Billie Burke
Aug. 7, 1886 to May 14, 1970

Real Name:
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke

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Billie was 53 years old when she got the role of Glinda, on
Sept. 12, 1938

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Between 1915 and 1960, she made more than 80 pictures

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She was married to Florenz Ziegfeld, and eventally widowed

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She wrote 2 autobiographies:
With a Feather on My Nose
(1949)
With Powder on My Nose
(1959)

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Her red hair was covered
by a matching wig and
then the crown. She wore
the butterfly choker
and held the
star-tipped staff

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Of her role as Glinda, she wrote:
" It's a divine part.
There's child enough in all of us to be thrilled with the
settings and the feeling
of this picture.
  It has terrified me a little
to think of living up to
the children's idea of
what a Good Fairy must be.
But I can only hope
with all my heart
that I won't disappoint them."

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She was called back early May 1939, along with Judy to do a few pickup shots.
These were delayed til May because Burke had suffered a compound fracture in her foot
while filming Bridal Suite.

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Billie died at 84 years of age in the Rockwell Sanitarium. She died of heart ailment and hardening of the arteries.