Biography

Billie Whitelaw

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Billie was born in Coventry but taken to Bradford as a child and raised there and later joined the theatre school at the Civic Playhouse. She first played little boy parts on radio at BBC Manchester before moving into plays on television, On stage she appeared at the National Theatre but is mainly remembered for her 25 years association with the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. in films she was twice cast with Albert Finney in Charlie Bubbles(1969) and Gumshoe (1995)
- IMDb mini biography by: Tonyman 5

Met her husband Robert Muller at a party given by Bob Monkhouse. She said it had been a very calm, very quiet understanding of the fact that this was the man who would be the father of her child. And she added she hadn't doubted it for a second.
Samuel Beckett referred to her as "The perfect actress".
When her son Matthew (born 1968) was five years old, he developed an appalling form of meningitis. The doctors gave him three days to live, but miraculously he pulled through. However, it took about two years for him to get entirely well again.
Billie is a member of the Society of Friends.
Her son's apartment was used as a location in Shaun of the Dead (2004). As he had probably seen the film and enjoyed it, he encouraged his mother to be a part of Hot Fuzz (2007) by Pegg/Wright.

About how she found her cottage in Suffolk: "I ended up at an estate agent's in Sudbury and the chap, knowing I was an actress and imagining that I had Elizabeth Taylor finances, brought out details of all these places that Paul Getty would have been happy with. I said to him: 'Now, listen. Most of my parts are played at the Royal Court or the RSC and I barely make enough to pay my parking tickets. What I'm after is something totally run down, something that no one else would touch.' - He said: 'Get in the car.' And he drove me here."
I could have easily have become a nun, or a prostitute, or both.
[on Samuel Beckett] Like many men the older he got the more attractive he became -- at least as seen through a woman's eyes.
I'm not really interested in acting anymore. It's not the centre of my life. I always thought it was a bit of a flibbertigibbety occupation. (1996)
Death's not one of those things that frighten the life out of me. Getting up on stage with the curtain going up frightens me more.

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