Lillian Yarbo

Lillian "Billie" Yarbo (born Lillian Yarbough; March 17, 1905 – June 12, 1996) was an American stage and screen actress, dancer, and singer.

Early life Born Lillian Yarbough in Washington, DC,

Career Stage By her early 20s, Yarbo, credited prior to October 1928 as Yarbough, was a rising star both in Harlem night spots and on the Broadway stage. Writing in The New Yorker, reviewing the Miller and Lyles musical, Keep Shufflin''', a young Charles Brackett alerted readers: "There is a Miss Billie Yarbough, who must have been designed by Covarrubias and must be seen." With a style sometimes likened to that of her contemporary, Josephine Baker, Yarbo was embraced by audiences and critics alike, beginning in the late 1920s and continuing until her 1936 screen debut. As for her vocal stylings, just a few, fleeting, onscreen remnants exist. For example, she sings a few bars of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" in the film version of A Date with Judy. (See also relevant excerpt from The Family Next Door in External links). That said, Yarbo clearly did not lack for confidence, having once told trumpeter Buck Clayton, "To hell with Billie Holiday! Come down and listen to me, the real Billie."

Screen Yarbo appeared in at least two films in 1936 and 1937 before her first onscreen credit in the following year in the Warren William vehicle, Wives Under Suspicion. Whilst that film was received somewhat indifferently by critics, reviews noted her performance as particularly praiseworthy. For that and her equally acclaimed performance in Frank Capra's successful adaptation of Kaufman and Hart's You Can't Take It With You (which, by virtue of the film's panoramic, full-cast billboard, also inspired a new nickname), Yarbo was judged 1938's best Negro comedic actress by Pittsburgh Courier film critic Earl J. Morris. In 1939, she was awarded that same distinction by the short-lived Sepia Theatrical Writers Guild. Indeed, even prior to 1938, the then-as-yet thoroughly anonymous Yarbo—as Claire Trevor's maid in Alfred Werker's much-rewritten Big Town Girl —caught the eye of one reviewer who noted that "a Negro lassie—inexcusably omitted from the cast list—renders yeoman service and considerable comedy as the countess' maid".

Awards and favorable notices notwithstanding, and despite director King Vidor's personal support for her as early as 1937 (following Yarbo's sophomore screen turn, appearing uncredited with Barbara Stanwyck in Vidor's Stella Dallas), she continued to be routinely cast in bit parts, primarily as a maid, cook or otherwise low-skilled worker, often uncredited, appearing in at least 50 films between 1936 and 1949.

In the fall of 1943, amid an already setback-laden half-decade, Adding injury to insult, just weeks later, a near-fatal car crash put Yarbo out of commission for the first half of 1944. She appeared in just one film that year, and over the next five averaged exactly two films a year, uncredited in all but one, ending her screen career much as it had begun.

Later years On November 13, 1948, roughly four months after finishing work on her final film and roughly 13 years after her last stage performance, Yarbo returned to live performance. Perhaps inspired by having made, roughly two months prior, "one of her rare visits to a night spot," Yarbo, backed by Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy, performed at a benefit event staged at Club Congo (formerly Club Alabam) by the Alpha Phi Alpha House Campaign Committee to help fund "much-needed housing and scholarship for 'forgotten' students".

On May 19, 1949, The California Eagle's Gertrude Gipson reported that "C. P. Johnson on along with a six-piece combo, and Billy Yarbo, who has returned to dancing, will open at the Fairbanks in Alaska around the first". If this planned performance took place, it is Yarbo's last documented public performance.

About the same time Yarbo received some very nice notices for her last credited screen performance portraying "a giggling, singing, four-times-married little maid" in Warner Bros.' long-shelved Night Unto Night (1949), one more instance of Yarbo being one of the few reasons to watch—precisely as had been the case in her first credited role picture: "Other characters include one who talks like someone out of a bad play, a couple of doctors, the heroine's sexy sister, and, fortunately, Lillian Yarbo as Josephine, the maid of all work, who provides the only bright spot in the generally murky atmosphere." —genuinely valued her privacy. (Tone notwithstanding, the Daily Eagle portrait is lent credence by the person Yarbo cites to exemplify fame's dire consequences: her fellow Washingtonian and possible role model, the then-recently deceased Florence Mills, whose tragic, premature death had been the subject of nationwide headlines roughly four months prior to Yarbo earning her first glowing Broadway reviews.) Yarbo appears to have spent the remainder of her life in relative comfort in Seattle, Washington, where she died on June 12, 1996.

FilmographyRainbow on the River (1936) as Seline (uncredited)Stella Dallas (1937) as Gladys (uncredited)Big Town Girl (1937) as Scarlett (uncredited)Wives Under Suspicion (1938) as CreolaPenrod's Double Trouble (1938) as Mrs. Washington (uncredited)You Can't Take It With You (1938) as RhebaUp the River (1938) as Black Prisoner (uncredited)There's That Woman Again (1938) as Ladies Room Attendant (uncredited)Kentucky (1938) as Magnolia (uncredited)Persons in Hiding (1939) as Beauty Parlor MaidCafe Society (1939) as Mattie Harriett (uncredited)Society Lawyer (1939) as Sadie, Judy's Maid (uncredited)The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) as Mary, Claire's Maid (uncredited)The Family Next Door (1939) as BlossomBoy Friend (1939) as Delphinie (uncredited)The Jones Family in Hollywood (1939) as Maid (uncredited)The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939) as Maid (uncredited)Way Down South (1939) as JanieDestry Rides Again (1939) as ClaraHoneymoon Deferred (1940) as Janet's Maid (uncredited)Lillian Russell (1940) as Maid (uncredited)Lucky Cisco Kid (1940) as Queenie (uncredited)They Drive By Night (1940) as Chloe (uncredited)The Return of Frank James (1940) as Eleanor's Maid (uncredited)Sandy Gets Her Man (1940) as Hattie, the Maid (uncredited)Meet the Missus (1940) as Maid (uncredited)Buy Me That Town (1941) as NancyInternational Lady (1941) as Prissy (uncredited)Henry Aldrich for President (1941) as LucindaMoon Over Her Shoulder (1941) as Juline, the Maid (uncredited)Wild Bill Hickok Rides (1942) as Daisy, Belle's MaidThe Great Man's Lady (1942) as MandyFootlight Serenade (1942) as Estelle's Maid (uncredited)Between Us Girls (1942) as Phoebe, the MaidPresenting Lily Mars (1942) as Rosa, Isobel's Maid (uncredited)Redhead from Manhattan (1943) as Polly (uncredited)Swing Shift Maisie (1943) as MyrtleeWhistling in Brooklyn (1943) as Maid (uncredited)Music for Millions (1944) as Jessie (uncredited)The Naughty Nineties (1945) as Effie, Bonita's Cook (uncredited)Saratoga Trunk (1945) as Hotel Maid (uncredited)The Sailor Takes a Wife (1945) as Mary, Freddie's Cook (uncredited)Faithful in My Fashion (1946) as Celia (uncredited)No Leave, No Love (1946) as Maid (uncredited)The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946) as Jeannie, Elaine's Maid (uncredited)My Brother Talks to Horses (1947) as PsycheA Date with Judy (1948) as Nightingale (uncredited)Night Unto Night (1949) as Josephine (uncredited)Look for the Silver Lining (1949) as Violet (uncredited)