Lila Kaye

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). Kaye appeared in '' Bert Rigby, You're a Fool'' (1989) as Mrs. Pennington, and in ''Dragonworld'' (1994) as Mrs. Cosgrove.

In 1991, Lila played headmistress Mrs. Daphne Trout in series two and the first half of series three of the children's BBC television series '' Bodger & Badger''.

She appeared as a nurse in a notable Royal Shakespeare Company production of John Vanbrugh's play, ''The Relapse'', at the Aldwych Theatre in London in 1967, alongside, among others, Donald Sinden, Patrick Stewart and Ben Kingsley. She debuted the role of Serafima Ilinitchna in Nikolai Erdman's ''The Suicide'' (1979). She was part of the cast of the Royal Shakespeare Company's epic stage production of ''Nicholas Nickleby'' on Broadway in 1981.

Kaye starred in the title role of the short-lived U.S. television series '' Mama Malone'' a year later. She made guest appearances on several U.S. television series, such as ''Murder, She Wrote'', ''Cheers'' and '' Dear John'' (reuniting her with ''An American Werewolf In London'' co-star Jenny Agutter). She resided in Florida before returning to Britain. Her last role was in the British television serial '' Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde'' in 1998, in which she appeared as "Granny Jekyll". After this role she announced her retirement.

Death

She died in Worthing, Sussex, on 10 January 2012, aged 82, following a long illness.

References

External links

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1929 births
2012 deaths
English film actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
Royal Shakespeare Company members
20th-century English actresses

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