Trivia

Her father was the internationally known English clown Billy Burke, who came to the U.S. with P. T. Barnum's circus.

She is the 21st great granddaughter of King Edward I.

During her early years on the American stage, she mixed socially with Mark Twain, Booth Tarkington, Enrico Caruso, and Somerset Maugham.

The $40,000 she was paid for eight weeks work for Peggy (1916) was the largest salary ever paid up to that point to an actor for a single film.

Daughter, with Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.: Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, born 1916.

A 1919 Cadillac, owned by her and husband Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. is now in the possession of best-selling author Clive Cussler.

Best known as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

She turned down the role of Aunt Pittypat in "Gone With The Wind" (1939).

Although she seemed to appear much younger when she played Glinda The Good Witch of the North in "The Wizard of Oz", Billie Burke was actually 54 years old when the movie was filmed.

She was played by Myrna Loy in "The Great Ziegfeld".

Biography in "Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties" by Axel Nissen.

Began her show business career on stage in the British provinces.

Interred at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York, USA.

Founded the Ziegfeld Club in 1936: a charitable organization, which to this day is devoted to supporting women in musical theater.

On Feb. 16, 1917, a car being driven by her chauffeur in which she was a passenger, struck a seven-year-old boy, Tony Burk, in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. They rushed him to a nearby hospital, where it was discovered that three of his ribs had been broken, but he recovered.

Grandmother to Florenz (b. March 11, 1940), Cecelia (b. January 23, 1942), William (b. September 29, 1946) and Susan Stephenson (b. November 9, 1950).

Has been played on stage by Tony Award nominee Carolee Carmello, Ned York, and Jennifer Hope Wills in the musical "Ghostlight" written by Matthew Martin and Tim Realbuto.

She has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Becky Sharp (1935) & The Wizard of Oz (1939).