Billie Whitelaw (1932-) b. Coventry, England.

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.