Biography

Committed suicide from an overdose of pills in 1990, after suffering from acute depression abetted by her stormy marriage and subsequent divorce from the writer John Osborne. She was his fourth wife.

Had a long-term relationship with the much older actor Sir Godfrey Tearle (1884-1953) in the late 1940s and early 1950s before marrying screenwriter Willis Hall. In her book, Godfrey: A Special Time Remembered (1983) she described their four years together as the happiest of her life.

Born in Penang, Federated Malay States, to British parents; her father was a rubber plantation owner.

In 1972, she and husband John Osborne were the victims of a home invasion when a man armed with a knife broke into their house intending to kill Osborne. On seeing him, Bennett said, "Go away. I will not be late for the ballet." Astonished, the man complied.

Her marriage to John Osborne was a tempestuous one, and ended in considerable acrimony. Osborne let it be known that he had given her the nickname "Adolf", and continued to be vituperative about her long after her suicide - something which made him very unpopular. However, he was very friendly, right up to his own death, with her first husband, Willis Hall.