Beatrice Lillie

Beatrice Lillie (Lady Peel), 1898-1989, British comedienne, b. Toronto, Ont. as Constance Munston. Lillie first performed in London in 1914 and in New York in 1924. She won an international reputation for her sophisticated wit, use of parody, and vivacity. She appeared in revues, on radio, and in television, films, and one-woman shows. Her films include On Approval (1943) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). She married Sir Robert Peel in 1920.

Bibliography: See her autobiography (1972).

Lillie, Beatrice [Gladys] (1894–1989), comedienne. Born in Toronto, she became a popular London performer before making her New York debut in Charlot's Revue (1924) where her uproarious clowning as she led a totally disorganized brigade and sang “March with Me” made her an overnight star. She consolidated her reputation in the Charlot Revue of 1926, Oh, Please! (1926), She's My Baby (1928), The Third Little Show (1931), and Walk a Little Faster (1932). Lillie's other revue performances included At Home Abroad (1935), The Show Is On (1936), Set to Music (1939), Seven Lively Arts (1944), and Inside U. S. A. (1948), culminating in An Evening with Beatrice Lillie (1952). After the failure of The Ziegfeld Follies of 1957, she succeeded Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame then played the wacky medium Madame Arcati in High Spirits (1964). Howard Taubman of the Times wrote of her performance, “Overflowing with coziness, she begins to move like a ballerina. Her hands flutter as she takes mincing little steps, then they wave broadly as the afflatus of Terpsichore possesses her. . . . And when the audience roars for more and won't let the show go on, she flutters through a devastating mockery of curtsies and fond gestures of farewell.” A tiny, slender woman, who wore her hair in a mannishly short bob, she was generally recognized as the greatest comedienne of her era. No small part of her genius came from her retaining her ladylike decorum even in the coarsest, most vulgar bits. Biography: Beatrice Lillie: The Funniest Woman in the World, Bruce Laffey, 1990.