Dame Virginia Anne McKenna[1] (born 7 June 1931) is a British stage and screen actress, author, animal rights activist, and wildlife campaigner.

She had a small role in the popular war film The Cruel Sea (1953) and a better part in the low budget comedy The Oracle (1953).

Rank signed her to a long-term contract[8] and director Brian Desmond Hurst said, "She has a terrific future, properly handled.

The same year, Travers and McKenna, along with Margaret Rutherford and Peter Sellers, co-starred in the comedy The Smallest Show on Earth, made back in Britain.

McKenna is best remembered for her 1966 role as Joy Adamson in the true-life film Born Free for which she received a nomination for a Golden Globe.

It was not only a huge success at the box office but a life changing experience for her and her husband Bill Travers who co-starred with her, portraying game warden and conservationist George Adamson.

McKenna and Travers starred in another animal-themed story, Ring of Bright Water (1969), but it failed to match Born Free's success.

[14] McKenna occasionally acted in films, notably Waterloo (1970), Swallows and Amazons (1974), The Gathering Storm (1974), and Beauty and the Beast (1976).

Onstage, in 1979 she won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a British musical for her performance opposite Yul Brynner in The King and I.

In 1975, McKenna released an album of twelve songs called Two Faces of Love, which included two of her own compositions and a sung version of the poem "The Life That I Have" from Carve Her Name with Pride.

McKenna's audiobook work includes The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett,[21] and narration of The Lonely Doll by Dare Wright.