Lila Kaye

Lila Kaye (7 November 1929 – 10 January 2012) was an English actress born in Middlesbrough, England, who built a career spanning stage, film, and television across both Britain and the United States before retiring in the late 1990s.

Kaye's stage work included a notable appearance with the Royal Shakespeare Company in John Vanbrugh's The Relapse at the Aldwych Theatre in London in 1967, where she played a nurse alongside Donald Sinden, Patrick Stewart, and Ben Kingsley. She later originated the role of Serafima Ilinitchna in Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide in 1979. Her Broadway credit came in 1981, when she joined the RSC's landmark production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.

Her television career encompassed a wide range of roles, frequently in motherly or comedic parts. Early credits included Cathy Come Home (1966), in which she played a staff member at a homeless shelter, and the 1975 series My Son Reuben, co-starring Bernard Spear, where she portrayed a Jewish mother running a dry-cleaning business with her bachelor son. Following her Broadway appearance, Kaye starred in the short-lived American television series Mama Malone and went on to make guest appearances on Murder, She Wrote, Cheers, and Dear John, the last of which reunited her with An American Werewolf in London co-star Jenny Agutter. From 1991, she played headmistress Mrs. Daphne Trout in series two and the first half of series three of the BBC children's series Bodger & Badger. Her final role was as Granny Jekyll in the British serial Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde in 1998, after which she announced her retirement.

Kaye's film work began with Blind Terror (1971) and continued with The Black Panther (1977) and Quincy's Quest (1979). She gained wider recognition for her performance in An American Werewolf in London (1981) as a rural barmaid attempting to warn two American backpackers of impending danger. Subsequent film appearances included Bert Rigby, You're a Fool (1989) as Mrs. Pennington, Nuns on the Run (1990) as a formidable nun, the American television film Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story (1991) in which she portrayed Dorothy Ireland, the real-life mother of actress Jill Ireland as played by Jill Clayburgh, and Dragonworld (1994) as Mrs. Cosgrove.

Kaye resided in Florida for a period before returning to Britain. She died in Worthing, Sussex, on 10 January 2012, at the age of 82, following a long illness.