Burke, (Mary William Ethelbert Appleton) Billie

Burke, [Mary William Ethelbert Appleton] Billie (1885–1970), actress. Born in Washington, D.C., she was raised in England, where her father was a well‐known clown. Burke appeared in a number of English musical comedies and with Charles Hawtrey before coming to New York under contract to Charles Frohman to play the naïve Beatrice Dupré opposite John Drew in My Wife (1907). Successes followed, such as the newlywed Jacqueline in Love Watches (1908), the charmingly conniving Mrs. Dot (1910), chorine Lily Parradell in The “Mind‐the‐Paint” Girl (1912), Lady Thomasine in The Amazons (1913), farmer's wife Norah Marsh in The Land of Promise (1914), and the iron‐willed heroine Jerry (1914). In the same year she married Florenz Ziegfeld and a year later Frohman died; thereafter she acted for various important producers. She played opposite Henry Miller in a revival of A Marriage of Convenience (1918), then appeared as the heroine in Caesar's Wife (1919). Her next two roles were in Booth Tarkington plays: as the kittenish spinster Isabel in The Intimate Strangers (1921) and as the nightclub singer Rose Briar (1922). For her husband she did her only American musical, Annie Dear (1924), and after his death lent her name as producer to editions of the Ziegfeld Follies, although the actual producers were the Shuberts. Burke's last Broadway appearance was as the widow who is courted by a former president in Mrs. January and Mr. X (1944). She later performed in summer stock and in the road company of The Solid Gold Cadillac. The dainty redhead with the quivering voice was hailed by John Corbin of the Times as “a comedienne of matchless charm.” She is mostly recalled today for her many films. Autobiography: With a Feather on My Nose, with Cameron Shipp, 1949.