Whitelaw, Billie (1932–)

English actress. Born June 6, 1932, in Coventry, England; dau. of Percival (electrician) and Frances Whitelaw; m. Peter Vaughan (actor), 1952 (div. 1964); m. Robert Muller (writer), c. 1983 (died 1998); children: (with Muller) Matthew (b. 1967).

The leading exponent of playwright Samuel Beckett, came to prominence at a young age as Bunkle on the 5-year BBC series, "St. Jonathan's in the Country"; made London stage debut in Hotel Paradise (1959); as a result of performance in musical revue England, Our England (1961), received invitation to join National Theater, where she 1st encountered Beckett, appearing in his one-act Play (1964); with the National Theater, appeared as Maggie in Hobson's Choice and Desdemona to Olivier's Othello; also appeared with Royal Shakespeare Company; won British Film Academy Award for performance in Charlie Bubbles (1968); starred in Beckett's Not I at Royal Court (1972); as Beckett's favorite actress, went on to perform in Footfalls (1976), Happy Days (1979), and Rockaby (1982 and 1984), as well as in several tv productions written by the playwright; appeared as the young American revolutionary in Mercer's After Haggerty (1970) and turned in a highly acclaimed performance as the librarian in Frayn's comedy Alphabetical Order (1975); also appeared in Tales of Hollywood (1984) and played Martha in Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1987); films include Make Mine Mink (1960), The Adding Machine (1969), Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), Frenzy (1972), Night Watch (1973), The Omen (1976), The Water Babies (1979), The Secret Garden (1987), Maurice (1987), The Dressmaker (1988), The Krays (1990) and Quills (2000).

See also autobiography Billie Whitelaw … Who He? (St. Martin, 1995); and Women in World History.