Early career Shortly after finishing at RADA, Miles performed in an episode of the TV series
Deadline Midnight titled "Manhunt". Her film debut was as Shirley Taylor, a "husky, wide-eyed nymphet" in
Term of Trial (1962), which featured
Laurence Olivier; she was nominated for the
BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer. Miles appeared in
The Rehearsal (1963) for TV and then played Vera from Manchester in
Joseph Losey's
The Servant (1963), and in so doing she "thrust sexual appetite into British films" according to
David Thomson. She was in
Time Lost and Time Remembered (1966), directed by
Desmond Davis. In 1966, Miles gained another BAFTA nomination, this time as
Best Actress. She had a "peripheral" part in
Michelangelo Antonioni's
Blowup.
Robert Bolt After acting in several plays from 1966 to 1969, Miles was cast as Rosy in the leading title role of
David Lean's ''
Ryan's Daughter'' (1970). It was critically savaged, which discouraged Lean from making a film for some years, despite Miles's performance gaining her an
Oscar nomination and an Oscar win for John Mills, and the film making a substantial profit. In Terence Pettigrew's biography of
Trevor Howard, Miles describes the filming of ''Ryan's Daughter'' in Ireland in 1969. She recalls, "My main memory is of sitting on a hilltop in a caravan at six in the morning in the rain. There was no other actor or member of the crew around me. I would sit there getting mad, waiting for either the rain to stop or someone to arrive. Film-acting is so horrifically belittling." Miles married the film's screenwriter,
Robert Bolt. He wrote and directed
Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) starring Miles in the title role. She then appeared in
The Hireling (1973). On 11 February 1973, while filming
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, aspiring screenwriter
David Whiting, who was briefly one of her lovers, was found dead in her motel room. She was acquitted of culpability in his death. Miles later commented: "It went on for six months. Murder? Suicide? Murder! Suicide! Murder! Suicide! And, gradually, the truth came out, which I'm not going to speak about, but it certainly wasn't me. I had actually saved the man from three suicide attempts, so why would I want to murder him? I really can't imagine." This led to the end of her first marriage to Bolt.
Television Miles starred in some TV movies:
Great Expectations (1974),
Requiem for a Nun (1975), and
Dynasty (1976) as well as the Spanish film
Bride to Be (1975). Her performance as Anne Osborne in
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1976) was nominated for a
Golden Globe. Miles appeared in
The Big Sleep (1978),
Venom (1981),
Walter and June (1983),
Ordeal by Innocence (1984),
Steaming (1985),
Harem (1986) and
Queenie (1987). She received great acclaim for
Hope and Glory. Interviewer
Lynn Barber wrote of Miles' appearances in
Hope and Glory,
White Mischief, and her two earliest films that she "has that Vanessa Redgrave quality of seeming to have one skin fewer than normal people, so that the emotion comes over unmuffled and bare." Filming
White Mischief on location in
Kenya in 1987, Miles worked for the second and last time with
Trevor Howard, who had a supporting role, but was by then seriously ill from alcoholism. The company wanted to fire him, but Miles was determined that Howard's distinguished film career would not end that way. In an interview with Terence Pettigrew for his biography of Howard, she describes how she gave an ultimatum to the executives, threatening to quit the production if they got rid of him. The gamble worked, and Howard was kept on. It was his last major film; he died the following January.
Later career She appeared in
A Ghost in Monte Carlo (1990),
The Silent Touch (1992),
Dandelion Dead (1994),
Jurij (2001) and
The Accidental Detective (2004). She most recently (2008) appeared in
Well at the
Trafalgar Studios and the
Apollo Theatre opposite
Natalie Casey. ==Personal life==