Lila Kaye

Acting

Lila Kaye

Born
Died
(aged 82)
Birthplace
Worthing, Sussex, England, UK
Credits
44 titles

Biography

Lila Kaye (7 November 1929 – 10 January 2012) was an English actress. She spent a number of years working in the United States, on Broadway and in television, before returning to England.

She often played motherly and/or comedic characters, mostly on television, including Cathy Come Home (1966) as a staff member at a homeless shelter, and My Son Reuben (1975), co-starring Bernard Spear, as a Jewish mother and her bachelor son who jointly run a dry-cleaning business. She also appeared in films including Blind Terror (1971), The Black Panther (1977) and Quincy's Quest (1979), and found film success in later years for her performances in An American Werewolf in London (1981) as the conflicted rural barmaid trying to warn off the two doomed American backpackers, in Nuns on the Run (1990) as a formidable nun, and in Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story (1991; an American television film), in which she played Dorothy Ireland, the real-life mother of cancer-stricken actress Jill Ireland (played by Jill Clayburgh).[1] Kaye appeared in Bert Rigby, You're a Fool (1989) as Mrs. Pennington, and in Dragonworld (1994) as Mrs. Cosgrove.

Signature work

Known For

Acting credits 44

YearTitleRole
1996 Eskimo Day Film Mother Polly
1994 Dragonworld Film Mrs. Cosgrove
1993 Cafe Americain TV Margaret Hunt (18 ep)
1992 Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris Film Vi Butterfield
1992 Anglo Saxon Attitudes TV Dr. Rose Lorimer (3 ep)
1991 Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story Film Dorothy, Jill's mother
1990 Antonia and Jane Film Jane's Mother
1990 Nuns on the Run Film Sister Mary of the Annunciation
1989 Birds of a Feather TV Mrs. McCarthy (1 ep)
1989 Bert Rigby, You're a Fool Film Mrs. Pennington
1988 Dear John TV Audrey (1 ep)
1987 Bad Boyes TV Gran (5 ep)
1987 The Trial of Klaus Barbie Film Lagrange
1987 The Sign of Four Film Mrs Mordecai Smith
1987 The Return of Sherlock Holmes Film Ms. Houston
1987 Making Waves Film Mrs Nash
1986 The Canterville Ghost Film Mrs. Umney
1984 Camille Film Nanine
1984 Pericles, Prince of Tyre Film Bawd
1984 Ellis Island TV Kathleen O'Donnell (3 ep)
1984 Murder, She Wrote TV Teresa Mancini (1 ep)
1984 The Invisible Man TV Mrs Jenny Hall (3 ep)
1984 Pull The Other One TV Grandma (6 ep)
1984 Sherlock Holmes TV Mrs. Mordecai Smith (1 ep)
1984 Mama Malone TV 'Mama' Renate Malone (13 ep)
1982 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby TV (10 ep)
1982 Cheers TV Lillian Huxley (1 ep)
1981 Sredni Vashtar Film Mrs. Woolridge
1981 An American Werewolf in London Film Barmaid
1979 Quincy's Quest Film Griselda
1979 The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris TV Mrs. Alexander (6 ep)
1977 The Black Panther Film
1977 The Kitchen Film Bertha
1977 BBC2 Play of the Week TV Bertha (1 ep)
1973 A Place to Die Film Bess
1972 King's Cross Lunch Hour Film The Manageress
1971 See No Evil Film Gypsy Mother
1971 Mr. Horatio Knibbles Film Nancy's Mother
1969 The Flaxton Boys TV Sarah Weekes (9 ep)
1968 The Fiction Makers Film Ma
1966 David Copperfield TV Clara Peggotty (7 ep)
1964 Theatre 625 TV Romaine (1 ep)
1963 Festival TV Sophie (1 ep)
1962 The Saint TV Ma (1 ep)
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