Betty Garrett
Betty Garrett (born May 23, 1919 in St. Joseph , Missouri , † February 12, 2011 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actress , singer and dancer .
Life
Family and education
Betty Garrett was born to Curtis Garrett and his wife Octavia in St. Joseph, Buchanan County , Missouri. Her parents moved to Seattle when Garrett was three years old. The father worked as a traveling salesman . Because of his unsteady lifestyle and his alcoholism , the family lived in constant financial distress. The marriage eventually ended in divorce; her mother married a second time, her former fiancé, whom she had previously left because of her marriage to Curtis Garrett. Betty Garrett attended Annie Wright School in Tacoma , Washington state . There she organized theatrical performances and made her first acting experiences; She had her final role in the Shakespeare comedy What you want .
On the recommendation of the dancer Martha Graham , Garrett received a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater in New York City , where Garrett moved with her mother in the summer of 1936. From September 1936 she studied dance with Martha Graham and Anna Sokolow , acting with Sanford Meisner , music and singing with Lehman Engel and drama lessons, especially role studies for Shakespeare with Margaret Webster .
theatre
She made her professional acting debut in 1938 in a production of the Mercury Theater in a staging of the play Dantons Tod by Orson Welles . Garrett was hired as an understudy for a minor role; she also took over the voice of a screaming child behind the scene.
In 1942 she made her Broadway debut in a small role in the Revue Of V We Sing ; In 1943 she took on a small role in the musical Let Freedom Sing by Harold Rome . Producer Mike Todd hired Garrett in 1943 as the understudy of Ethel Merman and for a small role in the musical Something for the Boys by Cole Porter ; Due to Merman's illness, Garrett took on the female lead for some performances. She then engaged the producer Vinton Freedley for the musicals Jackpot and Laffin Room Only . Her breakthrough on Broadway came in 1946 with the musical Call Me Mister by Harold Rome, in particular through the song South America Take It Away , in which she ironically complained about the American preference for rumba and samba . In the late 1950s she was still on Broadway as Ella Peterson in the musical Bells Are Ringing by Jule Styne ; In 1958, she and Larry Parks were the understudies for Judy Holliday and Sydney Chaplin on their days off.
Garrett was active on stage until old age: on Broadway she played in 1989/1990 in the musical Meet Me in St. Louis ; In 2001 she took over the role of Hattie Walker in the musical Follies of Stephen Sondheim in which they the song Broadway Baby interpreted. In 2007 she appeared in Los Angeles as the actress Sarita Myrtle, who lives in a retirement home, in the play Waiting in the Wings by Noël Coward .
Movie and TV
Because of her Broadway success she received from Louis B. Mayer a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ; initially for a year. In January 1947 she made her film debut in the drama Big City ; directed by Norman Taurog she played the nightclub singer Shoo Shoo O'Grady. After another contract extension, Garrett starred in the musical Words and Music , a biopic about the lives of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart . In it she took on the role of Peggy Lorgan McNeil, whom Lorenz Hart, played by Mickey Rooney , rejects due to his small height. In this film she interpreted the song There's a Small Hotel .
She had her greatest film success in 1949 in the film musical Heut 'geht wir strolleln as the resolute taxi driver Brunhilde Esterhazy, who has her eye on the sailor Chip ( Frank Sinatra ). After a long break, she returned to the screen in 1955 with the musical My Sister Ellen , a story about two sisters who try their luck as artists in New York. at the side of Janet Leigh , she played the role of Ruth Sherwood, who aspires to a career as a writer.
Since the 1960s, Garrett also worked for television . She has taken on episode roles in various television series, including Auf der Flucht , Love Boat , Murder is Her Hobby , Golden Girls and Grey's Anatomy . She achieved particular success with television audiences in the 1970s with the role of the liberal neighbor Irene Lorenzo in the sitcom All in the Family . In the sitcom Laverne & Shirley , she took on the role of the landlady Edna Babish, who eventually marries Laverne's father.
Awards
In 1975 she received the Golden Globe Award in the category Best Supporting Actress - Series, Mini-Series or TV Movie . In 2003 she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .
Private
In the spring of 1944 Garrett met actor Larry Parks in Hollywood at an acting workshop at the Actor's Lab . The two married on September 8, 1944; the actor Lloyd Bridges was best man. The marriage lasted until Parks' death in 1975. The marriage resulted in two sons. The actor Andrew Parks and the composer Garrett Parks.
Parks, who was a member of the United States Communist Party , had to testify to the Un-American Activities Committee in the early 1950s and was blacklisted ; this also led to a career slump at Garrett. Garrett and Andrew played theater during these years, went on tours, played summer theater, appeared in revues and made guest appearances with vaudevilles , including in Great Britain .
Garrett died of an aortic aneurysm on the morning of February 12, 2011 at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles . A few days earlier, she had led a musical class for students at the Theater West in North Hollywood .
Filmography (selection)
- 1948: Big City
- 1948: Words and Music
- 1949: three-player game ( Take Me Out to the Ball Game )
- 1949: Neptune's Daughter ( Neptune's Daughter )
- 1949: Today we're going for a stroll ( On the Town )
- 1955: My Sister Ellen ( My Sister Eileen )
- 1957: The Shadow on the Window
- 1964: Auf der Flucht ( The Fugitive ; TV series, episode Escape into Black )
- 1973–1975: All in the Family (TV series, 24 episodes)
- 1976–1981: Laverne & Shirley (TV series, 97 episodes)
- 1978: Love Boat (TV series, episode Rocky / Julie's Dilemma / Who's Who? )
- 1987; 1991: Murder is her hobby ( Murder, She Wrote ; TV series, 2 episodes)
- 1992: Golden Girls ( The Golden Girls ; TV series, episode Old Boyfriends )
- 1998: The Long Way Home (TV movie)
- 2006: Gray's Anatomy ( Gray's Anatomy , TV Series, Episode Break on Through )
- 2009: Dark and Stormy Night
Web links
- Betty Garrett in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Betty Garrett in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
- Betty Garrett obituary in: The Daily Telegraph, February 13, 2011
- Betty Garrett, Antsy Cabby in 'On the Town,' Is Dead at 91 Obituary in: New York Times, February 13, 2011
- Betty Garrett dies at 91; versatile comedic actress obituary in Los Angeles Times February 13, 2011
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Betty Garrett, Antsy Cabby in 'On the Town,' Is Dead at 91 Obituary in: New York Times, February 13, 2011
- ↑ a b c Betty Garrett dies at 91; versatile comedic actress obituary in Los Angeles Times February 13, 2011
- ↑ Waiting in the Wings Performance Review , CurtainUp , Los Angeles Review 2007
- ↑ Betty Garrett ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biography at Turner Classic Movies
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Garrett, Betty |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American actress, dancer and singer |
DATE OF BIRTH | May 23, 1919 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Joseph , Missouri |
DATE OF DEATH | February 12, 2011 |
Place of death | Los Angeles , California |