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Dinah Sheridan, who played the mother in the 1970 version of The Railway Children, has died. We take a look at her life in film

Before the second world war, a teenage Sheridan played the fresh-faced ingenue in a string of British features, including a snobbish daughter in Father Steps Out (1937) and a theatrical type in the murder mystery Landslide (also 1937) – the latter film co-starring her future husband Jimmy Hanley. Clips are hard to find for these cheap and cheerful pictures – it's not until cult caper Calling Paul Temple (1948) that we can get a look at Sheridan, then in her late 20s, in action. She played Steve, the vivacious wife of the suave crime novelist of the title, played by John Bentley.

And you can catch a glimpse of Sheridan doing some knitting while a precocious Petula Clark twangs her guitar in The Huggetts Abroad, one of the series of Huggetts movies in the late 40s.

Vivacious star of Genevieve and The Railway Children

Though the actor Dinah Sheridan, who has died aged 92, was an "English rose" of the type still firmly in vogue in British theatre and films of the immediate postwar era, she had a vivacity and depth of talent that went further than the label suggested.

The 1953 film that would almost certainly have turned her into an international star – but for an ill-judged second marriage to the head of the company that made it – was Genevieve. Two rival couples taking part in the London to Brighton veteran car rally were the backbone of the film, and Kenneth More as the brasher of the two male drivers and Kay Kendall as his glamorous model girlfriend had the more extrovert roles. But Sheridan was quietly appealing as the woman who would rather stand by the man prepared to lose the race (John Gregson) than win...

Actress Dinah Sheridan, who became best known for her work in films such as The Railway Children and Genevieve and later for her TV appearances, has died at the age of 92.Born Dinah Mec in 1920 to a Russian father and German mother, she changed her name upon entering show business as her birth surname was pronounced “mess” and she didn’t want to give critics any free ammunition.She didn’t need to worry: her performances were largely acclaimed, including roles in Calling Paul Temple and Paul Temple’s Triumph before World War II broke out and she gave up her career to become an ambulance driver.Sheridan returned to films in the post-War period, working on such titles as David Lean’s Breaking The Sound Barrier and 1980’s The Mirror Crack’d, in which she co-starred with Angela Lansbury.But her performances in 1953’s Genevieve and 1970’s The Railway Children...