Jill Freud, Actress Who Inspired Chronicles of Narnia, Dies at 98

Jill Freud, the British actress and theater producer who widely considered author C.S. Lewis’ inspiration for the Chronicles of Narnia character Lucy Pevensie, has died. She was 98.

Jill’s daughter Emma, a British television presenter who is married to Love Actually writer-director Richard Curtis, announced the news of her mother’s death on Instagram Monday, Nov. 24.

“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 eventually told us all to f— off so she could go to sleep,” Emma wrote. “And then she never woke up. Her final words were ‘I love you.’ ”

Emma shared eight photos of her mother over the years on Instagram and a video of the late actress tap dancing with her and her granddaughters.

Jill was born as June Flewett on April 22, 1927. She changed her name to Jill for her acting career. As a teenager, she moved to author Lewis’s home during World War II after being evacuated from London. Lewis, who died in 1963 at age 64, based the character Lucy Pevensie from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe on Jill, as both her daughter wrote on Instagram and The Hollywood Reporter noted in a 2014 interview with her.

Jill, who was married to Sigmund Freud’s grandson Sir Clement Freud, told THR that she only learned she was the inspiration for the character in the 2000s. “I was absolutely thrilled. It’s like being told you were the real Lady Macbeth,” she said at the time. 

On the West End stage, Jill performed under the name Jill Raymond. She made her onscreen debut in 1947’s The Woman in the Hall and appeared in more than 25 television and big screen roles through 2003. As her daughter Emma noted on Instagram, her final onscreen role came in that year’s holiday rom-com Love Actually as Pat the housekeeper.

“She became an actress/producer and ran two rep theatre companies in Suffolk for 30 years – employing 100’s of actors who loved her for her passion, her care, her shepherd’s pie, her devotion to regional theatre and her commitment to actor’s rights. Her last film role was as the housekeeper at Downing Street in Love Actually,” Emma wrote on Instagram.

“She had the same lunch every day – a glass of red wine and a packet of crisps, and during Covid, aged 93, locked up with 3 other Freud gals, she took part in a tap class every morning,” she added of her mother. “She was 98, mother of 5, grandmother of 17, great grandmother of 7 – she was feisty, outrageous, kind, loving and mischievous. Lucky old heaven getting such a dazzling newcomer.”