She often featured in British productions, primarily in films with actor and producer John McCallum, whom she married and, in the late 1950s, emigrated together to her husband's native Australia, where they became best known in theatre.
[4][8] Withers began acting at the age of twelve, and was student at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, and at the dance school of Buddy Bradley, where she learnt ballet and tap.
She arrived on the set to find one of the major players in the production had been dismissed, and she was immediately asked to step into the leading role, beginning a seven year contract with Warner Brothers, after which she worked for Fox British, Ealing Studios and The Rank Organisation.
She followed it with She Knew What She Wanted (1936), Crown v. Stevens (1936) (directed by Powell), Crime Over London (1936), Pearls Bring Tears (1937), Action for Slander (1937), and Paradise for Two (1937).
Among her successes of the 1940s, and a departure from her previous roles, was the Powell and Pressburger film One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), a topical World War II drama, in which she played a Dutch resistance fighter who helps British airmen return to safety from behind enemy lines.
[14] Withers took 13 months off following the birth of her first child, then returned to star as a doctor in White Corridors (1951), one of the most popular films of the year in Britain.
Withers starred in a number of stage plays, including Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea, Desire of the Moth, The First 400 Years (with Keith Michell), The Circle,[18] A. R. Gurney's The Cocktail Hour, Time and the Conways, The Importance of Being Earnest, Beekman Place (1965), for which she also designed the set.
[19] Desire of the Moth, The Kingfisher, Stardust, Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and Wilde's An Ideal Husband for the Melbourne Theatre Company; both productions toured Australia.
[citation needed] Withers starred on Broadway with Michael Redgrave in The Complaisant Lover, and in London with Alec Guinness in Exit the King.
Performances on the stage in productions of The Cherry Orchard and An Ideal Husband earned Withers a nomination in the Actress of the Year in a Revival at the 1976 Laurence Olivier Awards.
In 2002, aged 85, Withers, with Vanessa Redgrave, appeared in London's West End, in Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan.
In October 2007, aged 90 and 89 respectively, Withers and McCallum appeared in an extended interview with Peter Thompson on ABC TV's Talking Heads programme.
[24] In 1992 Googie Withers and John McCallum were founding patrons and active supporters of the Tait Memorial Trust in London.
A Charity established by Isla Baring OAM, the daughter of Sir Frank Tait of J. C. Williamson's to support young Australian performing artists in the UK.