Michael Wilding was making a living as a commercial artist after leaving
school when, in 1933, he joined the art department of a London film
studio. Wilding embarked upon an acting career, making his film debut
in Bitter Sweet
(1933), he then amassed an impressive list of British stage and screen
credits during the 1940s. His most memorable screen appearances can
be found particularly in affable light comedy roles including Sailors
Three (1940), Kipps
(1941) and In
Which We Serve (1942). Wilding replaced Rex
Harrison and teamed up with Anna Neagle
to star in a series of very popular ‘London’ films directed
by Neagle’s husband Herbert Wilcox,
including Piccadilly Incident (1946), The Courtneys of Curzon Street
(1947), Spring in Park Lane (1948) and Maytime
in Mayfair (1952).
Wilding later featured in two of Alfred
Hitchcock's Anglo-American productions; Under
Capricorn (1949) and Stage
Fright (1950). From 1952 through 1957, Wilding was the husband of
Elizabeth Taylor, and spent five years working in Hollywood under contract
to MGM mostly in rather dull co-starring roles, the best being the Pharoah
in Michael Curtiz’s The Egyptian (1954). Wilding returned to the
UK, and after three years hiatus returned to acting with a supporting
role in the PoW escape drama Danger
Within (1959). Illness forced Michael Wilding to cut down his film
appearances in the late '60s and in semi-retirement he became a theatrical
agent. His last assignment was an uncredited, non-speaking cameo in
Robert Bolt's Lady Caroline Lamb (1972), which co-starred his fourth
wife, Margaret Leighton.
