Janet Munro(1934-1972)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
As Disney's lively lass Katie O'Gill, she was the freshness of spring.
She could inspire you to dance a jig through a field of flowers. Her
entrancing green eyes and catchy spirit had that kind of life-affirming
effect. Cute, spunky, almond-eyed British actress Janet Munro was
deemed to be an actress from day one as the daughter of Scottish stage
and variety-hall comedian Alex Munro
(1911-1986) (born Alexander Horsburgh). Janet Neilson Horsburgh was
born in Blackpool (near Liverpool), Lancashire, England on September
28, 1934. Her entertainer father adopted the name Munro a few years
after she was born. His wife, Janet's mother Phyllis, died when Janet was
8 and she was raised by his second wife, Lilias.
Janet first trained as a teenager in repertory theatre in the Lancashire
area, and in the late 1950s she found popularity on British TV, even earning
the title of "Miss Television of 1958" from a fan magazine. She also dabbled
in films and had prominent roles in the breezy comedy
Small Hotel (1957), the drama
The Young and the Guilty (1959),
and the creepy sci-fi/horror
The Crawling Eye (1958)
[aka The Trollenberg Terror].
Adaptable to both comedy and drama, the little charmer caught the eye
of Walt Disney who saw big things for her,
and she was signed to a five-picture deal in 1959. She made four.
Appealing to a brand new generation of Britishers and Americans as the
scrappy, brunette-banged ingénue of several box-office family films,
she brightened up the screen with her performances in
Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959),
Third Man on the Mountain (1959),
and
Swiss Family Robinson (1960).
The Golden Globe winner for "most promising newcomer" eventually
outgrew Disney and tried to move ahead by altering her wholesome image
with some mature, spicier roles, but audiences didn't respond well to this
sudden departure. The idea of an adult Janet Munro playing overly-sexy
ladies and seriously downtrodden women did not take and her career
quickly faltered. Despite a BAFTA nomination for her role in
Walk in the Shadow (1962), she began to
see life unraveling both personally and professionally right before her eyes.
Janet's marriages to actors
Tony Wright and
Ian Hendry fell by the wayside and
two miscarriages, plus chronic medical ills, only deepened her suffering.
Worse yet, she developed an acute alcohol problem. Semi-retired from
acting between 1964 and 1968 while married to Hendry in order to raise
her children, she found the going difficult when she tried to return
full-time.
Ironically, one of Janet's last screen roles showed her at her dramatic
best, a boozing pop star in the British film
Sebastian (1968). Four years later
Janet died under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Reports circulated
that she choked to death at a London hotel while drinking tea. The
immediate cause of her death was acute myocarditis; the underlying
cause was chronic ischemic heart disease. The sun set all too soon on
this lovely actress when she was only 38. She was survived by her daughters,
Sally and Corrie Hendry.
She could inspire you to dance a jig through a field of flowers. Her
entrancing green eyes and catchy spirit had that kind of life-affirming
effect. Cute, spunky, almond-eyed British actress Janet Munro was
deemed to be an actress from day one as the daughter of Scottish stage
and variety-hall comedian Alex Munro
(1911-1986) (born Alexander Horsburgh). Janet Neilson Horsburgh was
born in Blackpool (near Liverpool), Lancashire, England on September
28, 1934. Her entertainer father adopted the name Munro a few years
after she was born. His wife, Janet's mother Phyllis, died when Janet was
8 and she was raised by his second wife, Lilias.
Janet first trained as a teenager in repertory theatre in the Lancashire
area, and in the late 1950s she found popularity on British TV, even earning
the title of "Miss Television of 1958" from a fan magazine. She also dabbled
in films and had prominent roles in the breezy comedy
Small Hotel (1957), the drama
The Young and the Guilty (1959),
and the creepy sci-fi/horror
The Crawling Eye (1958)
[aka The Trollenberg Terror].
Adaptable to both comedy and drama, the little charmer caught the eye
of Walt Disney who saw big things for her,
and she was signed to a five-picture deal in 1959. She made four.
Appealing to a brand new generation of Britishers and Americans as the
scrappy, brunette-banged ingénue of several box-office family films,
she brightened up the screen with her performances in
Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959),
Third Man on the Mountain (1959),
and
Swiss Family Robinson (1960).
The Golden Globe winner for "most promising newcomer" eventually
outgrew Disney and tried to move ahead by altering her wholesome image
with some mature, spicier roles, but audiences didn't respond well to this
sudden departure. The idea of an adult Janet Munro playing overly-sexy
ladies and seriously downtrodden women did not take and her career
quickly faltered. Despite a BAFTA nomination for her role in
Walk in the Shadow (1962), she began to
see life unraveling both personally and professionally right before her eyes.
Janet's marriages to actors
Tony Wright and
Ian Hendry fell by the wayside and
two miscarriages, plus chronic medical ills, only deepened her suffering.
Worse yet, she developed an acute alcohol problem. Semi-retired from
acting between 1964 and 1968 while married to Hendry in order to raise
her children, she found the going difficult when she tried to return
full-time.
Ironically, one of Janet's last screen roles showed her at her dramatic
best, a boozing pop star in the British film
Sebastian (1968). Four years later
Janet died under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Reports circulated
that she choked to death at a London hotel while drinking tea. The
immediate cause of her death was acute myocarditis; the underlying
cause was chronic ischemic heart disease. The sun set all too soon on
this lovely actress when she was only 38. She was survived by her daughters,
Sally and Corrie Hendry.