Wendy Toye

Wendy Toye was a British dancer, stage and film director and actress who started her career as a child prodigy. She performed in various theatres and films as a dancer and choreographer, and later became one of the first women film directors in Britain. She directed several films, including The Stranger Left No Card (1952), which won the Best Fictional Short Film prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and On the Twelfth Day... (1955), which received an Oscar nomination for Best Short Subject. She also directed many plays, ballets, musicals and operas, such as Bless the Bride (1947), Wild Thyme (1955) and Follow the Star (1979). She was an advisor to the Arts Council and a lecturer in Australia. She was awarded the Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977 and appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1992 for services to the arts. She died in 2010 at the age of 92.