British Film Actress Joan Greenwood, 65

Joan Greenwood, husky-voiced star of British film classics of the 1940s, has died at her London home, her son said Monday. She was 65.

Jason Morell said his mother, who was a love interest and sometimes foil for Alec Guinness in two of that actor’s early films, was found dead Saturday by friends she had invited to dinner.

Morell, who said his mother had most recently appeared on stage two weeks ago in a revival of a career that had languished in recent years, did not disclose the cause of death. But the British Broadcasting Corp. said Miss Greenwood apparently had suffered a heart attack.

Daughter of Artist

The actress was the daughter of artist Sydney Earnshaw Greenwood, and trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She made her London stage debut in 1938 and her first film, “John Smith Wakes Up,” in 1940.

She was featured in the popular “Saraband for Dead Lovers” and with Guinness made “The Man in the White Suit” and “Kind Hearts and Coronets.” She also was featured (as Gwendolen) in “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “The Bad Lord Byron,” “Knave of Hearts,” “Father Brown” and the 1963 Oscar-winning “Tom Jones.”

Her last pictures were the 1978 remake of “The Hound of the Baskervilles” and “The Water Babies” in 1979.

In her last stage appearance Feb. 14, Miss Greenwood appeared with Robert Morley in a sketch at London’s Prince of Wales Theater.

Miss Greenwood was married in 1960 to actor Andre Morell, who died in 1978.