Billie Honor Whitelaw, CBE (born 6 June 1932) is an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works. She is also known for her portrayal of Mrs Baylock, the demonic nanny in The Omen.Whitelaw was appointed CBE in the 1991 Birthday Honours list.
Playing intensely independent, often fearsome women.
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[on Samuel Beckett] Like many men the older he got the more attractive he became -- at least as seen through a woman's eyes.
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I could have easily have become a nun, or a prostitute, or both.
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About how she found her cottage in Suffolk: "I ended up at an estate agent's in Sudbury and the chap, knowing I was an actress and imagining that I had Elizabeth Taylor finances, brought out details of all these places that Paul Getty would have been happy with. I said to him: 'Now, listen. Most of my parts are played at the Royal Court or the RSC and I barely make enough to pay my parking tickets. What I'm after is something totally run down, something that no one else would touch.' - He said: 'Get in the car.' And he drove me here."
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Fact
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She was replaced by Sylvia Syms in The Punch and Judy Man.
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Gave up smoking in 1975.
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She spent the last four years of her life in Denville Hall, a care home for actors, in London.
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Made her acting debut on radio at the age of eleven, playing the boy detective Henry Bones on BBC's "Children's Hour". She first appeared on stage at the Bradford Civic Playhouse in 1950 in "Pink String and Sealing Wax".
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Her son's apartment was used as a location in Shaun of the Dead (2004). As he had probably seen the film and enjoyed it, he encouraged his mother to be a part of Hot Fuzz (2007) by Pegg/Wright.
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Was a member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1970.
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Samuel Beckett referred to her as "The perfect actress".
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Graduated from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
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Associate Member of Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
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Has two stepdaughters (both her husband Robert's children by his first marriage): Clare (born 1962) and Sophie (born 1964)
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Met her husband Robert Muller at a party given by Bob Monkhouse. She said it had been a very calm, very quiet understanding of the fact that this was the man who would be the father of her child. And she added she hadn't doubted it for a second.
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When her son Matthew (born 1968) was five years old, he developed an appalling form of meningitis. The doctors gave him three days to live, but miraculously he pulled through. However, it took about two years for him to get entirely well again.
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Commutes between her apartment in London-Hampstead and her cottage in Suffolk.
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She was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1991 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to drama.
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Her second husband was the playwright, drama critic and occasional screenwriter Robert Muller (now deceased). They had one son, Matthew Muller.
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