Billie Burke

She had a decidedly British face.

I once read a book about the making of The Wizard of Oz. I can't remember the details, but she did not come across favourably.

r2

Only because she was 'a star' and was treated as such. She got all the things the other actors didn't get and they resented it.

I had to Google who you were talking about because I'm not very familiar with actors born two centuries ago.

Her meltdown in "Dinner at Eight" is one of my top ten favorite scenes of any movie.

She's also a lot of fun in the "Topper" series as Roland Young's dizzy society wife, the role Lee Patrick played in the TV series. It wasn't until she did those films where her "bird-brained matron" type cast matron was her primary role. She had nice dramatic roles in "A Bill of Divorcement" (Hepburn's first film), "Christopher Strong" (as the wife of the man Hepburn was having an affair with) and "Craig's Wife", as the kind neighbor John Boles become friendly with much to the cunt-rolling Rosalind Russell's ire.

Considering she was in her mid 50's when she played Glinda, she looked damn good.

R7 You would too if you got to travel by real bubble, not just a bunch of steel pieces screwed together.

She looked good because her close-ups for shot through more muslin than Lucy's in Mame.

The year [italic]Mame[/italic] came out was the year Technicolor discontinued its dye transfer film printing process that helped make [italic]The Wizard of Oz[/italic] look so spectacular. Except they had long since discontinued 3-strip photography.

Billie Burke wasn't at all the way the OP says, of course. She was popular, fair, smart and decent.

She didn't have to admit she knew about all the affairs Flo had. After all, that's where she came in.

But I did hear that for all her red hair the hair down south was black and quite ample.

[quote]I had to Google who you were talking about because I'm not very familiar with actors born two centuries ago.

Heaven forbid you should learn about anything or anyone who isn't on Twitter with their pants sagging down past their ass.

Billie in dinner at eight

Still the best entrance and exit scene of any film. At the end you can see Billie Burke (Glinda) turn away before the cloud of smoke and the flame erupt as the Wicked Witch departs (poor Margaret Hamilton). Was it a flub on Billie's part?

Best line: "Oh! What a smell of sulphur!" A line I repeat whenever I break wind in company!!!

You sound like a delight, R14.

Stop inhaling your own sulphur. She doesn't turn away before the smoke and lights.

R14, the "flub" was that the smoke appears a few seconds before Hamilton hit her spot. She said she was injured in the take because of that and refused to re-shoot to correct it.

Billie Burke seemed to excel at playing pampered white upper class to wealthy housewives of the 1930's through 1950's. Besides Topper she did same as Doris Dunstan in both Father of the Bride and Father's Little Dividend.

Mrs. Dunstan senior's reaction to Mr. and Mrs. Buckley Dunstan saying they bought a house with credit is priceless.

"A MORTGAGE! As if it was something dirty and shame making.

Ellie Banks represented decidedly the growing post war middle-class who were moving up in the world thanks to things like GI Bill. The Banks had a mortgage themselves and saw nothing wrong with the arrangement.

[quote] Billie Burke seemed to excel at playing pampered white upper class to wealthy housewives of the 1930's through 1950's.

But if she was in blackface, then she would be canceled.

Of course, the Wicked Witch being a woman of color killed by a white girl is totally skirted over.

[quote]"A MORTGAGE! As if it was something dirty and shame making.

Mortgages didn't become common until the late 30s and didn't take off until after WWII.

She was a good actress but played the same type in a lot of movies. She manages to put an edge on her typecasting in The Man Who Came to Dinner that made me sorry for the character she played.

She was fabulous in 1938's "Merrily we Live"

She was, R21. The movie is easy to dismiss as a lesser My Man Godfrey, but Burke was great in it and deserved her Oscar nomination.

Merrily We Live is a riot.

At first I thought you were talking about this old bat but that’s Billy Bird

Billie

She went trans...

"I'se jes' a little wabbit in the sunshine,

I'se jes' a little wabbit in the wain."

R12 that’s pretty harsh...he said he googled her to find out who she was. I’m sure most people under the age of 50 (at least) have no clue who she was.

r28

I'm sure most people have seen the Wizard of Oz and know who she is.

A thread about Billie Burke. This is why I love you bitches.

She was Selznick's first choice for Aunt Pittypat in Gone With The Wind but she demanded too much money. That turned out great in the end because we got to see Senator Lindsey Graham's classic performance.

R18 is a tiresome cunt.

I was shocked to learn how old she was in 'Oz'. Some genes.

A performance that can never be topped!

Unlike the Senatrice.

BTW, the part about her being offered GWTW but pricing herself out is true.

I could easily have seen her as Belle Watling.

Love this ,and that black glitter make up is fabulous !

She fuck bums behind Flo's theatre for nickels to spend at the automat.

Billie was namechecked in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. I believe a young man had a crush on her either as a stage or silent film star.

All I could think was "Glinda!"

Accidentally read this as Binnie Barnes. Both great!

Did Billie ever comment on Luise Rainer's Oscar as Flo's first wife? The ultimate in category fraud.

r12, Bravo! You nailed it.

Uggghhhh, R26, I DETEST that actor. 1000% smarm in everything I've seen him in.

Like a latter-day John Shea. Or Dennis Boutsikaris.

Billie Burke would have been a great choice for Aunt Pittypat in Gone With The Wind, but no one could possibly have topped the singular and memorable performance given by Laura Hope Crews. Like Billie Burke, Laura Hope Crews had a long and distinguished Broadway stage career before performing the one role she is remembered for. I don't think Billie Burke would have made a very good Belle Watling, she's just not quite the right fit.

Stricken from Netflix or not, "Gone with the Wind" is one of the most well cast films I can think of.

Wish i could have W&W you more than once r43. Burke would have been a wonderful Aunt Pittipat but Laura Hope Crews gave a classic Golden Age performance.

Crews did have a few other classic film performances, including a bit in Garbo's Camille, but she is remembered mostly for her fine stage career.

^ I wish DL still displayed GIFs without having to click to show the linked original.

Ever since I read somewhere about Billie Burke having her frilly, pink, portable potty on set, that's all I can think about when I read her name. I can't remember where I read it...does that ring a bell to anyone?

Yes, r46, I've read that. Much like prince Charles having his personal toilet seat taken to wherever he visits.

R47, I've never heard that about Charles. I wonder if Camilla shares or has her own?

R16 According to Hamilton, the take that was used was not the one in which she was injured. She was injured in a post-lunch break take, in which she said everyone was tired, and not entirely on their game. It IS unfortunate that the effect wasn't more organic.

There's a bit in Aljean Harmetz's book on "Oz" where Margaret Hamilton relays Burke's dismay at the heat from the fire portion of the effect, to which Hamilton essentially replied "You think you have it bad? I'm going to be in the middle of it!"

Burke performed her entire role in "Oz" with one leg in a cast. So, there's that.

Billie Burke's speech - Dinner at Eight (1933)

OP - I suspect you're a bad witch.

Billie Burke was a delight. What are you cunts going on about????

A personal pink potty? How very ladylike of her. Too bad she had IBS and was known as "Blowout Burke", splattering shit all over the place when she took a dump.

It's too bad that "Gilligan's Island" wasn't done in the 1940's. Thurston Hall and Billie Burke would have been great as the millionaire and his wife.

R53, that probably *was* the reason for the personal, frilly, pink potty. Though I wonder who had to clean the frills from the splatter of undiagnosed IBS?

We need an actress like Billie Burke or Alice Brady to play Angelica Bullock so a remake can be done of My Man Godfrey