Biography
Lilian Fontaine was an English actress. Born Lilian Augusta Ruse in Reading, Berkshire, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London before marrying and pausing her career.
After her daughters Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine became film stars, Fontaine resumed acting. She appeared as Mrs. Charles St. James in The Lost Weekend (1945), Lady Wyndham in The Locket (1946), and Miss Higgins in The Bigamist (1953), among other supporting roles in film and television during the 1940s and 1950s. She later taught acting in California.
Fontaine was married to Walter de Havilland from 1914 to 1925 and to George Milan-Fontaine from 1925 until his death in 1956. She died in Santa Barbara, California, in 1975.
