Caricature of actress Billie Carleton. Billie Carleton (4 September 1896 ? 28 November 1918) was an English musical comedy actress during the First World War. She began her professional stage career at age 15 and was playing roles in the West End by age 18. She appeared in the hit musical The Boy (1917), which led to a starring role in The Freedom of the Seas in 1918. She was found dead, apparently of a drug overdose, the morning after she had appeared at the famous Victory Ball at the Royal Albert Hall, held to celebrate the end of the First World War. One of a number of characters portrayed in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, in their review of the play, Freedom of the Seas in September 1918.