BORN FREE’S
The red carpet holds no thrill for me. We never liked to go to posh places
VIRGINIA MCKENNA FILM STAR WHO WAS NOT DAZZLED BY HOLLYWOOD
Virginia Mckenna has been overwhelmed with presents for her 90th birthday this week but her favourite is a simple gift from her youngest son – a garden chair.
It means she can sit comfortably outside her home to take in the view of the Surrey hills, listen to birdsong and think of her late husband, actor and Born Free co-star Bill Travers.
Virginia says: “I’ve lived here so long and have enough things to last me a lifetime – whatever is left.
“It’s the most beautiful view and the reason we bought the house way back in 1957.
“When I miss Bill, I feel looking at the distant hills reminds me of him.”
Virginia’s deep love and appreciation for family, wildlife, nature and simple pleasures encapsulates her life.
She is a double Bafta-winning actress who starred in films such as A Town Like Alice and Carve Her Name with Pride.
Her list of co-stars reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood’s golden era.
They include Dirk Bogarde, Peter Finch, John Gielgud, Donald Sutherland and Richard Burton.
Virginia achieved more perhaps than any of them. Her 1966 role as
Joy Adamson alongside husband
Bill in Oscar-winning Born Free awakened millions to the importance of wildlife conservation.
It was the true story of Joy and George Adamson, who reintroduced orphaned lion cub Elsa to the wild.
Then Virginia lived out the film’s message by devoting her life to protecting wild animals.
“Born Free isn’t our story, just a story we became part of,” explains Virginia.
“Before Born Free, animals were species or numbers but never individuals. But once Elsa’s story was told, then Dian Fossey started talking about gorillas and Jane Goodall about Frodo and the chimpanzees as individuals.
“Once you start thinking of an animal as an indi
CO-STAR With hubby Bill in 1966’s Born Free
vidual, with personality and likes and dislikes, you surely can’t treat them badly or disrespect them.
“The Mirror has long been a campaigner to end the use of wild animals in circuses, trophy hunting, the badger cull, and the end of dolphinaria.
“Look what we can achieve when we all work together.”
Virginia, Bill and their eldest son Will founded the Born Free Foundation not because of a lion,but because of the plight of Pole Pole, a female African elephant. Aged