Biography for Billie Burke
Billie Burke as Glinda The Good Witch of the North
Perhaps the most famous movie of all time! Our story opens, in black and white, on a farm in Kansas. Young Dorothy Gale tries to tell her Uncle Henry and Auntie Em that Almira Gulch had tried to take her dog Toto away when he accidentally wandered into her yard, but her peers were too busy to listen and merely told her to find a place where she wouldn't get into trouble. Dorothy wondered if such a place existed. Miss Gulch came by the house with a court order to take Toto, and she did, but he escaped so he and Dorothy ran away. They meet Professor Marvel, who's also a fortune teller (or so he says) he reports Auntie Em is sick so Dorothy raced home, but then a tornado had hit! Dorothy awakened in the house being carried off by the twister.
Pretty soon they landed. She then steps outside into a world of Technicolor and begins her journey to get home.
Biography for Billie Burke
Date of birth
7 August 1885
Washington, D.C., USA
Date of death
14 May 1970
Los Angeles, California, USA
Birth name
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke
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Billie Burke was born with the birthname of Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke on August 7, 1885 in Washington, D.C. As a child, she toured the US and Europe with the circus because her father was employed with them as a clown. 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. Her family ultimately settled in London where she was fortunate to see plays in London's historic west side. She wanted to be a stage actress. At the age of 18 she made her debut as an actress and her career was off and running. Her performances were very well received with the London set and she became one of the most popular actresses to grace the stage. But Broadway beckoned. New York City was now recognized as the stage capital of the world and it was there she would try her luck.
Billie came to NYC when she was 22 and her momentum didn't stop. She appeared in numerous plays and it was only a matter of time before she drew the attention of movie moguls, then based in New York. Her first film was in 1916's PEGGY playing the lead role. The film was a hit, but then again most were, because of the novelty involved ever since 1903's THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. Later that year she appeared in GLORIA'S ROMANCE. In between cinema screenings, she would take her place on the stage because, not only was it her first love, but at least she had speaking parts. Billie considered herself more than an actress, she felt she was an artist, too. It was also the way to reach out to the audience. With movies, it couldn't be done. In 1921, she appeared as Elizabeth Banks in THE EDUCATION OF ELIZABETH, then she retired. She had wed Florenz Ziegfeld of the famed Ziegfeld Follies and with investments in the stock market there was no need to work. What they didn't plan on was 'Black October' in 1929. Their stock investments were wiped out in the crash which precipitated the Great Depression and Billie had no choice but to return to the silver screen.
Movies had become even bigger than in the days ten years earlier. "Talkies" now ruled the theaters around the country. Her first role of substance was as Margaret Fairlfield in A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT. As an artist, she loved the fact that she had dialogue in the cinema. But now she had to work even harder because her husband had died the same year as her speaking debut. And work she did. One of Billie's highlights came as Mrs. Millicent Jordan in the David O. Selznick's DINNER AT EIGHT in 1933. Her co-stars were Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, John Barrymore and Jean Harlow. Heavy company to be sure, but she turned in an outstanding performance. She played the scatter-brained wife of a man whose shipping company is in financial trouble and was trying to get someone else to loan his company money to help stave off financial embarrassment. She loved to give dinner parties because an affair at the Jordan's was the highlight of the blue bloods that inhabited New York. Mrs. Jordan's main concern is that she is one man short of having a full dinner party.
The film was a hit and once again Billie was going back to the top. In 1937, Billie starred in TOPPER which would ultimately become a three part serial. Two more Topper films were in the theaters in 1939 and 1941. all three were box-office hits. In 1938, Billie received her first and only Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Emily Kilbourne in MERRILY WE LIVE. This was probably the best cinematic performance of her career, but she was destined to be immortalized forever in the classic THE WIZARD OF OZ in 1939. At 54, she played Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. The 1940's saw Billie busier than ever when she made 25 films between 1940 and 1949. Then she made six films in the 1950's as her star waned and her age became noticeable. She was 75 when she made her final screen appearance as Cordelia Fosgate in SERGEANT RUTLEDGE in 1960. Billie retired for good in Los Angeles where she died of natural causes on May 14, 1970 at the age of 84.
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Her father was the internationally famous clown, Billy Burke, and she would spend most of her early years touring Europe before the family settled in London. In 1903, she appeared on the stage as an actress and came to America in 1907 to star opposite John Drew in "My Wife". A red-haired beauty, she became the toast of Broadway and married promoter Florenz Ziefeld in April 1914. Billie was signed in 1915 to make the film 'Peggy'. Of the next 15 films that she made, she would make 14 in New York. In between films, she would return to the stage which was her first love. Her last films were released in 1921 and she went into semi retirement until their fortune was wiped out in 1929.
Billie would return to films to support herself and her husband. Florenz would die, a broken man, in 1932. It was in the 1932 comedy 'Dinner at Eight' 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. In some films, like 'Piccadilly Jim (1936)', she was obviously too old for the part, but played it to the hilt. In 1937, she started the Topper series of films in which she played Mrs. Topper with her usual fluffy performance. But for most of the people who were raised on television, she will always be remembered as Glinda, the Good Witch, in 'The Wizard of Oz (1939)'.
She continued to make films though out the forties and started another series with 'Father of the Bride (1950)' and the follow-up 'Father's Little Dividend (1951)'. A real trouper, she next went to television with the TV series "Doc Corkle" in 1952. The series was cancelled after 3 weeks due to poor writing. By 1953, her career was slowing down and she would only make 3 more movies in 1959 and 1960. The best remembered one would be John Ford's 'Sergeant Rutledge (1960)'.
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Trivia
Best known as the Good Witch in Wizard of Oz, The (1939)
Interred at Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York, USA.
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Personal quotes
On why she retired: "Acting just wasn't any fun anymore."
"Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese."
[On Hollywood] "To survive there, you need the ambition of a Latin-American revolutionary, the ego of a grand opera tenor, and the physical stamina of a cow pony."
"By the time you get your name up in lights you have worked so hard and so long, and seen so many names go up and down, that all you can think of is: 'How can I keep it here?'
Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia: "Are you a good witch?" With that helium voice and cheery, dimpled smile, she was inspired casting as Glinda in The Wizard of Oz (1939), but in fact that was only one highlight in the life and career of this light-haired, lighthearted actress who had the odd distinction of seeing herself played on-screen by Myrna Loy when her own career had barely reached the halfway point (she was the widow of Florenz Ziegfeld; the film was the Oscar-winningThe Great Ziegfeld 1936, for which Burke coached Loy). The daughter of a great circus clown-which perhaps explains her real name-she made her debut on the London stage while still in her teens, and eventually came to Broadway, where she became a huge star and inevitably drew Ziegfeld's attention. From 1916 to 1921, she starred in silent films, such as Gloria's Romance (1916, at that time the most expensive-and classiest-movie serial ever made, but a box-office bomb), Peggy (1916), Arms and the Girl (1917), The Make-Believe Wife (1918), and The Education of Elizabeth (1921) before returning to Broadway.
Pepe (1960) .... Cameo appearance
Sergeant Rutledge (1960) .... Mrs. Cordelia Fosgate
Young Philadelphians, The (1959) .... Mrs. J. Arthur Allen, Owner Allen Oil Co.
... aka City Jungle, The (1959) (UK)
Small Town Girl (1953) .... Mrs. Livingston
"Doc Corkle" (1952) TV Series
Father's Little Dividend (1951) .... Doris Dunstan
Three Husbands (1950) .... Mrs. Whittaker
... aka Letter to Three Husbands (1950)
Father of the Bride (1950) .... Doris Dunstan
Boy From Indiana, The (1950) .... Zelda Bagley
... aka Blaze of Glory (1950) (UK)
And Baby Makes Three (1949) .... Mrs. Fletcher
Barkleys of Broadway, The (1949) .... Mrs. Livingston Belney
Billie Gets Her Man (1948)
Silly Billy (1948)
Bachelor's Daughters, The (1946) .... Molly
... aka Bachelor Girls (1946) (UK)
Breakfast in Hollywood (1946) .... Mrs. Cartwright
... aka Mad Hatter, The (1946) (UK)
Swing Out, Sister (1945) .... Jessica
Cheaters, The (1945) .... Mrs. Pidgeon
... aka Castaway, The (1945)
Laramie Trail, The (1944)
Hi Diddle Diddle (1943) .... Liza Prescott
... aka Diamonds and Crime (1943)
... aka Try and Find It (1943)
You're a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith (1943) .... Aunt Harriet
Gildersleeve on Broadway (1943) .... Mrs. Laura Chandler
So's Your Uncle (1943) .... Minerva
Girl Trouble (1942) .... Mrs. Rowland
They All Kissed the Bride (1942) .... Mrs. Drew
In This Our Life (1942) .... Lavinia Timberlake
What's Cookin'? (1942/I) .... Agatha Courtney
... aka Wake Up and Dream (1942) (UK)
Man Who Came to Dinner, The (1942) .... Daisy Stanley
Picture People No. 2 (1941) .... Herself
... aka Hollywood Sports (1941) (USA)
One Night in Lisbon (1941) .... Catherine Enfilden
Topper Returns (1941) .... Clara Topper
Wild Man of Borneo, The (1941) .... Bernice Marshall, Boardinghouse Keeper
And One Was Beautiful (1940) .... Mrs. Lattimer
Ghost Comes Home, The (1940) .... Cora Adams
Hullabaloo (1940) .... Penny Merriweather
Dulcy (1940) .... Eleanor 'Ellie' Forbes
Captain Is a Lady, The (1940) .... Blossy Stort
Irene (1940) .... Mrs. Herman Vincent
Bridal Suite (1939) .... Mrs. McGill
... aka Maiden Voyage (1939)
Remember? (1939) .... Mrs. Louise Bronson
Eternally Yours (1939) .... Aunt Abby
Wizard of Oz, The (1939) .... Glinda, the Good Witch of the North
Zenobia (1939) .... Mrs. Tibbett
... aka Elephants Never Forget (1939) (UK)
... aka It's Spring Again (1939) (USA)
Topper Takes a Trip (1939) .... Mrs. Topper
Young in Heart, The (1938) .... Marmy Carleton
Merrily We Live (1938) .... Mrs. Emily Kilbourne
Everybody Sing (1938) .... Diana Bellaire
Navy Blue and Gold (1937) .... Mrs. Alyce Gates
Bride Wore Red, The (1937) .... Contessa di Meina
Topper (1937) .... Mrs. Topper
Parnell (1937) .... Miss Clara Wood
My American Wife (1936) .... Mrs. Robert Cantillon
Craig's Wife (1936) .... Mrs. Frazier
Piccadilly Jim (1936) .... Eugenia Willis, Nesta's Sister
Splendor (1935) .... Clarissa
... aka Splendour (1935)
Feather in Her Hat, A (1935) .... Julia Trent Anders
She Couldn't Take It (1935) .... Mrs. van Dyke
... aka Woman Tamer (1935) (UK)
Doubting Thomas (1935) .... Paula Brown
Becky Sharp (1935) .... Lady Bareacres
... aka Lady of Fortune (1943) (USA: reissue title) (cut version)
After Office Hours (1935) .... Mrs. Norwood
Society Doctor (1935) .... Mrs. Crane
... aka After Eight Hours (1935)
Forsaking All Others (1934) .... Aunt Paula
We're Rich Again (1934) .... Linda
Finishing School (1934) .... Mrs. Radcliffe (credits)/Mrs. Helen Crawford Radcliff
Where Sinners Meet (1934) .... Eustasia
... aka Dover Road, The (1934) (UK)
Christopher Strong (1933) .... Lady Elaine Strong, his wife
Only Yesterday (1933) .... Julia Warren
Dinner at Eight (1933) .... Millicent (Mrs. Oliver) Jordan
Bill of Divorcement, A (1932) .... Margaret 'Meg' Fairfield
Glorifying the American Girl (1929) .... Herself
Education of Elizabeth, The (1921) .... Elizabeth Banks
Away Goes Prudence (1920) .... Prudence Thorne
Frisky Mrs. Johnson, The (1920) .... Belle Johnson
Wanted: A Husband (1919) .... Amanda Darcy Cole
Sadie Love (1919) .... Sadie Love
Misleading Widow, The (1919) .... Betty Taradine
Good Gracious, Annabelle (1919) .... Annabelle Leigh
Make-Believe Wife, The (1918) .... Phyllis Ashbrook
In Pursuit of Polly (1918) .... Polly Marsden
... aka Pursuit of Polly, The (1918)
Let's Get a Divorce (1918) .... Mme. Cyprienne Marcey
Eve's Daughter (1918) .... Irene Simpson-Bates
Mysterious Miss Terry, The (1917) .... Mavis Terry
Land of Promise, The (1917) .... Nora Marsh
Arms and the Girl (1917) .... Ruth Sherwood
Gloria's Romance (1916) .... Gloria
Peggy (1916) .... Peggy Cameron
Our Mutual Girl (1914) .... Herself
