Billie WhitelawFilmography

Quills

Actors: Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine, Billie Whitelaw

Synopsis: The Marquis de Sade was a man who liked to stir up trouble, at a time when his native France was in a state of tremendous political turmoil, and this historical drama examines how much controversy he could cause even under repressive circumstances. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the Read More

The Last of the Blonde Bombshells

Actors: Judi Dench, Ian Holm, Olympia Dukakis, Leslie Caron, Cleo Laine

Synopsis: A group of trailblazing female musicians try to take another shot at success in this musical comedy-drama produced for the premium cable network HBO. In the 1940s, the Blonde Bombshells were the finest all-female jazz band in the U.K., playing hot swing music that helped raise England's Read More

The Lost Son

Actors: Daniel Auteuil, Nastassja Kinski, Katrin Cartlidge, Ciarán Hinds, Marianne Denicourt

Synopsis: The Lost Son brings together talented British director Chris Menges with a well-known face of French cinema, Daniel Auteuil, who plays a detective in self-exile in London who deals mostly with cases of adultery. At the same time, he is trying to come to terms with the ghosts of his past. While Read More

Merlin

Actors: Sam Neill, Isabella Rossellini, Miranda Richardson, Martin Short, Rutger Hauer

Synopsis: This four-hour fantasy miniseries, elaborating on the Arthurian legend and filmed in England and Wales, offers a portrait of the wizard Merlin (Sam Neill), following his life as a youth (Daniel Brocklebank) to his later conflicts with the evil Queen Mab (Miranda Richardson) and his love for Nimue (Isabella Rossellini Read More

Jane Eyre

Actors: William Hurt, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Joan Plowright, Anna Paquin, Geraldine Chaplin

Synopsis: Director Franco Zeffirelli stresses emotional realism over gothic chills in this restrained adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's classic. The screenplay, by Zeffirelli and Hugh Whitmore, remains relatively faithful to the original story, beginning with a condensed look at the troubled childhood of Read More

Skallagrigg

Actors: Bernard Hill, Kerry Noble, Tom Tomalin, Karl Purden

Synopsis: This film offers a glimpse into the abuse of disabled people in residential homes while also offering a look into the human spirit. The Skallagrigg is said to be "the mythical protector of disabled people," and 16 year old Esther who suffers from cerebral palsy wants to find him. Esther had lived Read More

Deadly Advice

Actors: Jane Horrocks, Brenda Fricker, Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce, Edward Woodward

Synopsis: A disturbed woman starts getting friendly advice from some of the great murderers of history in this black comedy from Great Britain. Introverted Jody Greenwood (Jane Horrocks) and her bolder sister Beth (Imelda Staunton) both live under the thumb of their domineering mother Iris (Brenda Fricker). Read More

Freddie as F.R.O.7

Actors: John Sessions, Billie Whitelaw, Ben Kingsley, Jenny Agutter, Brian Blessed, Nigel Hawthorne, Michael Hordern, Jonathan Pryce

Synopsis: A steamer trunk full of the voices of British acting greats (Ben Kingsley, Billie Whitelaw, Michael Hordern, Brian Blessed, and Jonathan Pryce) enliven this absurd pop-cartoon parody of the James Bond films. In a prologue taking place in a faraway time, a widowed magician-king (voice of Michael Hordern Read More

Duel of Hearts

Actors: Geraldine Chaplin, Alison Doody, Jeremy Kemp, Virginia McKenna, Billie Whitelaw, Michael York, Richard Johnson

Synopsis: The made-for-TV Duel of Hearts is based on a novel by Barbara Cartland. It is difficult to believe that there's a Gothic-romance TV movie in existence that isn't based on a Cartland novel. Alison Doody plays gorgeous debutante Lady Caroline Faye, who falls for dashing nobleman Genuse Warlingham (Michael York Read More

A Murder of Quality

Actors: Denholm Elliott

Synopsis: A murder investigation at a cloistered boy's school is the subject of this British made-for-television adaptation of John Le Carre's novel. Le Carre's famous detective-hero George Smiley (Denholm Elliott) returns from retirement to look for answers in a mysterious murder at a boarding school Read More

The Cloning of Joanna May

Synopsis: A middle-aged divorcee has the foundation of her life rocked when she discovers that her ex-husband has created young clones to replace her. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

The Krays

Actors: Billie Whitelaw, Tom Bell, Gary Kemp, Martin Kemp, Charlotte Cornwell, Susan Fleetwood

Synopsis: Peter Medak directed this fact-based drama, chronicling the lives of the infamous Kray Brothers, notorious celebrities in 60s London. The Krays were twin gangsters who ruled London's stylish East End club scene, staking out their territory by committing the most violent crimes imaginable Read More

Lorna Doone

Actors: Sean Bean, Rachel Kempson, Polly Walker, Billie Whitelaw

Synopsis: This British version of Lorna Doone is one of the more rewarding film adaptations of the venerable R. D. Blackmore novel. The plot remains as ever: Lorna (Polly Walker), a feisty 17th century Scots lass, falls in love with a much-despised landowner (Sean Bean). Lorna's father, a notorious brigand Read More

Joyriders

Actors: Patricia Kerrigan, Andrew Connolly, Billie Whitelaw, David Kelly, John Kavanagh

Synopsis: Mary (Patricia Kerrigan) is a battered wife with two small children, living in a grim section of Dublin. Unable to stand the abuse any longer, she runs away from home, leaving her kids behind. Without money or a place to stay, she's befriended by a somewhat shady character named Perky (Andrew Read More

Catherine Cookson's The Fifteen Streets

Actors: Owen Teale, Clare Holman

Synopsis: The story of a poor man who falls in love with a well-to-do woman is told in this British made-for-television movie. Owen Teale stars as John O'Brien, a turn-of-the-century working-class stiff who falls in love with Mary Llewellyn (Clare Holman), the educated daughter of a wealthy family. Despite Read More

The Dressmaker

Actors: Joan Plowright, Billie Whitelaw, Jane Horrocks, Tim Ransom

Synopsis: The brilliant young British actress Jane Horrocks made her film debut in The Dressmaker. She plays Rita, the 17-year-old niece of two Liverpool sisters, who are united only by a common hatred. Older sister Nellie (Joan Plowright) is an emotionally repressed dressmaker, while Margo (Billie Read More

Maurice

Actors: James Wilby, Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Denholm Elliott, Simon Callow

Synopsis: Director James Ivory brings his subdued, "Masterpiece Theater" style to a forbidden subject -- homosexual love. Maurice is based on E.M. Forster's suppressed 1914 novel that was held back from publication until after his death. The film takes place at Cambridge, before World War I, when Read More

Shadey

Actors: Antony Sher, Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Macnee, Leslie Ash, Bernard Hepton

Synopsis: This surreal British black comedy tells the tale of poor Oliver Shadey, a mechanic who longs to become a woman but lacks the money for the operation. Oliver is a talented lad and has the rare ability to read the minds of people and put their thought on film. He has the best of intentions when he Read More

The Secret Garden

Actors: Alison Doody, Lucy Gutteridge, Derek Jacobi, Gennie James

Synopsis: This made-for-TV adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden stars Gennie James as spoiled-rotten Mary Lennox. When her parents die of cholera, Mary is whisked from her home in India to live in the forbidding Victorian mansion of her flint-hearted uncle (Derek Jacobi). Thanks to the Read More

Murder Elite

Synopsis: An Englishwoman (Ali MacGraw) returns to her native land after losing her meager fortune in America, but finds that a serial killer stalking the countryside is more of a threat. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

The Chain

Actors: Herbert Norville, Denis Lawson, Rita Wolf, Maurice Denham, Nigel Hawthorne, Billie Whitelaw, Leo McKern, Warren Mitchell, David Troughton, Phyllis Logan

Synopsis: The Chain is linked by a series of moves. As one couple moves out of their current residence to live in posher quarters, another moves in, and so it goes all the way up to the lavish mansioned owned by self-made millionaire Leo McKern. The cycle starts all over again when McKern, wishing to be Read More

Camille

Actors: John Gielgud, Greta Scacchi, Colin Firth

Synopsis: Alexandre Dumas fis first dramatized his own novel La Dame aux Camelias in 1852. Before the century was out, the work had been transformed by Giuseppe Verdi into the opera La Traviata; before the next century was out, the Dumas book had been made into no fewer than 25 films. The 1984 Read More

Slayground

Actors: Peter Coyote, Mel Smith, Billie Whitelaw, Philip Sayer, Bill Luhrs

Synopsis: In this undistinguished crime drama, Peter Coyote plays a thief on the run after an attempt to rob an armored car in upstate New York ends in the death of a little girl. Her father sends a hitman (Philip Sayer) to avenge her death, and the rest of the film is a long series of near-misses as the Read More

Samuel Beckett: Silence To Silence

Synopsis: The famous Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) is not interviewed in this documentary on his life and work, but the film was made with his cooperation. Excerpts from his plays, perhaps the most well-known being Waiting for Godot, are performed (in archival footage) by such thespians as Billie Whitelaw Read More

Jamaica Inn

Actors: Patrick McGoohan, Jane Seymour

Synopsis: This made-for-TV remake of the Alfred Hitchcock adventure stars Patrick McGoohan as the head of a crew of smugglers; Jane Seymour plays his niece, who discovers the secret history of the title inn. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

The Dark Crystal

Actors: John Baddeley, David Buck, Jim Henson, Kathryn Mullen, Dave Goelz, Brian Muehl, Stephen Garlick

Synopsis: Jim Henson ventures into Tolkien territory in his all-Muppet fantasy feature The Dark Crystal. The titular Crystal maintains equilibrium in a mythical kingdom. When the Crystal is broken, the evil Skeksis take over, killing off the good-guy Gelflings and enslaving everyone else. Two of the Read More

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

Actors: Pippa Guard, Billie Whitelaw, Paul Freeman, Dominic Guard, Dawn Archibald

Synopsis: After the suicide of her friend and employer, who has been teaching her to be a detective, Cordelia Gray (Pippa Guard) takes over his business and begins an investigation of the apparent suicide of the son of a businessman. When the suicide turns out to be murder, what she discovers disrupts the Read More

Tangier

Synopsis: A former CIA agent is forced by crooked agents of the government to pose as a notorious smuggler of the Tangier Straits who happens to be a stiff. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

A Tale of Two Cities

Actors: Peter Cushing, Chris Sarandon, Flora Robson

Synopsis: Chris Sarandon does the "far, far, better thing" when he tackles the dual role of Syndey Carton and Charles Darnay in this Anglo-American TV adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. The ubiquitous producer/screenwriter combination of Norman Rosemont and John Gay was responsible for Read More

The Water Babies

Actors: James Mason, Billie Whitelaw, Bernard Cribbins, Joan Greenwood, David Tomlinson

Synopsis: Lionel Jeffries directed Water Babies, a children's fantasy based on the story by Charles Kingsley that incorporates live-action and animation in the tradition of The Incredible Mr. Limpet. In Dickensian London, a 12-year-old chimney sweep's apprentice named Tom (Tommy Pender) has to put up with Read More

Leopard in the Snow

Synopsis: The Harlequin Romance Publishing company produced this weeper about an English lass (Susan Penhaligon) who falls for a reclusive former race car driver (Keir Dullea). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

The Omen

Actors: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw

Synopsis: Satan's son has arrived on Earth and He's not about to let human parents get in the way. When his wife Katherine's (Lee Remick) pregnancy ends in a stillbirth in a Rome hospital, U.S. diplomat Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) substitutes another baby, whose mother died. Little Damien (Harvey Stephens) Read More

Night Watch

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Billie Whitelaw, Robert Lang, Tony Britton

Synopsis: Night Watch a suspenseful, under-rated thriller tells the story of a lonely, unhappily married woman who believes that she sees a murder committed in the deserted house across her courtyard. Ellen Wheeler (Elizabeth Taylor) spends her nights alone, drinking, wandering around her living room, and Read More

Frenzy

Actors: Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Anna Massey, Alec McCowen

Synopsis: Alfred Hitchcock entered the 1970s with his commercial reputation virtually in tatters, a far cry from his stature at the start of the 1960s. Then, he'd been in the middle of the massively successful trio of movies, North by Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds, and was a ubiquitous presence on Read More

Gumshoe

Actors: Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay, Janice Rule, Carolyn Seymour

Synopsis: Part spoof and part "straight," Gumshoe comes off as an affectionate tribute to the hard-boiled detective films of yore. Albert Finney stars as Eddie Ginley, a Liverpool bingo-caller and erstwhile comedian who has been weaned on the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett. Fancying himself Read More

Eagle in a Cage

Actors: Athol Coates

Synopsis: Television veteran Fielder Cook brings a TV-like intimacy to his direction of Eagle in a Cage. This underrated film stars Kenneth Haigh as Napoleon Bonaparte, in his years of exile on St. Helena. The story is told from the point of view of the island's governor (John Gielgud), a former Read More

Leo the Last

Actors: Marcello Mastroianni, Billie Whitelaw, Calvin Lockhart, Glenna Forster-Jones

Synopsis: Prince Leo (Marcello Mastroianni) is the exiled ruler from an unnamed country living on the edge of a London ghetto with his harridan mistress Margaret (Billie Whitelaw). While viewing birds through his telescope, he witnesses the struggles of his black neighbors to survive their harsh urban Read More

Start the Revolution Without Me

Actors: Gene Wilder, Donald Sutherland, Hugh Griffith, Billie Whitelaw

Synopsis: Two French peasants are mistaken for a pair of aristocratic nobles in this historical situation comedy. Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland play the dual roles. Happy to be taken for nobles, the pair soon runs to escape the guillotine in the wake of the French Revolution's blood purge of the upper Read More

The Adding Machine

Actors: Phyllis Diller, Milo O'Shea, Billie Whitelaw, Sydney Chaplin, Julian Glover

Synopsis: This satirical fantasy is based upon an Elmer Rice play from 1923. A hard-working office employee is rewarded for his years of slavish devotion to the company by getting fired just prior to retirement and being replaced with an adding machine. Now, with only his nagging wife waiting at home to add Read More

Twisted Nerve

Actors: Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett, Billie Whitelaw, Phyllis Calvert, Frank Finlay

Synopsis: In a disturbing movie about psychosis, Hayley Mills plays Susan Harper, a young student who tries to help a rich, emotionally ill and sinister young man, Martin Durnley (Hywel Bennett). Martin is a schizophrenic who assumes the personality of a six-year-old boy when he is in his "nice" phase. Read More

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Synopsis: In this made-for-television version of Stevenson's classic tale of terror and suspense, a crazy doctor develops a formula that turns him into a madman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Charlie Bubbles

Actors: Albert Finney, Colin Blakely, Billie Whitelaw, Liza Minnelli, Timothy Garland

Synopsis: Albert Finney both directs and stars in the "alienation" comedy-drama Charlie Bubbles. The eponymous Bubbles (Finney) is a trendy and fabulously wealthy novelist. Indulged at every turn, and able to indulge in his wildest fancies, Charlie is bored by his privileged existence. He staves off ennui Read More

The Comedy Man

Actors: Kenneth More, Cecil Parker, Dennis Price, Billie Whitelaw, Norman Rossington

Synopsis: Kenneth More is The Comedy Man in this cinemazation of Douglas Hayes' novel. Having spent most of his life playing the provinces in obscurity, More gives the London TV scene a try. He fails at attaining stardom on his own terms, but becomes a celebrity on TV commercials. After basking in fame for Read More

The Devil's Agent

Synopsis: The Devil's Agent is Peter Van Eyck in this economical espionager. A Viennese wine merchant, Van Eyck becomes the unwilling dupe for the Russians. In retaliation, he offers to become a double agent for the United States. The better-than-average cast includes Macdonald Carey, Christopher Lee Read More

Payroll

Actors: Michael Craig, Françoise Prevost, Billie Whitelaw, William Lucas, Kenneth Griffith

Synopsis: Billie Whitelaw dominates this crime melodrama, not as a criminal but as vengeful bystander Jackie Parker. Parker's husband, an armored car driver, is killed during a carefully orchestrated robbery. The police have an idea of who's responsible, but they lack proof. On her own, Parker goes after Read More

I Like Money

Actors: Peter Sellers, Nadia Gray, Herbert Lom, Leo McKern, Martita Hunt

Synopsis: Mr. Topaze was based on a play by Marcel Pagnol, previously filmed twice before with John Barrymore and Fernandel. Peter Sellers stars as a French college professor, known far and wide for his integrity. He refuses to improve a grade on the paper of one student, whose influential father sees to it Read More

The Flesh and the Fiends

Actors: Peter Cushing, June Laverick, Donald Pleasence, Dermot Walsh, Renee Houston

Synopsis: Mania is the venerable Burke and Hare story, previously cinematized by producer Val Lewton as The Body Snatcher. Peter Cushing plays a respectable 19th-century Edinburgh doctor who needs fresh cadavers in order to continue his crucial research. Since the exhuming of bodies for medical purposes is Read More

No Love for Johnnie

Actors: Peter Finch, Stanley Holloway, Mary Peach, Donald Pleasence, Billie Whitelaw, Rosalie Crutchley

Synopsis: Peter Finch plays Johnnie Byrne, a British member of parliament. When Johnnie loses out on an important cabinet post, he's hardly surprised; he's been a loser so long that it's par for the course. Treated shabbily by his communistic wife Rosalie Crutchley, Johnnie begins an affair with Read More

Make Mine Mink

Actors: Terry-Thomas, Athene Seyler, Hattie Jacques, Billie Whitelaw, Elspeth Duxbury

Synopsis: Terry-Thomas plays the military-officer head of an amiable gang of amateur British thieves. He is recruited for this task by wealthy dowager Athene Seyler, who merely wants to retrieve stolen minks from genuine crooks. Any profits accrued by this undertaking are to be turned over to charity. Once Read More

Hell Is a City

Actors: Stanley Baker, John Crawford, Donald Pleasence, Maxine Audley, Billie Whitelaw

Synopsis: With an award-winning screenplay by director Val Guest, this is a first-rate cops-and-robbers crime drama about a dangerous escaped convict and the police inspector who goes after him. The gritty industrial town of Manchester and its outlying moors provide a somber backdrop to the action. Read More

Bobbikins

Actors: Max Bygraves, Shirley Jones, Steven Stocker, Billie Whitelaw, Barbara Shelley

Synopsis: A full thirty years before Look Who's Talking would hit the screens with its verbose little infant, Max Bygraves and Shirley Jones starred in this routine comedy about a talking baby. Little Bobbikins (Steven Stocker) is the 14-month-old son of Benjamin and Betty (Bygraves and Jones) who is Read More

Breakout

Actors: Richard Todd, Bernard Lee, Michael Wilding, Sr., Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price

Synopsis: Set in an Italian P.O.W. camp during World War II, this conventional escape drama shines the most in the portrayals of the various prisoners. Richard Todd is Lt. Col. David Baird, intensely and single-mindedly set on escaping. Bernard Lee is Lt. Col. Huxley who is the careful senior British Read More

Gideon of Scotland Yard

Actors: Jack Hawkins, Dianne Foster, Anna Lee, Anna Massey, Andrew Ray, Cyril Cusack

Synopsis: Director John Ford traveled to England to film this adaptation of the novel by J.J. Maraca, which details a typical day in the busy life of a detective for Scotland Yard. Inspector George Gideon (Jack Hawkins) begins his working day by confronting one of his fellow officers who is believed to be Read More

Carve Her Name With Pride

Actors: Virginia McKenna, Paul Scofield, Jack Warner, Denise Grey, Alain Saury

Synopsis: The true story of Violette Szabo, a heroine of the Second World War for her espionage activities on behalf of the British government. Born Violette Bushell (Virginia McKenna) to a French mother and an English father, she chances to meet Etienne Szabo (Alain Saury), a French officer, whom she later Read More

Miracle in Soho

Actors: John Gregson, Belinda Lee, Cyril Cusack, Rosalie Crutchley, Peter Illing, Ian Bannen

Synopsis: London's colorful but rundown Soho district is the setting for this thinnish romantic comedy. John Gregson plays a Soho roadworker who has little hopes of finding happiness in life. Belinda Lee is a like-minded barmaid in a tiny pub. Gregson and Lee discover each other, and the "miracle" happens. Read More

Small Hotel

Synopsis: In this British comedy, a young man resorts to spying, extortion and just plain begging after he learns that he is to be replaced as headwaiter by a young woman. The story is based on a popular play. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Room in the House

Synopsis: In this comedy, a widow tries living with each of her three sons. She becomes quite upset when her favorite son heads for America. In the end, the young men rally together and buy her a cottage of her own in the village. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Companions in Crime

Synopsis: This film consists of two episodes from the "Inspector Stryker" series of mysteries. In the first, Stryker enlists the help of a young woman to clear the name of her fiance, who was falsely convicted of murder. In the second, Stryker is told that a yachtsman is smuggling jewels. It turns out that Read More

The Sleeping Tiger

Actors: Alexis Smith, Dirk Bogarde, Alexander Knox, Hugh Griffith, Patricia McCarron

Synopsis: The direction of The Sleeping Tiger was credited to Victor Hanbury, but this was actually a pseudonym for the blacklisted Joseph Losey, whose first British film this was. Alexander Knox stars as psychiatrist Clive Esmond, who believes that he can stem the criminal tendencies of young fugitive from Read More

The Fake

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Coleen Gray, Hugh Williams, Guy Middleton, John Laurie

Synopsis: In this crime drama an American is assigned to guard a US art exhibit in London to protect one of da Vinci's most priceless paintings, "Madonna and Child." A series of art thefts has put the museum officials on red alert and they anxiously await the painting's arrival. Unfortunately, the painting Read More