Born Hilary Dwyer, actress Hilary Heath became known in the acting world due to her roles in three American International Pictures films beginning in the late 1960s, starring alongside the late Vincent Price in Witchfinder General, The Oblong Box and Cry of the Banshee. We’ve learned the sad news this week that Heath has passed away at the age of 74.
The actress and producer died last week due to COVID-19 complications.
Godson Alex Williams wrote on Facebook, “We lost my wonderful Godmother Hilary Heath to Covid-19 last week. Hilary had many careers, starting out as a screen and stage actress in the 1960s and 1970s, and then re-inventing herself as a producer in the 1990s, making films like Nil by Mouth (Gary Oldman) and An Awfully Big Adventure (Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman). Her most remarkable re-invention came in her mid-60s, when she won a master’s degree from Oxford in psychology and became an addiction counsellor, specialising in CBT. She worked at clinics all over the world, often for free, often with very deprived and distressed individuals, and she regarded this as her most valuable work by far.”
“She was a force of nature, and I can’t bear it that she is no longer with us.”
Heath also starred in The Body Stealers, The File of the Golden Goose and Wuthering Heights (1970). She was a producer on more recent shows such as “Swamp Men” and “The Dead Files.”
Hilary Heath is survived by son Daniel and daughter Laura.
