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Billie Burke

[burk]

Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke (August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970) was an Oscar-nominated American actress primarily known to modern audiences for her role as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz.

Early life

Known as Billie Burke, she toured the U.S. and Europe with a circus because her father, Billy Burke, was employed with them as a singing clown. Her family ultimately settled in London where she was fortunate to see plays in London's historic West End.

She wanted to be a stage actress. In 1903, she began acting on stage, making her debut in London, and eventually returning to America to become the toast of Broadway as a musical comedy star. She was praised by The New York Times for her charm and her brightness.

Career

Thanks to her representation by famed producer Charles Frohman, Burke went on to play leads on Broadway in Mrs. Dot, Suzanne, The Runaway, The "Mind-the-Paint" Girl, and The Land of Promise from 1910 to 1913, along with a supporting role in the revival of Sir Arthur Wing Pinero’s The Amazons.

There she caught the eye of producer Florenz Ziegfeld, marrying him in 1914. In 1916, they had one daughter, Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson(1916-2008). She was quickly signed for the movies, making her film debut in the title role of Peggy (1916). She continued to appear on the stage, and sometimes she starred on the screen. She loved the stage more than movie-business, not only because it was her first love, but also because it allowed her to have speaking parts (impossible in silent movies). But when the family's savings were wiped out in the Crash of 1929, she had no choice but to return to the screen.

In 1932 Billie Burke made her Hollywood comeback, starring as Margaret Fairfield in A Bill of Divorcement, directed by George Cukor, though the film is better known as Katharine Hepburn's film debut (Burke played Hepburn's mother). Despite the death of Florenz Ziegfeld during the film's production, Billie Burke resumed filming shortly after his funeral.

In 1936, MGM filmed a biopic of her deceased husband (The Great Ziegfeld), a film that won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actress (Luise Rainer as Ziegfeld's common-law wife, Anna Held). Burke was herself a character in the film, but she was not cast as herself. Instead, prominent actress Myrna Loy essayed the role of Burke. Coincidentally, Ray Bolger who was later cast as the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz (1939) also starred as himself in the movie.

In 1933, Burke was cast as Mrs. Millicent Jordan, a scatterbrained high-society woman hosting a dinner party in the comedy Dinner at Eight, directed by George Cukor, co-starring with Lionel Barrymore, Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Jean Harlow and Wallace Beery. The movie was a great success, and revived Burke's career. She subsequently starred in many comedies and musicals, typecast as a ditzy, fluffy and feather-brained upper-class matron, due to her helium-filled voice.

In 1937 she appeared in the first of the Topper series of films, about a man haunted by two socialite ghosts (played by Cary Grant and Constance Bennett), in which she played the tremulous and daffy Clara Topper. Her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live (1938) resulted in her only Oscar nomination.

In 1938 (at age 53) she was chosen to play Glinda, "the Good Witch of the North", in the Oscar-winning seminal 1939 musical film The Wizard of Oz, directed by Victor Fleming, with Judy Garland. Another successful series followed with Father of the Bride (1950) and Father's Little Dividend (1951), both directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor.

She wrote two autobiographies, both with Cameron Van Shippe: With a Feather on My Nose (Appleton 1949) and With Powder on My Nose (Coward McCann, 1959).

Radio and television

On CBS radio, The Billie Burke Show was heard on Saturday mornings from April 3, 1943 to September 21, 1946. Sponsored by Listerine, this situation comedy was initially titled Fashions in Rations during its first year. Portraying herself as a featherbrained Good Samaritan who lived "in the little white house on Sunnyview Lane," she always offered a helping hand to those in her neighborhood. She worked often in early television, appearing in the short-lived sitcom Doc Corkle (1952).

Burke tried to make a comeback on the New York stage. She starred in two short-lived productions: This Rock and Mrs. January and Mr. Ex. Although Burke got good reviews, the plays did not. She appeared in several plays in California as well, although her mind became clouded, and she had trouble remembering lines. In the late 1950s, her failing memory led to her retirement from show business, although her explanation for that was, "Acting just wasn't any fun anymore."

Her last screen appearance was in Sergeant Rutledge, a Western directed by John Ford in 1960.

Death

Billie Burke died in Los Angeles, California of dementia, thought to be Alzheimer's and natural causes, aged 85, in 1970 and was interred at Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, Westchester County, New York, survived by her daughter, Patricia, and four grandchildren.

Legacy

For many years, Burke's framed photo was displayed above the exit staircase at New York's Ziegfeld Theatre, but it curiously vanished after renovations to it. However, an opening night program, bearing a picture of Burke, from her 1912 triumph The Mind The Paint Girl (Sir Arthur Wing Pinero) is still displayed in the lobby of the Lyceum Theatre in New York City.