Billie Burke

For other uses, see Billy Burke (actor).

Billie Burke
Billie Burke in Topper Returns (1941)
Born	Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke August 7, 1884(1884-08-07) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Died	May 14, 1970(1970-05-14) (aged 85) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1903–60
Spouse	Florenz Ziegfeld (m. 1914–1932) «start: (1914)–end+1: (1933)»"Marriage: Florenz Ziegfeld to Billie Burke" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Burke) (his death); 1 child

Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke (August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970) was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live. Burke was also the wife of Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., of Ziegfeld Follies fame, from 1914 until his death.

Early life

Known as Billie Burke, she toured the United States and Europe with her father, a singer. Her family ultimately settled in London where she was fortunate to see plays in London's West End. In 1903, she began acting on stage, making her debut in London in The School Girl. She eventually returned to America to become the toast of Broadway as a musical comedy star.

Career

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). Burke 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.^{[citation needed]}

Billie Burke in 1909

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

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 with her high-pitched voice.

In 1936, MGM filmed a sanitized biopic of Florenz Ziegfeld (The Great Ziegfeld), a film that won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actress (Luise Rainer as Ziegfeld's common-law wife, Anna Held). William Powell played Flo Ziegfeld and Myrna Loy played Burke.

In 1937 she appeared in the first of the Topper 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 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. Burke had worked on a Garland film, Everybody Sing, in which she played Judy's histrionically hysterical actress-mother. Another successful film 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.

Burke 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

Burke joined the cast of Eddie Cantor's radio show in 1948.

On CBS Radio, The Billie Burke Show was heard on Saturday mornings from April 3, 1943 until 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). She was a guest star on several TV and radio series, including Duffy's Tavern.

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

Memorial statue at Billie Burke's grave in Kensico Cemetery

Billie Burke died in Los Angeles of 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 vanished after renovations. 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. A park in the New York City suburb of Hastings on Hudson, New York, is named the Burke Estate.

Radio

Burke early in her career.

• The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air – 1932
• Doubting Thomas - 1935
• Good News of 1939 – 1938
• The Rudy Vallee Hour – 1939
• The Gulf Screen Guild Theater – 1939
• The Rudy Vallee Sealtest Show – 1940–41
• The Pepsodent Show – 1941
• The Billie Burke Show – 1943–1946
• Duffy's Tavern – 1944
• The Sealtest Village Store – 1944
• Mail Call – 1944
• The Charlie McCarthy Show – 1944–47
• Tribute to Ethel Barrymore – 1945
• The Rudy Vallee Show – 1945
• Show Stoppers – 1946
• The Danny Kaye Show – 1946
• WOR 25th Anniversary – 1947
• Your Movietown Radio Theatre – 1948
• The Eddie Cantor Pabst Blue Ribbon Show – 1948
• Family Theater – 1948–52
• This Is Show Business – CBS-TV, 1949
• The Martin and Lewis Show – 1949
• The Bill Stern Colgate Sports Newsreel – 1949
• Stagestruck – 1954
• Biography in Sound – 1955–56

Broadway

in elegant pose in February 1920 issue of Vanity Fair in a portrait by Adolf de Meyer

• My Wife – 1907
• Love Watches – 1908
• Mrs. Dot – 1910
• Suzanne – 1910
• The Philosopher in the Apple Orchard – 1911
• The Runaway – 1911
• The Amazons – 1913
• The Land of Promise – 1913
• Jerry – 1914
• The Rescuing Angel – 1917
• A Marriage of Convenience – 1918
• Caesar's Wife – 1919
• The Intimate Strangers – 1921
• Rose Briar – 1922
• Annie Dear – 1924
• The Marquise – 1927
• The Happy Husband – 1928
• Family Affairs – 1929
• The Truth Game – 1930
• Ziegfeld Follies of 1934 – 1934
• Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 – 1936
• This Rock – 1943
• Ziegfeld Follies of 1943 – 1943
• Mrs. January and Mr. X – 1944

Filmography

Silent

• Peggy (1916)
• Gloria's Romance (1916)
• The Mysterious Miss Terry (1917)
• Arms and the Girl (1917)
• The Land of Promise (1917)
• Eve's Daughter (1918)
• Let's Get a Divorce (1918)
• In Pursuit of Polly (1918)
• The Make-Believe Wife (1918)
• Good Gracious, Annabelle (1919)
• The Misleading Widow (1919)
• Sadie Love (1919)
• Wanted: A Husband (1919)
• Away Goes Prudence (1920)
• The Frisky Mrs. Johnson (1920)
• The Education of Elizabeth (1921)

Sound

• A Bill of Divorcement (1932)
• Christopher Strong (1933)
• Dinner at Eight (1933)
• Only Yesterday (1933)
• Where Sinners Meet (1934)
• Finishing School (1934)
• We're Rich Again (1934)
• Forsaking All Others (1934)
• Society Doctor (1935)
• After Office Hours (1935)
• Becky Sharp (1935)
• Doubting Thomas (1935)
• She Couldn't Take It (1935)
• A Feather in Her Hat (1935)
• Splendor (1935)
• My American Wife (1936)
• Piccadilly Jim (1936)
• Craig's Wife (1936)
• Parnell (1937)
• Topper (1937)
• The Bride Wore Red (1937)
• Navy Blue and Gold (1937)
• Everybody Sing (1938)

• Merrily We Live (1938)
• The Young in Heart (1938)
• Topper Takes a Trip (1939)
• Zenobia (1939)
• Bridal Suite (1939)
• The Wizard of Oz (1939)
• Eternally Yours (1939)
• Remember? (1939)
• The Ghost Comes Home (1940)
• Irene (1940)
• The Captain Is a Lady (1940)
• Dulcy (1940)
• Hullabaloo (1940)
• And One Was Beautiful (1940)
• The Wild Man of Borneo (1941)
• Topper Returns (1941)
• One Night in Lisbon (1941)
• The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
• What's Cookin'? (1942)
• In This Our Life (1942)
• They All Kissed the Bride (1942)
• Girl Trouble (1942)
• Hi Diddle Diddle (1943)
• So's Your Uncle (1943)
• You're a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith (1943)
• Gildersleeve on Broadway (1943)
• The Laramie Trail (1944)
• Swing Out, Sister (1945)
• The Cheaters (1945)
• Breakfast in Hollywood (1946)
• The Bachelor's Daughters (1946)
• Billie Gets Her Man (1948)
• The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
• Father of the Bride (1950)
• Father's Little Dividend (1951)
• Small Town Girl (1953)
• The Young Philadelphians (1959)
• Sergeant Rutledge (1960)
• Pepe (1960)

Listen to

• Heritage Radio Theatre: "The Tramp" (April 27, 1946) The Billie Burke Show (with three other shows)

See also

• Academy of Music/Riviera Theatre

External links

• Billie Burke at the Internet Movie Database
• Billie Burke at the Internet Broadway Database
• Billie Burke at AllRovi
• Billie Burke at Find a Grave
• Billie Burke still photos from several Billie plays and lost Billie silent films Univ. of Washington Sayre collection
• Billie Burke photos Univ. of Louisville Macauley Collection
• Flo Ziegfeld-Billie Burke Papers, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Billie Burke Digital Image Gallery, Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Billie Burke Collection, held by the Howard Gotlieb Research Center, Boston University
• Literature on Billie Burke
• Mcfarlandpub.com Mrs. Ziegfeld: The Public and Private Lives of Billie Burke, a biography by Grant Hayter-Menzies (McFarland & Company, 2009)
• Billie Burke; PeriodPaper.com