‘Love Actually’ Actress Jill Freud
Dead at 98
Published
Jill Freud, a British actress who provided C.S. Lewis with the inspiration for Lucy Pevensie in “The Chronicles of Narnia,” has died.
Jill’s daughter Emma Curtis announced her death Monday, posting … “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.’”
Born June Flewett, Jill moved in with C.S. Lewis and his companion, Jane Moore, when she was just 16 after evacuating London to escape The Blitz bombing by Nazi Germany. She stayed with them at their country house as a housekeeper, and eventually Lewis based the youngest Pevensie kid, Lucy, on her.
After 3 years, Jill returned to London to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. From there, she took the stage in the West End and was featured in films like “The Woman in the Hall” and on TV shows like “Torchy, the Battery Boy.”
In 1950, she married Clement Freud, a grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. When Clement was knighted in 1987, Jill became Lady Freud.
Her final film role came in 2003 as a Downing Street housekeeper in “Love Actually.”
She was 98.
RIP