Clare Carey
British actress Jill Bennett trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before scoring her stage debut in 1949 at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Two years later, the wide-eyed ingénue made her film debut with a small role in the British crime drama "The Long Dark Hallway." Bennett would go on to balance performances on stage and screen throughout her career. In film she went on to work with a number of acclaimed actors and heralded directors. In 1956, she appeared alongside Kirk Douglas in the Oscar-winning Vincent van Gogh biopic "Lust for Life," which was co-directed by Vincente Minnelli and George Cukor. Later, Bennett co-starred with the legendary Bette Davis in the psychological thriller "The Nanny," and played alongside Charlton Heston in the historical epic "Julius Caesar." It was around this time that she married playwright John Osborne. The marriage was tumultuous and came to an end in 1978 by means of a messy divorce. In 1990, Bennett made her final film appearance in the Bernardo Bertolucci romantic drama "The Sheltering Sky" before she brought her life and career to an abrupt end, killing herself via overdose. Two years later, her ashes as well as those of her friend and fellow actress, Rachel Roberts, who committed suicide in 1980, were scattered by friend and filmmaker Lindsay Anderson as cameras rolled. The footage was included in a bittersweet BBC documentary titled "Is That All There Is?"