Melissa Stribling (7 November 1926 – 22 March 1992) was a Scottish film and television actress. She began her professional career in a repertory company, presenting a different play each week at the Grand Theatre, Croydon in 1948. She remains best known for playing the role of Mina Holmwood in the horror film Dracula (1958).
Career
Born in Gourock, Scotland as Melissa Stribling Smith, she started out in 1945 as a member of the Ealing Studios Amateur Dramatic Society,[3] turning professional in 1948 and appearing that year with repertory companies at Croydon, Worthing and Windsor.[4] Her screen career began with a small role in the film The First Gentleman, also in 1948.[2]
Stribling is best known for playing the role of Mina Holmwood in the Hammer Films production Dracula (1958), starring Peter Cushing and, in the title role, Christopher Lee.[7] In the film, her character is the victim of a vampire in what has been seen as an erotically charged performance.[8] Dracula and Mina showing sexual pleasure in this way has often been described as a first in British cinema.[9] The film's director, Terence Fisher, remembered her asking him how to play the scene. He replied by saying that she should imagine that she'd had "one whale of a sexual night" and that it should show on her face.[10] Fisher said that she produced a satisfied little facial expression that spoke volumes.[9]Jonathan Rigby complimented her performance in his book English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema, saying that she is "a terrific female lead throughout" the film.[11]
Family
She was married to the film director Basil Dearden; their sons are James Dearden, also a director, and Torquil Dearden, a London-based editor at a company specialising in commercials and corporate videos.[12] After Basil Dearden's death in 1971, she was briefly married to film producer Richard du Vivier.[13]
