British actress Bille Whitelaw began theatrical acting in 1950 and
made her London stage debut in Feydeau's Hotel Paradiso in 1956. She
then progressed to the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
A graduate of RADA, the stage actress started out in on the silver screen
in the 1950s and spent the next two decades with regular support roles
in films including Miracle in Soho (1957),
The Flesh and the Fiends (1959), Hell
Is a City (1960), Charlie
Bubbles (1967), Twisted
Nerve (1968), Gumshoe
(1971) and Frenzy
(1972).
She quickly distinguished herself in brassy single-minded roles, memorably
as the notoriously evil guardian to Damian in The Omen (1976) and her
critically acclaimed portrayal of Violet Kray; the mother of notorious
London gangsters The
Krays (1990). A pre-eminent interpreter of playwright Samuel Beckett's
work, her performances include Play (1964), Mouth in Not I (1973) and
Footfalls (1976). She has appeared in a wide range of other classical
and modern parts, and continues to work on stage, films and television.
She married and divorced Peter Vaughan, her second husband was screenwriter
Robert Muller. She was awarded the CBE in 1991.
