Quick Facts
Born:
1929-11-07
Birthplace:
Worthing, Sussex, England, UK
Credits:
42 Total Roles
Lila Kaye
Acting
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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.
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.
Known For
An American Werewolf in London
Barmaid
Cheers
Lillian Huxley
Murder, She Wrote
Teresa Mancini
Sherlock Holmes
Mrs. Mordecai Smith
Nuns on the Run
Sister Mary of the Annunciation
See No Evil
Gypsy Mother
The Saint
Ma
The Sign of Four
Mrs Mordecai Smith
Full Filmography
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Eskimo Day MOVIE | Mother Polly |
| 1994 | Dragonworld MOVIE | Mrs. Cosgrove |
| 1993 | Cafe Americain TV | Margaret Hunt |
| 1992 | Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris MOVIE | Vi Butterfield |
| 1992 | Anglo Saxon Attitudes TV | Dr. Rose Lorimer |
| 1991 | Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story MOVIE | Dorothy, Jill's mother |
| 1990 | Antonia and Jane MOVIE | Jane's Mother |
| 1990 | Nuns on the Run MOVIE | Sister Mary of the Annunciation |
| 1989 | Birds of a Feather TV | Mrs. McCarthy |
| 1989 | Bert Rigby, You're a Fool MOVIE | Mrs. Pennington |