BILLIE BURKE BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Billie Burke was born on August 7th, 1884 in Washington, District of Columbia with the birth name Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke.  As a child she was already exposed to the show business industry as her father worked as a circus clown and she would tour Europe and the United States with him.  
 
When her family chose to finally settle down in London, she was exposed to a number of stage plays and began to set her career goals on becoming a stage actress.  By the time Billie was eighteen years old she was making her stage debut and her career jump started right away.  She performed in a number of stage productions in London before New York City and Broadway began to take notice of her and she then chose to relocate to the united States to continue her dream.
 
After a short while, the film industry in Hollywood had also taken notice of Billie and so she moved out west to pursue a film career.  She began with her film debut on, "Peggy" (1916) being cast in the lead role followed by a role in the film, "Gloria's Romance" (1916).
 
Even though her film career was going strong, she continued to work as a stage actress as she loved speaking in front of an audience and performing on stage was her first love.  In 1921 she did another film, "The Education of Elizabeth" and then she actually decided to retire from acting all together and live off her stock market investments.
 
However, unaware of the possibility of as stock market crash which occurred in 1929, she had no other option but to return to working as an actress to support herself.  Luckily, with the introduction of sound films, she finally felt at place in the film industry and appeared on a number of films such as, "A Bill of Divorcement" (1932), "Dinner at Eight" (1933), "Piccadilly Jim" (1936), "Topper" (1937) and "Merrily We Live" (1938) which turned out to be her one and only Academy Award nomination throughout her acting career.
 
One of her most well known and well remembered roles followed as she portrayed the good witch, Glinda in the classic film, "The Wizard of Oz" (1939).  She continued to work on films up until she was seventy five years old, however each year she would take on fewer roles.  Some of her later work were on films such as, "Father of the Bride" (1950) and "Father's Little Dividend" (1951).  Her final film role was in, "Sergeant Rutledge" (1960) which was directed by John Ford.
 
Billie then retired completely from acting but chose to stay living in Los Angeles where at the age of eighty five she passed away on May 14th, 1970 from natural causes.  Billie was only married once in 1914 to Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. who sadly passed away on July 22nd, 1932 and they had one child together.  Billie chose never to remarry and she is interred at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. 

 
Filmography

1960 Sergeant Rutledge
1960 77 Sunset Strip
1959 The Young Philadelphians 
1957-1958 Playhouse 90
1956 Matinee Theatre 
1955 The Eddie Cantor Comedy Theater 
1955 The Best of Broadway
1953 Small Town Girl
1952 Doc Corkle
1951 Father's Little Dividend
1951 Three Husbands
1950 Lights Out
1950 Father of the Bride
1950 The Boy from Indiana
1949 And Baby Makes Three
1949 The Barkleys of Broadway
1948 Billie Gets Her Man
1948 Silly Billy
1946 The Bachelor's Daughters
1946 Breakfast in Hollywood
1945 The Cheaters
1945 Swing Out, Sister
1943 Gildersleeve on Broadway
1943 You're a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith
1943 So's Your Uncle
1943 Hi Diddle Diddle 
1942 Girl Trouble 
1942 They All Kissed the Bride 
1942 In This Our Life
1942 What's Cookin'? 
1942 The Man Who Came to Dinner 
1941 One Night in Lisbon 
1941 Topper Returns
1941 The Wild Man of Borneo
1940 Hullabaloo
1940 Dulcy
1940 The Captain Is a Lady
1940 Irene
1940 And One Was Beautiful
1940 The Ghost Comes Home 
1939 Remember?
1939 Eternally Yours
1939 The Wizard of Oz 
1939 Bridal Suite
1939 Zenobia
1938 Topper Takes a Trip
1938 The Young in Heart
1938 Merrily We Live
1938 Everybody Sing 
1937 Navy Blue and Gold 
1937 The Bride Wore Red 
1937 Topper
1937 Parnell
1936 Craig's Wife
1936 Piccadilly Jim
1936 My American Wife 
1935 Splendor 
1935 A Feather in Her Hat 
1935 She Couldn't Take It 
1935 Doubting Thomas 
1935 Becky Sharp 
1935 After Office Hours
1935 Society Doctor
1934 Forsaking All Others 
1934 We're Rich Again 
1934 Finishing School
1934 Where Sinners Meet 
1933 Only Yesterday 
1933 Dinner at Eight 
1933 Christopher Strong 
1932 A Bill of Divorcement
1921 The Education of Elizabeth
1920 The Frisky Mrs. Johnson 
1920 Away Goes Prudence 
1919 Wanted: A Husband 
1919 Sadie Love 
1919 The Misleading Widow 
1919 Good Gracious, Annabell
1918 The Make-Believe Wife 
1918 In Pursuit of Polly 
1918 Let's Get a Divorce
1918 Eve's Daughter 
1917 The Land of Promise 
1917 Arms and the Girl 
1917 The Mysterious Miss Terry
1916 Gloria's Romance
1916 Peggy