[Deathwatch] Billie Bird, actress, 94

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Vaudeville Actress Billie Bird Dies at 94
Mon Dec 2, 9:37 PM ET

Bird, whose full name was Billie Bird Sellen, had been struggling with
Alzheimer's disease for nearly five years when she died Nov. 27 at her
Granada Hills home, Bill Sellen said.

The funeral was held Saturday at Forest Lawn in Glendale.

Sellen worked as recently as 1995, when she had a small role in the
Pauly Shore comedy "Jury Duty." Other recent performances include
1993's "Dennis the Menace" and 1990's "Home Alone."

Her last screen appearance was a 1997 cameo on the short-lived Judd
Hirsch-Bob Newhart sitcom "George & Leo."

Bird played sassy, cheerful old ladies in such comedies as 1988's
"Ernest Saves Christmas" and 1987's "Police Academy 4: Citizens on
Patrol."

She was also a regular on the 1988-1992 sitcom "Dear John" and made 12
trips to Vietnam with the USO to entertain American troops during the
1960s and early 1970s.

Her son said she was discovered at an orphanage at age 8 and hired to
tour theater circuits with a Vaudeville group. As an adult, she
performed in dinner theater and burlesque comedy clubs in acts that
were ribald at the time but tame by today's standards, Bill Sellen
said.

She had small roles in the 1950 Western "Dallas," the 1952 drama
"Somebody Loves Me" and 1968's feature-film version of "The Odd
Couple."

Among her favorite jobs was a 1982 sitcom called "It Takes Two," which
starred Richard Crenna, Patty Duke and then-unknowns Helen Hunt and
Anthony Edwards.

"She loved that show and she loved the cast," her son said. "She keyed
on people. She didn't have favorite shows or parts so much."