Billie Whitelaw

Billie Honor Whitelaw (6 June 1932 – 21 December 2014) She was also known for her portrayal of Mrs Baylock, the demonic nanny in the 1976 horror film The Omen.

Whitelaw was nominated for three Television BAFTAs, winning two, in 1961 and 1973. She was also nominated for four Film BAFTAs, winning the Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for both Charlie Bubbles and Twisted Nerve in 1969.

Early life Billie Honor Whitelaw was born on 6 June 1932 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 went to Thornton Grammar School,

At age 11, she began performing as a child actress on radio programmes,

At age 16, 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 and Oxford, eventually making her London debut in 1950. followed by roles in Carve Her Name with Pride (1958), Other films included performing the voice of Aughra in The Dark Crystal,

Theatre and Beckett In 1963, Billie Whitelaw met Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. She and Beckett enjoyed an intense professional relationship until his death in 1989. He wrote many of his more experimental plays especially for her, referring to Whitelaw as "a perfect actress". Whitelaw became Beckett's muse, as he created, reworked and revised each play while she physically, at times to the point of total exhaustion, acted each movement.

Whitelaw remained the foremost interpreter of the man and his work. She gave lectures on the Beckettian technique and explained: "He used me as a piece of plaster he was moulding until he got just the right shape." They collaborated on Beckett plays such as Play, Eh Joe, Happy Days, Not I, Footfalls and Rockaby for both stage and screen.

From 1964 to 1966, she was a member of Britain's National Theatre Company. In 1965, she took over the part of Desdemona opposite Laurence Olivier's Othello from Maggie Smith.

Television career Whitelaw also appeared frequently on television and won acclaim for her work. A very early TV appearance was in the first series of the long-running BBC police series Dixon of Dock Green (1955), She died there aged 82, following a bout of pneumonia,

Billie Whitelaw...Who He? An Autobiography, was published by St Martin's Press in 1995.

Awards and nominations

Selected filmography

The Fake (1953) as Waitress The Sleeping Tiger (1954) as Receptionist at Pearce & Mann Companions in Crime (1955) Room in the House (1955) Mr. Arkadin (1955) (voice) Miracle in Soho (1957) as Maggie Small Hotel (1957) as Caroline Mallet Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) as Winnie Gideon's Day (1958) as Christine (uncredited) Television Playwright (1958, TV series) as Betty Coogan (1 episode) Time Out for Peggy (1958–1959, TV series) as Peggy Spencer Breakout (1959) as Rose Munro Bobbikins (1959) as Lydia Simmons The Flesh and the Fiends (1960) as Mary Patterson Hell Is a City (1960) as Chloe Hawkins Make Mine Mink (1960) as Lily Payroll (1961) as Jackie Parker No Love for Johnnie (1961) as Mary Mr. Topaze (1961) as Ernestine The Devil's Agent (1962) as Piroska Maslov The Comedy Man (1964) as Judy Charlie Bubbles (1967) as Lottie Bubbles The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968, TV Movie) as Gwyn Thomas Twisted Nerve (1968) as Joan Harper The Adding Machine (1969) as Daisy Devore Start the Revolution Without Me (1970) as Queen Marie Antoinette Leo the Last (1970) as Margaret Gumshoe (1971) as Ellen Eagle in a Cage (1972) as Madame Bertrand Frenzy (1972) as Hetty Porter Follow the Yellow Brick Road (1972, TV series) as Judy Black Night Watch (1973) as Sarah Cooke Napoleon and Love (1974, TV Mini-Series) as Josephine The Omen (1976) as Mrs. Baylock Space: 1999 (1976, TV Series ) as Zamara The Water Babies (1978) as Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby / Old Crone / Mrs Tripp / Woman in Black / Water Babies 'Gate Keeper' Leopard in the Snow (1978) as Isabel James A Tale of Two Cities (1980) as Madame Therese Defarge Private Schulz (1980) as Bertha Freyer An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1982) as Elizabeth Leaming The Dark Crystal (1982) as Aughra (voice) Jamaica Inn (1983, TV Series) as Aunt Patience Terror in the Aisles (1984) as Madge The Chain (1984) as Mrs. Andreos Camille (1984, TV Movie) as Prudence Duvorney Tangiers (1985) as Louise Shadey (1985) as Doctor Cloud Murder Elite (1985) as Margaret Baker Maurice (1987) as Mrs. Hall The Secret Garden (1987) as Mrs. Medlock Joyriders (1988) as Tammy O'Moore The Dressmaker (1988) as Margo The Krays (1990) as Violet Kray Freddie as F.R.O.7 (1992) as Messina (voice) Deadly Advice (1994) as Kate Webster Jane Eyre (1996) as Grace Poole Merlin (1998, TV Mini-Series) as Ambrosia The Lost Son (1999) as Mrs. Spitz The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000) as Evelyn Quills (2000) as Madame LeClerc Hot Fuzz (2007) as Joyce Cooper (final film role)