Bette Ford

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Bette Ford , born Harriet Elizabeth Dingeldein (born June 24, 1937 in McKeesport , Pennsylvania ) is an American film and television actress and professional bullfighter . She was the first American woman to fight on foot in the Plaza México , the world's largest bullring.

life and career

Bette Ford was born in the industrial city of McKeesport, PA as the daughter of steel worker Charles M. Dingeldein , whose father immigrated to the USA with his parents from Reichelsheim (Odenwald) in 1881 , and Madeleine née Knee .

She began her career as a model in New York under the name Elizabeth George , where she showed off swimwear and advertised soaps ( Camay ) and cigarettes. She was also a regular guest on entertainment shows on television.

During a photo shoot in Bogotá , Colombia , she met the well-known torero Luis Miguel Dominguín and his work. Shortly afterwards, she went to Mexico in 1954 to train as a bullfighter - now under the name Bette Ford . Warner Bros. shot the documentary Beauty and the Bull about it , which was nominated for an Oscar in 1955 in the category Best Short Film (two film roles) . This was followed by a time as a celebrated bullfighter in Mexico and the Philippines for Bette Ford .

When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , who had already offered Bette Ford a contract in New York before training as a bullfighter, was planning to make a feature film based on her life story, she met the film writer John Meston ( including co-author and idea generator for Smoking Colts ). A short time later both married and Bette Ford withdrew from bullfighting.

After her bullfighting career, she appeared in numerous television series (see filmography ), but she also took on roles in the films Honkytonk Man (1982) and Dirty Harry Comes Back (1983) , which were directed by Clint Eastwood , and later in the feature film Fatal Contract - Door to Door with Death (1998). She also worked as a speaker in commercials and setting animation films (e.g. Animatrix ).

Filmography

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Muriel Feiner, Women in the Bullring (Gainesville, University Press of Florida), 2003; ISBN 0813026296
  2. ↑ Die Dingeldein from the Odenwald (see literature), p. 422. - Deviating from Bette Ford's own information, this genealogical source states that the year of birth was around 1924 ; her brother George C. Dingeldein was born on November 19, 1922.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ford, Bette
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dingeldein, Harriet Elizabeth (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film and television actress and bullfighter
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH McKeesport , Pennsylvania