Anneke Wills

Wills's father, Alaric Willys, was a captain in the British Army. Her mother, Anna, was a housewife.[1] Anneke is the granddaughter of Richard Raymond Willis VC.[3]

Deciding she wanted to be an actress she studied drama at the Arts Educational School and RADA in London and quickly became one of the busiest actresses of her generation, early roles included an appearance as Roberta in the second TV version of The Railway Children in 1957.[4] Her other film roles included appearances in Some People (1962) and The Pleasure Girls (1965).[5]

Anneke Wills with a young fan at Bournemouth Comic-Con in 2016.

Her other television credits include appearances in The Avengers[6] and as Evelyn in Strange Report (1969–70).[7]

At 17, she began a relationship with Anthony Newley while working on the TV series The Strange World of Gurney Slade. Newley fathered Wills's first child, but left her to marry Joan Collins.[17] During the 1960s Wills spent much of her time at the famous Troubadour Coffee Shop[18] and the Establishment, and was part of the so-called "Chelsea Set".

Wills married actor Michael Gough in 1962; the couple had one son, Jasper, and divorced in 1979. She remarried twice. In 1970, she gave up acting and moved to Norfolk, dedicating herself to motherhood and gardening. She left the UK in 1980 and lived in various places in the 16 years afterwards, including in Belgium, Laos, Vietnam, and India in the early 1980s, in the USA from 1983–1986, and in Canada from 1986–1996, before returning to the UK in 1996.[19]

• Anneke Wills at IMDb
• Official website
• Details of Anneke Wills - In Focus