Besedka Johnson

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Besedka Johnson (born October 5, 1925 in Detroit , Michigan , † April 4, 2013 in Glendale , California ) was an American film actress. She starred as the widow Sadie in the 2012 film Starlet .

Life

Johnson was born Beatrice Vivian Divic, one of the two children of the Milan and Frances Divic couple. At the age of 17, Johnson moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to pursue a modeling career in California . She then worked briefly as a model.

In the late 1940s she married her first husband, a painter and artist ; her last name Johnson was the name of her first husband. The marriage produced three sons. The marriage ended in divorce in the late 1950s. Their second marriage, which they entered into shortly thereafter, also ended in divorce in 1966. After their first divorce, Johnson took brief acting classes, but not with the aim of becoming an actress. Johnson himself sees this more as a kind of " self-therapy ".

Since the 1960s, Johnson used "Besedka" as her first name. This was the name of her own clothing store, which she ran for many years on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills . She later opened a new Besedka store on Riverside Drive in North Hollywood . Her regular customers included actress Brogan Lane , later wife of actor Dudley Moore , who was then a model. A private friendship developed between Johnson and Lane.

1981 Johnson gave up her business; trips followed, including to Greece and Hawaii . In the late 1980s she worked intermittently as a personal assistant for Brogan Lane and Dudley Moore when Lane and Moore were briefly married (1988-1991). In later years, Johnson served as the administrator and caretaker of a condominium complex in San Francisco .

As a retiree, Johnson did a lot of fitness and yoga . She dealt with astrology and number symbolism ; She worked as a life coach to friends and acquaintances .

In the summer of 2011, at the age of 85, she was discovered as an actress for the cinema . Johnson had received a prosthetic knee ; As part of her rehabilitation , she went swimming several times a week at a YMCA sports facility in Hollywood . An employee of a film production company who was looking for a replacement for another actress at short notice became aware of her in the swimming pool. He approached Johnson in the locker room if she was interested in starring in a film that would start filming in two weeks. After an audition, Johnson, who had never been in front of a camera before, was given the role in the movie Starlet ; filming took place in the San Fernando Valley in late summer 2011 . The critically acclaimed low-budget film tells the unusual friendship between two women.

Johnson played the role of the old, single widow Sadie , under the direction of independent film director Sean S. Baker . At a private flea market she organized in her yard, she met the young 21-year-old Jane, played by Dree Hemingway . Jane buys a thermos from Sadie that has several thousand dollars hidden in it.

The movie starlet premiered in March 2012 at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin . Besedka Johnson received special recognition from the South by Southwest Film Festival jury for her role in the film Starlet . The New York Times newspaper spoke of a "true, haunting screen debut" for Johnson. In August 2012 the film was shown in the main program of the Locarno International Film Festival . In February 2013, Starlet received the Robert Altman Award for best ensemble performance at the Independent Spirit Awards .

Johnson received requests for additional feature films ; However, Starlet remained her only film. Johnson died of complications from a bacterial infection at Glendale Memorial Hospital at the age of 87 .

Filmography

  • 2012: Starlet (Starlet)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Besedka Johnson dies at 87; discovered by Hollywood at age 85 - Obituary in: Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Besedka Johnson, Late-Blooming Actress, Dies at 87 - Obituary in: New York Times, April 14, 2013.
  3. ↑ a b Less Than Visible, but Not to Each Other film review in: New York Times of November 8, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Johnson, Besedka
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Divic, Beatrice Vivian (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit , Michigan, United States
DATE OF DEATH April 4, 2013
Place of death Glendale , California, United States