Betsy Blair

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Betsy Blair (2007)

Betsy Blair (* 11. December 1923 as Elizabeth Winifred Boger in Cliffside Park , New Jersey ; † 13. March 2009 in London , England ) was an American actress . She had particular success with her portrayal of unhappy women in a joyless environment, as in Out of the Darkness of the Forest (1948) or in the Oscar- winning film Marty (1955).

Life

Betsy Blair, the daughter of a teacher and an insurance broker, started performing as a dancer at the age of eight . From the age of twelve, she also worked as a model for the John Robert Powers agency . Blair graduated from high school when she was 15. In order to bridge the time until her university studies, she continued to work as a dancer on the advice of her mother. 1940 Blair resigned in Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe on, a nightclub at Times Square in New York City , where Gene Kelly as a choreographer worked. A short time later, she married Kelly at the age of 17. Blair has appeared in a variety of Broadway productions , including The Glass Menagerie of Tennessee Williams and William Shakespeare's Richard II . At the end of the 1940s she received her first film roles, including in Henry Levin's The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947) and Michael Gordon's Aus den Dunkel des Waldes (1948), in which she worked alongside well-known actors such as Fredric March and Rosalind Russell was seen.

Blair's film career stalled in the 1950s when she was blacklisted for several years during the McCarthy era . As a 16-year-old, the actress had attended a weekly Marxist working group in New York and in later years joined left-wing organizations such as the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee , the Sleepy Lagoon Committee and the Civil Rights Congress . She almost lost her leading female role in Delbert Mann's Oscar-winning film Marty (1955) alongside Ernest Borgnine , for which she later received the British Film Academy Award and an Oscar nomination.

After divorcing Kelly in 1957, she moved to Europe. There she continued her film career, among others in Hauptstrasse (1956) by Juan Antonio Bardem or Der Schrei (1957) (Il grido) by Michelangelo Antonioni . After marrying film director Karel Reisz in 1963, she only worked sporadically as an actress. A daughter emerged from the connection. In the late 1970s, Blair trained as a speech therapist at London's Central School of Speech and Drama and practiced this profession. In 2003 she successfully published her autobiography under the title The Memory of All That: Love and Politics in New York, Hollywood, and Paris . In 2009, at the age of 85, Blair succumbed to complications from cancer.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1947: The Guilt of Janet Ames
  • 1948: People in the Shadow (A Double Life)
  • 1948: The Snake Pit (The Snake Pit)
  • 1948: Another Part of the Forest
  • 1950: The Dead in the Dunes (Mystery Street)
  • 1955: Marty
  • 1956: Main Street (Calle Mayor)
  • 1957: Driven by Vengeance (The Halliday Brand)
  • 1957: The Scream (Il grido)
  • 1960: Dangerous Nights (I delfini)
  • 1962: Hörig (Senilità)
  • 1962: All Night Long
  • 1973: A Delicate Balance
  • 1986: Coal Dust and Glitter Dreams (Flight of the Spruce Goose)
  • 1986: Descente aux enfers
  • 1987 Suspicion, the suspicion (Suspicion)
  • 1988 Verraten (Betrayed)
  • 1994: Scarlett

Awards

Web links

Commons : Betsy Blair  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Betsy Blair , p. 89. In: Bawden, Liz-Anne (Ed.): Bucher's Encyclopedia of Films. Lucerne [u. a.]: Bucher, 1977. - ISBN 3-7658-0231-X
  2. ↑ cf. Baxter, Brian; Weir, Arabella: Obituary: Betsy Blair; A Hollywood star who was blacklisted in the 1950s and then carved out a career in Europe . In: The Guardian , March 17, 2009, p. 35
  3. ↑ cf. McLellan, Dennis: Betsy Blair, 1923 - 2009: Blacklisted actress rebounded with 'Marty' . In: Los Angeles Times , March 20, 2009, p. 34
  4. ↑ cf. Fox, Margalit: Betsy Blair, 85, Actress And Wife of Gene Kelly . In: The New York Times , March 19, 2009, p. 22
  5. ↑ cf. Betsy Blair . The Associated Press , March 20, 2009, Domestic News
personal data
SURNAME Blair, Betsy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Boger, Elizabeth Winifred (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Cliffside Park
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 2009
Place of death London