Billie Whitelaw
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Billie Whitelaw CBE |
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|---|---|
Whitelaw in c. 1960s
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| Born |
Billie Honor Whitelaw 6 June 1932 Coventry, Warwickshire,England, UK |
| Died | 21 December 2014 (aged 82) Hampstead, London, England, UK |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1950–2002, 2007 |
| Spouse(s) |
Peter Vaughan (m. 1952–1966; divorced) Robert Muller (m. 1967–1998; his death) |
| Children | 1 |
Billie Honor Whitelaw, CBE (6 June 1932 – 21 December 2014) was an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and was regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works. She was also known for her portrayal of Mrs Baylock, the demonic nanny in the 1976 horror film The Omen.
Whitelaw was appointed a CBE in the 1991 Birthday Honours.
Whitelaw was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, the daughter of Frances Mary (née Williams) and Gerry Whitelaw. She had one sister, Constance, who was 10 years older. Whitelaw grew up in a working class part of Bradford and later attended Grange Girls' Grammar School in Bradford. At age 11, she began performing as a child actress on radio programmes, including the part of Bunkle, an extrovert prep-schoolboy on Children's Hour from Manchester, and later worked as an assistant stage manager and acted with the repertory company at the Prince's Theatre in Bradford during high school. Her father died of lung cancer when Billie was 9 years old. Money was tight and her mother struggled on her own to support the family. "It's something I haven't come to terms with ... I'm rather ashamed of having the good life I have", she later recalled.
Whitelaw trained at RADA and made her stage debut at age 18 in London 1950. She made her film debut in The Sleeping Tiger (1954), followed by roles in Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) and Hell Is a City (1960). Whitelaw soon became a regular in British films of the 1950s and early 1960s. In her early film work she specialised in blousy blondes and secretaries, but her dramatic range began to emerge by the late 1960s. She starred alongside Albert Finney in Charlie Bubbles (1967), a performance which won her a BAFTA award as Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She would win her second BAFTA as the sensuous mother of college student Hayley Mills in the psychological study Twisted Nerve (1969). She continued in film roles including Leo the Last (1970), Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), Gumshoe (1971) and the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Frenzy (1972).
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