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Biography: Billie Burke

The daughter of a circus clown, American actress Billie Burke became a musical comedy star in the early 1900s under the aegis of two powerful Broadway producers: Charles K. Frohman and Florenz Ziegfeld. Burke's career soared after her marriage to Ziegfeld, which was both a blessing and a curse in that some newspaper critics, assuming she wouldn't have reached the heights without her husband's patronage, gave her some pretty rough reviews. Actually, she had a very pleasant singing voice and ingratiating personality, not to mention natural comic gift that transferred well to the screen for her film debut in Peggy (1915). She had no qualms about adjusting to characters roles upon reaching 40, but she was devoted to the stage and didn't intend to revive her film career - until the crippling debts left behind by Ziegfeld after his death in 1932 forced her to return full-time to Hollywood. At first concentrating on drama, Burke found that her true strength lay in comedy, particularly in portraying fey, birdbrained society ladies. She worked most often at MGM during the sound era, with rewarding side trips to Hal Roach studios, where she appeared as Mrs. Topper in the three Topper fantasy films, played Oliver Hardy's wife in Zenobia (1939) and earned an academy award nomination for her performance in Merrily We Live (1938). A tireless trouper, Burke appeared in virtually every sort of film, from rugged westerns like Sgt. Rutledge (1960) to a pair of surprisingly good two-reel comedies for Columbia Pictures in the late 1940s. If she had done nothing else worthwhile in her seven-decade career, Burke would forever be remembered for her lighthearted portrayal of Glinda the Good Witch in the matchless The Wizard of Oz (1939). In addition to her many film portrayals, Burke was herself portrayed in two filmed biographies of Flo Ziegfeld: Myrna Loy played her in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), while Samantha Eggar took the role in the TV-movie Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women (1978). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide less

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Sergeant Rutledge (1960)
Cast: John Ford Juano Hernandez
Tags: Courtroom Drama Social Problem Film Drama
Length: 112min
The first big budget Western to feature a black hero, this military courtroom drama from director John Ford starred his long-time stock player Woody Strode. When a cavalry commander and his daughter are discovered murdered, racism amidst the 9th...
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Father's Little Dividend (1951)
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor Vincente Minnelli
Tags: Comedy Domestic Comedy
Length: 82min
This sequel to the 1950 comedy hit Father of the Bride finds Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett returning as Stanley and Ellie Banks, the parents of newlywed Kay Dunstan (Elizabeth Taylor). In the first film, Stanley Banks was forced to endure the chaotic...
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Father of the Bride (1950)
Cast: Spencer Tracy Billie Burke
Tags: Sophisticated Comedy Comedy Domestic Comedy
Length: 94min
Spencer Tracy received an Oscar nomination for his performance in this classic comedy. Stanley T. Banks (Tracy) is a securely middle-class lawyer whose daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) announces that she's going to marry her beau Buckley Dunstan (Don...
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The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
Cast: Ginger Rogers Fred Astaire Oscar Levant
Tags: Musical Romance Musical Romance Musical Comedy
Length: 109min
The Barkleys of Broadway became Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' "reunion" picture purely by accident. Originally conceived as a follow-up to the successful Astaire-Judy Garland vehicle Easter Parade, Barkleys was to have starred Fred and Judy as a...
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The Bachelor's Daughters (1946)
Cast: Adolphe Menjou Claire Trevor
Tags: Romance Comedy
Length: 88min
Andrew Stone's The Bachelor's Daughters has much of the nonsensical breeziness of Stone's earlier screwball comedy Hi Diddle Diddle; the stylistic link between the two properties is emphasized by the presence in both films of stars Adolphe Menjou and...
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Boy from Indiana (1950)
Tags: Drama Romance Sports Drama
Length: 66min
Lon McCallister is the Boy From Indiana in this pleasant horse-racing yarn. Lon Decker (McCallister) comes to the rescue of Texas Dandy, a champion quarter-mile racehorse who is being abused by his avaricious owner (George Cleveland). After various...
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Swing Out, Sister (1945)
Cast: Arthur Treacher
Tags: Musical
Length: 60min
Though on its last legs, Universal's "B"-musical unit continued grinding out tune-filled quickies like Swing Out, Sister well into 1946. Universal cowboy star Rod Cameron plays Geoffrey, conductor of a high-toned symphony orchestra. Secretly harboring...
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And Baby Makes Three (1949)
Cast: Robert Young
Tags: Comedy Romance
Length: 83min
Bride-to-be Barbara Hale collapses into a faint while taking the altar vows. Hale learns that she is pregnant by her former husband Robert Young, who steadfastly refuses to give her custody of the unborn child. As it turns out, she isn't pregnant at...
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The Cheaters (1945)
Cast: Joseph Schildkraut Raymond Walburn
Tags: Comedy Drama
Length: 87min
A snooty blue-blooded English family learns a bitter lesson about the realities of lower class living in this British comedy. It all happens because the ditzy wife makes a terrible mistake with their money and loses a fortune. Her husband, a banker is...
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So's Your Uncle (1943)
Cast: Jean Yarbrough
Tags: Comedy
Length: 64min
In this tuneful comedy, a would-be actor and playwright is deeply in debt, and to keep away from his creditors, begins pretending to be his aged uncle. Unfortunately he ends up getting hit by a limousine. The rich woman inside takes the wounded...
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Billie Burke

Biography: Billie Burke

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