Pilbeam was born in Wimbledon, Surrey (now part of the London Borough of Merton). Her parents were Arnold Pilbeam, an actor and theatre manager, and Margery Stopher Pilbeam.
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Pilbeam gained attention as a child stage actress. This led to much work in her teen years. She appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), in which she plays a girl abducted by Peter Lorre's … See more

Pilbeam married Pen Tennyson, a great-grandson of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson and an assistant director to Hitchcock, in 1939. Tennyson became a film director the year they were married, but he died in a plane cras… See more