Billie Burke
Billie Burke ( born August 7, 1884 in Washington DC, † May 14, 1970 in Los Angeles, California, as Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke) was an American film and stage actress and wife of the theatrical producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. received. an Oscar nomination for the film the way we live but happy! and was seen as a witch Glinda in The Wizard of Oz.
Life
Billie Burke was born as the daughter of a circus clowns in Washington. She later moved with her family to England. She started at the age of 18 years, her career on stage in a London production of the play The School Girl, in which she appeared alongside Edna May. In 1907 she returned to the U.S. and was on the side of the theater stars John Drew in My Wife her Broadway debut. Burke had a reputation as a stage beauty and acted as the lead actress in mainly comedic plays. Their funding agencies was Charles Frohman. Overall, they appeared on Broadway until 1944 in 27 pieces. 1914 married Billie Burke 's famous revue and theater impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., from his marriage came daughter Patricia ( 1916-2008 ) to the world. The marriage to Ziegfeld to have been problematic, there were financial problems and he had numerous affairs. However, the marriage lasted until Ziegfeld's death in 1932. Life of Ziegfeld was filmed in 1936 as The Great Ziegfeld, with Myrna Loy as Billie Burke.
The director Thomas Ince persuaded Billie Burke in 1916, appear in the film. For the film, Peggy she got $ 40,000, the highest total by then received an actress as a fee for single film. Until 1922, she turned over a dozen silent films, then retired but again the theater back. In 1932 Billie Burke comeback in Hollywood as a film mother of Katharine Hepburn in a divorce. Often Burke was seen as a high- Socity lady, such as Dinner at Eight as a status-conscious wife of a shipowner who are costly dinner parties regularly. In 1937, she starred in the comedy Topper - The blond ghost a banker's wife, the film drew two sequels, in which Burke also participated. At the Academy Awards in 1939, she was going for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Us 's so magnificently nominated. In 1939, she portrayed as a good witch Glinda in the classic film The Wizard of Oz one of her most famous roles. Burke's trademark was her exceptionally high voice.
From the 1940s, Burke had his own radio show, for which she worked, among others, with Eddie Cantor. In 1950, she played the mother of Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride and the sequel a year later. In the 1950s, Burke had several guest roles on television and continued to participate in plays with. In 1960, she retired to a larger supporting role in the Western The black sergeant John Ford into private life. She died in 1970 at the age of 85 years and is at the Kensico Cemetery in New York buried.