Billie Whitelaw
Billie Whitelaw was born in Coventry, England, United Kingdom on June 6th, 1932 and is the Movie Actress. At the age of 82, Billie Whitelaw biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, movies, and networth are available.
At 82 years old, Billie Whitelaw has this physical status:
Billie Honor Whitelaw (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.
Early life
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 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.
At the age of sixteen, Whitelaw met the director Joan Littlewood at the BBC in Manchester, and was invited to join her Theatre Workshop troupe. She was encouraged by her mother to join Harry Hanson's Leeds company in 1948, and then went on to play in repertory theatres in Dewsbury, New Brighton in Liverpool, and Oxford, eventually making her London debut in 1950.
Personal life and death
Whitelaw was married to the actor Peter Vaughan from 1952 to 1966 then to the writer and drama critic Robert Muller, with whom she had a son, until his death in 1998. Her autobiography Billie Whitelaw... Who He? was published by St. Martin's Press in 1996.
Having divided her time between a home in Hampstead, north London, and a cottage in Suffolk, Whitelaw spent the last four years of her life as a resident of Denville Hall, the actors’ retirement and nursing home in Northwood, Hillingdon. She died there following a bout of pneumonia on 21 December 2014, aged 82.
Film career
In The Sleeping Tiger (1954), Whitelaw made her film debut, followed by roles in Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) and Hell Is a City (1960). White law soon became a staple in British films of the 1950s and 1960s. She specialized in blousy blondes and secretaries in early film work, but her dramatic range began in the late 1960s. She appeared in Charlie Bubbles (1967), a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in a Support Role. In the psychological study Twisted Nerve (1969), she will win her second BAFTA as the sensible mother of college student Hayley Mills. She appeared in film roles including Leo the Last (1970), Start the Revolution Without Me (1971), Gumshoe (1971), and Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972).
Mrs. Baylock, the demon child Damien's demon child Damien (1976), received international recognition for her chilling work as Mrs. Baylock, the demon guardian of the demon baby Damien. Her performance was one of the film's most notable, winning the Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress. In addition, Aughra in The Dark Crystal (1987), the naive and protective mother of psychopathic twin murderers in The Krays (1990), as the nurse Grace Poole in Jane Eyre (1996) and the blind laundress in Quills (2000). Joyce Cooper, in a comedic role, appeared in Hot Fuzz (2007).
She appeared in 1970 at the Berlin International Film Festival as a member of the jury.
Television career
Whitelaw appeared on television frequently and received acclaim for her job. Mary Dixon, George's daughter, appeared in the first series of the long-running BBC1 police drama Dixon of Dock Green (1955), as Mary Dixon, a very early television appearance (Jack Warner). In a 1957 episode of The Adventures of Robin Hood, "The Bride of Robin Hood," she also appeared as a woman who wishes to join Robin Hood's outlaw band, and received a BAFTA award for her appearance in The Sextet (1972). Time Out for Peggy, a 1958–59 sitcom, starred her. She appeared in an episode of Wicked Women (1970), the BBC adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Wessex Tales (1979), A Murder of Hearts (1991), Madhur Jaffrey (1991), A Dinner of Herbs (1999), 2004.