Nova Pilbeam, English Actress Who Played Kidnapped Daughter In 1934 Version Of "The Man Who Knew Too Much," R.I.P.

Nova Pilbeam, the English actress who co-starred in two of Alfred Hitchcock's 1930s British-made motion pictures, but who retired from motion pictures in the late 1940s, before she was 30 years old, passed away last Friday (July 17) at her home in London at age 95.

Miss Pilbeam's passing was confirmed by a friend of hers.

London-born Nova began her film career (all spent in her native Britain) as a child actress in the early 1930s.

In 1934, she came to international attention when played the role of the kidnapped daughter of a man (played by Leslie Banks) who stumbled on an assassination plot.  This was the original version of "The Man Who Knew Too Much," directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

This film is also remembered as the first English-language film of co-star Peter Lorre.

Three years later at around age 17, Nova co-starred in another Hitchcock-directed film, entitled "Young and Innocent (distributed in the US as "The Girl Was Young")".

Even in those early years, Sir Alfred said of the actress that was quoted in British newspaper obituaries of Nova this week"she had the intelligence of a fully-grown woman.  She had confidence and ideas of her own."

In this photo, here's Nova, pictured with her co-star Leslie Banks and a four-legged friend when both were in "The Man Who Knew Too Much." 



Hulton Archives/Getty Images photo