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Post by BATouttaheck on Aug 6, 2020 23:54:30 GMT
Billie Burke was born Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke on August 7, 1885 in Washington, D.C. Her father was a circus clown, and as a child she toured the United States and Europe with the circus (before motion pictures and after the stage, circuses were the biggest form of entertainment in the world). One could say that Billie was bred for show business...  It was in the comedy drama Dinner at Eight (1933) that Billie would find the character that she would play the rest of her career. It is the hapless, feather-brained lady with the unmistakably high voice who would be more interested in little details than what was at hand.  and of course :  
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Post by BATouttaheck on Aug 6, 2020 23:59:57 GMT
 With husband, Flo Ziegfeld  Myrna Loy and William Powell in THE GREAT ZIEGFELD as Billie and Flo
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Post by BATouttaheck on Aug 7, 2020 0:04:59 GMT
Yet another Burke huggable scatterbrain The Man Who Came to Dinner Mrs. Ernest W. Stanley aka Daisy  |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Aug 7, 2020 0:08:13 GMT
Her first film  1916 .jpg/200px-Sheet_music_cover_-_PEGGY_(1915).jpg) |
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Post by teleadm on Aug 7, 2020 7:41:24 GMT
 Merrily We Live 1938, the one she got her only Oscar nomination from. Seen here with Constance Bennett  Mrs. Clara Topper and Mr. Cosmo Topper of three Topper movies.
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Post by teleadm on Aug 7, 2020 16:19:07 GMT
The scatterbrain squeaky voice was obviously just an act (just like the later Judy Holiday) that worked very well in comedies and might have prolonged her career. I think it's funny.
As Glinda she talks with a much warmer voice.
As a young kid I remember asking my mother who that funny lady with the squeaky voice was (think it might have been Topper), and my mother answered "Billy Burke", and I asked how a lady can have a boys name, and I think my my answered that it was American for Wilhelmina and since they are very effective in America they don't don't have time for long names, and as a 7 or 8 y/o that sounded possible.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Aug 7, 2020 16:41:45 GMT
The scatterbrain squeaky voice was obviously just an act (just like the later Judy Holiday) that worked very well in comedies and might have prolonged her career. I think it's funny. As Glinda she talks with a much warmer voice. As a young kid I remember asking my mother who that funny lady with the squeaky voice was (think it might have been Topper), and my mother answered "Billy Burke", and I asked how a lady can have a boys name, and I think my my answered that it was American for Wilhelmina and since they are very effective in America they don't don't have time for long names, and as a 7 or 8 y/o that sounded possible.I love that answer  In truth, her dad was a famous clown named Billy Burke and Billie is the female version of the name ! Her second of five birth names is "William" (Billie Burke was born Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke)
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Post by marshamae on Aug 7, 2020 16:46:32 GMT
A very clever actress and show woman. She had to be to survive marriage to Ziegfield. She played another ditsy society woman in an early Paul Newman film, The Young Philadelphians.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Aug 7, 2020 16:53:26 GMT
A very clever actress and show woman. She had to be to survive marriage to Ziegfield. She played another ditsy society woman in an early Paul Newman film, The Young Philadelphians. The biog says that she returned to film making after Flo lost ALL his money in the stockmarket crash. She created a character that worked and stuck with it successfully ... to our great joy !  1959 The Young Philadelphians
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In truth, her dad was a famous clown named Billy Burke and Billie is the female version of the name ! 
