Jun 6, 1932

Coventry, Warwickshire, England, UK

A distinguished stage actress, acclaimed for performances in Samuel
Beckett plays, Billie Whitelaw almost became a film star in the 1960s. With rather
harsh features, she excels at playing strongwilled, embittered women who have been
through the mill, tigerish or tough/straight-talking as occasion requires.
A child radio actor from age 11, she made her theatre debut in 1950, entering films
in 1953. She won a British Academy Award as Best Newcomer for the bookie's wife in
Hell Is a City, w... ... (read more...) as a security guard's vengeful widow in Payroll, and the landlady
who fatally tries to seduce Hywel Bennett in Twisted Nerve, for which she won a
British Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress. Two of her best roles were with
Albert Finney: as his estranged wife in Charlie Bubbles (another BAFTA as Best
Supporting Actress) and as the sister-in-law in Gumshoe; she was also most memorable
as Violet, devoted mum of The Krays and as the notorious "Nanny from Hell" in the
1976 horror classic The Omen. Since 1980, there have been many TV roles. She was
once married to Peter Vaughan and later lived with the writer Robert Muller until he
died.