, including Moulin Rouge (1953) and Lust for Life (1956). Her first major stage role was in a London production of The Seagull (1956), and she continued to appear on the London stage throughout the 1960s and 1970s in plays ranging from light entertainment to classical and avant-garde drama. While married (1968-77) to Osborne, she was acclaimed for her performance as Hedda in his adaptation of Hedda Gabler (1972). Her final film role was one of her most memorable, in The Sheltering Sky (1990).