Damaris Hayman, born in 1936 in London, is an English character actress known for her eccentric roles. She plays a memorable part in The Haunting of Julia (1978), where her unique presence adds depth to the film's eerie atmosphere. Hayman's versatility shines in Confessions of a Driving Instructor (1976), where she embodies the quirks of upper-class characters. With a career spanning several decades, her contributions to cult cinema highlight the charm and peculiarities of British film in the 1970s.
The Haunting of Julia
Julia moves into an old Kensington home hoping grief and distance will let her begin again. Instead, unexplained sounds, disturbing visions, and the history of a cruel little girl draw her toward a death that may still be reaching beyond the grave. Magnus (Keir Dullea) and Julia Lofting (Mia Farrow) have a happy marriage until one morning when their daughter Kate (Sophie Ward) begins choking. Unsure what to do, Julia attempts a tracheotomy, inadvertently causing Kate's death. Julia heads to a sanitarium to recover, and when Magnus asks that she come home, she prefers to buy a new house in London and live alone there. Magnus frets over Julia's sanity, while Julia becomes convinced that her house is haunted by the spirit of a little girl. After her small daughter's sudden accidental death, wealthy American Julia Lofting bolts her unhappy marriage in London and buys a house in Kensington that is haunted by the ghost of an obscenely nasty little girl who died in the 1950s and plans to use Julia as her pawn in a terrible revenge plot. After her small daughter's sudden accidental death, wealthy American Julia Lofting bolts her unhappy marriage in London and buys a house in Kensington that is haunted by the ghost of an obscenely nasty little girl who died in the 1950s and plans to use Julia as her pawn in a terrible revenge plot. After her daughter's death, wealthy American homemaker Julia Lofting moves to London to restart her life. All seems well until she is haunted by the ghosts of other children while mourning for her own.
