She was born on June 6, 1932 in Coventry. During the war, the family moved to Bradford, where she graduated from elementary school. Since the age of 11, she began to perform in children’s radio programs. Working on the radio, she met the famous theater director Joan Littlewood, who largely influenced the formation of the future actress. Whitelaw later referred to her as her second mother. For several years she worked as an assistant director, and after graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic
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She was born on June 6, 1932 in Coventry. During the war, the family moved to Bradford, where she graduated from elementary school. Since the age of 11, she began to perform in children’s radio programs. Working on the radio, she met the famous theater director Joan Littlewood, who largely influenced the formation of the future actress. Whitelaw later referred to her as her second mother. For several years she worked as an assistant director, and after graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in 1950 she made her debut on the stage. A few years later, she performed for the first time in London in the play by Georges Feydo “Hotel Paradise”. Her first film was the crime drama The Fake (1953, Godfrey Grayson), where she appeared in a small role as a waitress. Beginning in the mid-fifties, she regularly starred in supporting roles, and in 1961 was awarded the British Academy of Film and Television award as the most promising new actor for the film “Hell is a city” (1960, dir. Val Guest).
Working at the National Theatre, in 1964 she met the famous writer and playwright Samuel Beckett during the production of his play “The Game”. This acquaintance grew into a long-term creative cooperation - later Whitelaw, who was one of the leading theater actresses in the UK, played in his plays "Come and Go", "Not Me", "Happy Days", "Crapp's Last Ribbon", "Kach-kach" ("Rocaby"). Beckett himself considered her the best interpreter of his works for the theater and specially wrote for her play "Steps". Among her most famous roles in the National Theatre is Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello, in which she appeared on stage with the famed Laurence Olivier. In addition to the National Theatre, the actress also played in the Royal Shakespeare Company and other theaters.
In the cinema, she gained fame, starring in such films as Charlie Bubbles (1967, Albert Finney), Twisted Nerve (1968, dir. Roy Bowling), Start the Revolution without me (1970, dir. Bud Yorkin), Detective (1971, dir. Stephen Freers), The Speech (1972, directed by Alfred Hitchcock), Bryan's Night Watch (1973). Her heroines were, as a rule, determined and purposeful women, who sometimes had quite a tough character. Among them are Lottie, the former wife of the famed writer in the Albert Finney film Charlie Bubbles and hostess Joan in the psychological drama Twisted Nerve, for which she received an award from the British Academy of Film and Television. Many people also remember her as the sinister nanny of Miss Bailey, patronizing the son of Satan in the famous horror film “Omen” (1976, Richard Donner).
Since the early eighties, Whitelaw often starred in television films. One of these productions was “Portnyha” (1989, dir. Jim O’Breen) based on Beryl Bainbridge’s novel “The Secret Glass”, in which she played Aunt Margot, feuding with her sister Nellie (actress Joan Plowwright) in the fight for the fate of their young niece. One of her most memorable works in cinema was the role of the mother of two twin gangsters in Peter Medack’s crime drama The Kray Brothers (1990). She also starred in The Tale of Two Cities (1980, Jim Goddard), Maurice (1987, James Ivory), Jane Eyre (1996, Franco Zeffirelli), The Feather of the Marquis de Sade (2000, Philip Kaufman). In 1991, the actress was awarded the title of Commander of the British Empire, and five years later published her autobiography Billy Whitelaw. Who is this? The actress was married twice - her first husband was actor Peter Vaughn, with whom she divorced in 1966, the second - playwright, screenwriter and critic Robert Muller.
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