‘Love Actually’ actor Jill Freud dead at 98
Jill Freud, the actor and producer who appeared in Love Actually, has died aged 98.
The news was announced by her daughter, the writer and podcaster Emma Freud via Instagram on November 24th, where she shared a series of pictures of her mother over the years and reminisced on her career.
She said: “My beautiful 98 year old mum has taken her final bow. After a loving evening – where we knew she was on her way – surrounded by children, grandchildren and pizza, she told us all to f*** off so she could go to sleep. And then she never woke up. Her final words were ‘I love you’.”
The actor was best known in more recent years for her role in Love Actually, where she played the role of the housekeeper at 10 Downing Street. The 2003 film, directed by Freud’s son-in-law Richard Curtis, became a Christmas classic.
However, this was far from the only star-crossed moment in her career, as her daughter explained that she was evacuated to Oxford during World War Two and lived with the author CS Lewis, who based the character of Lucy in The Chronicles of Narnia on her.
Lewis paid for Freud to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, which kickstarted her stage career. Later in life, she would go on to run two repertory theatre companies in Suffolk for over 30 years.
On account of her major impact on the stage over the decades, Freud was awarded an honorary doctorate in civil law from the University of East Anglia for services to theatre.
She also married Clement Freud, the grandson of world famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, in 1950, remaining together until his death in 2009.
Detailing some of her mother’s finer tastes, including having “the same lunch every day – a glass of red wine and a packet of crisps”, Emma added: “She was 98, mother of five, grandmother of 17, great grandmother of seven – she was feisty, outrageous, kind, loving and mischievous. Lucky old heaven getting such a dazzling newcomer.”
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