Anecdotes

She was having her hair coiffed at the Elizabeth Arden Salon in New York City when the wife of the founder of the Armour meat packing company entered, noticed her, and complained loudly that she didn't realize there would be chorus girls present or she would not have come. Soon thereafter, as Lillie--who was married to the British Sir Robert Peel--was leaving and saying goodbye to the manageress in the waiting room, she said "You may tell the butcher's wife that Lady Peel has finished.".

Her son, who had enlisted in the Royal Navy, was killed in 1942 during a Japanese air raid on the port of Colombo, Ceylon.

She married Robert Peel in 1920, the extravagant heir of Lord Peel. Ater her father-in-law died in the mid-1920s, she and Robert became Lord and Lady Peel. Husband Robert died of peritonitis in 1934, and left behind huge debts which forced Bea to continue working non-stop for years to come.

In 1948, at age 54, she met singer/actor John Philip Huck, 28 years her junior. Despite their huge age difference, he became her manager and her companion for the rest of her life. Huck died of a heart attack the day after Bea passed away. They were buried side by side near her mother and sister in a small cemetery near Peel Fold.

Close intimate friends with such varied personalities as Noël Coward, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Chaplin and Sir Winston Churchill.

According to Axel Madsen in "The Sewing Circle", she was considered for the role of "The Good Witch" in Le Magicien d'Oz (1939) in 1936, but was thought too funny for the role.

Once bought Noël Coward a baby alligator as a birthday present. The alligator arrived with a card around its neck reading "So what else is new?".

Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 361-363 New York: Oxford University Press. (2002)

Profiled in the book, "Funny Ladies", by Stephen M. Silverman. (1999)

Following her death, she was interred at St Margaret's Churchyard in Harpsden, Oxfordshire, near Henley-on-Thames.

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6404 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.