Billie Seward was a 1930s motion picture actress from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

.

Marriage

In 1934 Seward was linked romantically to actor Lyle Talbot

Lyle Talbot

Lyle Talbot , born Lisle Henderson, was an American actor on stage and screen, best known for his long career in movies from 1931 to 1960 and for his frequent appearances on TV in the 1950s and '60s, including his decade-long role as Joe Randolph on television's The Adventures of Ozzie and...

. She married William Wilkerson

William Wilkerson

William Richard Wilkerson was the founder of the Hollywood Reporter, Flamingo Hotel and owner of such nightclubs as Ciro's. He was also responsible for discovering actress Lana Turner across the street from Hollywood High School.-Early life:Born in Nashville, Tennessee on September 29, 1890...

, owner of the Trocadero (Los Angeles)

Trocadero (Los Angeles)

In West Hollywood, California, the Cafe Trocadero was the center of jitterbug in the 1930s. Today, a " new" Trocadero stands as a nightclub at 8610 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip...

 and Ciro's

Ciro's

Ciro's was a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard, on the Sunset Strip, opened in January 1940, by entrepreneur William Wilkerson. Herman Hover took over management of Ciro's in 1942 until it closed its doors in 1957...

, on September 30, 1935. Wilkerson was also the owner and publisher of the Hollywood Reporter. The couple separated in February 1937 but reconciled. Seward renewed a divorce suit against Wilkerson in March 1938, using her legal name Rita Ann Wilkerson.

Film actress

Seward performed with Lou Holtz

Lou Holtz (actor)

Lou Holtz was an American vaudevillian and comic actor.He was discovered by vaudevillian Elsie Janis in San Francisco while still in his teens, and came to New York. He appeared in his first Broadway show in 1913, World of Pleasure...

 at The Beverly Wilshire Hotel Gold Room in December 1933.

She obtained a contract with Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

 following a three month stay in Hollywood. Seward starred with Richard Cromwell

Richard Cromwell (actor)

Richard Cromwell, born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh , was an American actor. His family and friends called him Roy, though he was also professionally known and signed autographs as Dick Cromwell. Cromwell's career was at its pinnacle with his work in Jezebel with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda and again...

 in the 1934 Columbia production of Among the Missing. Wallace Ford

Wallace Ford

Wallace Ford was an English film and television actor who, with his friendly appearance and stocky build later in life, appeared in a number of film westerns and B-movies....

 joined Seward and Cromwell in Hot News, which was eventually titled Men of the Hour (1935).

She was in three western films written by Ford Beebe

Ford Beebe

Ford Beebe was a screenwriter and director...

 in 1935. The titles are Law Beyond the Range, The Revenge Rider, and Justice of the Range. Colonel Tim McCoy

Tim McCoy

Col. Tim McCoy was an American actor, military officer, and expert on American Indian life and customs.-Early years:...

, Ward Bond

Ward Bond

Wardell Edwin "Ward" Bond was an American film actor whose rugged appearance and easygoing charm were featured in over 200 movies and the television series Wagon Train.-Early life:...

, and Ed LeSaint were among her fellow actors. In One Crowded Night (1940) Seward plays Gladys. This RKO film is critiqued by Bosley Crowther

Bosley Crowther

Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...

 who called it "a routine multi-plot melodrama

Melodrama

The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...

, Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel (film)

Grand Hotel is a 1932 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding. The screenplay by William A. Drake and Béla Balázs is based on the 1930 play of the same title by Drake, who had adapted it from the 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum...

reduced to a tourist camp."

Court litigation

In August 1951 an appointment for a receiver for the Hollywood Reporter was requested in a suit filed by film director Thomas Seward against Wilkerson, publisher of the trade periodical. Seward contended that in 1944 he advanced $228,000 in partnership with Wilkerson, who put up
$372,000. The suit stipulated that profits would be divided 62 percent for Wilkerson and 38 percent for Seward. He was the brother of Billie
Seward. Thomas Seward charged that Wilkerson took sole possession of the business and its assets in June 1951. Seward asked for the sale of the business, a division of assets, and $150,000 in damages.

Death

Seward died in Sherman Oaks, California, in 1982. She was survived by four brothers and two sisters. Her funeral mass was conducted from St. Cyrils Church in Encino, California, and she was buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery.

Filmography

• School For Romance (1934)
• Once To Every Woman (1934)
• Voice In The Night (1934)
• Twentieth Century (1934)
• The Hell Cat (1934)
• Plumbing For Gold (1934)
• Whom The Gods Destroy (1934)
• Blind Date (1934)
• Among The Missing (1934)
• Law Beyond The Range (1935)
• The Revenge Rider (1935)
• Men Of The Hour (1935)
• Air Hawks (1935)
• Justice Of The Range (1935)
• Riding Wild (1935)
• Branded A Coward (1935)
• Trails Of The Wild (1935)
• Man From Guntown (1935)
• Charlie Chan At Treasure Island (1939)
• Reno (1939)
• One Crowded Night (1940)
• Li'l Abner
  Li'l Abner
  Li'l Abner is a satirical American comic strip that appeared in many newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe, featuring a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished town of Dogpatch, Kentucky. Written and drawn by Al Capp , the strip ran for 43 years, from August 13, 1934 through...
  
  (1940)
• No Hands On The Clock (1941)
• Jane Eyre
  Jane Eyre (1944 film)
  Jane Eyre is a classic film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name, made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by William Goetz, Kenneth Macgowan, and Orson Welles . The screenplay was by John Houseman, Aldous Huxley, Henry Koster, and Robert...
  
  (1944)
• Take It Or Leave It (1944)

External links