Virginia McKenna
Dame Virginia Anne McKenna, DBE, is a British actress, author, and wildlife campaigner. She was born on 7 June 1931 in Marylebone, London, into a family of performers. She trained as an actress and began working in theatre and films in the early 1950s.
McKenna is known for films such as The Cruel Sea (1953), A Town Like Alice (1956), Carve Her Name with Pride (1958), Born Free (1966), and Ring of Bright Water (1969). She won major acting awards, including a BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress in 1956, a BAFTA for Best British Actress in 1957 for A Town Like Alice, and the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1979 for The King and I.
Her personal life included two marriages. She first married Denholm Elliott in 1954 and divorced in 1957. Later that year she married Bill Travers, with whom she remained until his death in 1994. They had four children, including their son Will Travers, and Virginia is the grandmother of actress Lily Travers.
The couple’s film Born Free inspired them to become wildlife activists. They founded Zoo Check in 1984, which later became the Born Free Foundation in 1991. Virginia has stayed active in animal welfare and conservation work, including protests for better animal care and habitat protection.
She has received many honors for her work, including becoming an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2004 and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2023 for services to wildlife conservation and animal welfare. Virginia is a vegetarian, a patron of Cinnamon Trust, and has written books and given talks about her life and her campaigns. Her autobiography, The Life in My Years, was published in 2009.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 10:42 (CET).