What you need to know
Jill Freud, the British actress and theater producer who inspired author CS Lewis to create the character Lucy Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia, has died. She was 98 years old.
Jill’s daughter Emma, who is married to British TV presenter and Love Actually writer/director Richard Curtis, announced the news of her mother’s death on Instagram on Monday, November 24th.
“At 98 years old, my beautiful mother took her final bow. After a loving night surrounded by her children, grandchildren and pizza, we knew she was leaving, but in the end she told us all to go to bed and rest,” Emma wrote. “And she never woke up. Her last words were, ‘I love you.'”
Emma took to Instagram to share eight photos of her mother over the years, as well as a video of the late actress tap dancing with her granddaughters.
Jill was born June Flewett on April 22, 1927. She changed her name to Jill for her acting career. As a teenager, she moved in with the writer Lewis after being evacuated from London during World War II. Lewis, who died in 1963 at the age of 64, was the model for the character Lucy Pevensie in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” her daughter wrote on Instagram, and The Hollywood Reporter pointed out in a 2014 interview with Lewis.
Gilles, who was married to Sigmund Freud’s grandson Sir Clement Freud, told THR that it wasn’t until the 2000s that she realized she was the inspiration for the character. “I was really excited. It was like being told you were the real Lady Macbeth,” she said at the time.
On West End stages, Jill performed under the name Jill Raymond. She made her screen debut in 1947’s The Woman in the Hall and by 2003 had appeared in over 25 television and big screen roles. As her daughter Emma noted on Instagram, her last on-screen role was as housekeeper Pat in that year’s holiday rom-com Love Actually.
Emma Freud/Instagram
“She went on to become an actress and producer, running two rep theater companies in Suffolk for 30 years and employing hundreds of actors who loved her passion, caring, dedication to Shepherd’s Pie, community theater and commitment to actors’ rights. Her last film role was as the Downing Street housekeeper in Love Actually,” Emma wrote on Instagram.
“She had the same lunch every day: a glass of red wine and a pack of crisps. The 93-year-old was cooped up with three other Freud friends during the pandemic, attending tap classes every morning,” she added of her mother. “She was 98 years old, mother of five, grandmother of 17, and great-grandmother of seven. She was vivacious, outrageous, kind, loving, and mischievous. Good old Heaven was lucky to have such a dazzling newcomer.”
