Betty Blythe

Betty Blythe

actress

Betty Blythe was born on Sep 01, 1893 in USA. Betty Blythe's big-screen debut came with His Own People directed by William P.S. Earle in 1917. Betty Blythe is known for My Fair Lady directed by George Cukor, Audrey Hepburn stars as Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins. The most recent award Betty Blythe achieved is Walk of Fame. The upcoming new movie Betty Blythe plays is My Fair Lady which will be released on Dec 25, 1964.

Brunette, buxom matinee idol Betty Blythe capitalised on the 'roaring 20's' infatuation with exotic screen sirens to achieve a brief period of stardom. She was, notoriously, one of the first actresses to ever appear nude (or in various stages of undress) on screen. It wasn't that Betty couldn't act, as well; in fact, she had studied art in Paris and at USC and had appeared on stage in a number of traditional plays like "So Long Letty" in both London and New York. In 1918, she joined a roommate on a visit to the Vitagraph Studio in Brooklyn and found immediate employment when one of the directors needed a leading lady. Two years later, she wound up in Hollywood, was signed by Fox Studios as a replacement for Theda Bara and became the protégée of J. Gordon Edwards (grandfather of Blake Edwards of 'Pink Panther' fame. She was eventually cast as the star of one of the most lavishly produced films of the decade, La glorieuse Reine de Saba (1921), directed, of course, by Edwards. Betty later recalled that she was given 28 costumes to wear, all of which would have fit comfortably into a shoe box. Alas, only a few stills of the movie survive, a fate shared by most of her other silent films.Betty's career was put on hold when Edwards quarreled with Fox and left the studio. For a while, she freelanced, playing leads in films for lesser studios. She did have a couple of hits in England with Chu-Chin-Chow (1923) and She (1925), in addition to doing theatrical work, which helped her to smoothly make the transition from silent to talking pictures. By that time, however, public tastes had changed and Betty had aged sufficiently to be classified as a character actress. To her credit, she persisted and appeared in support in many an A-grade production, her swan song being a small role in the ballroom scene of My Fair Lady (1964).

  • Birthday

    Sep 01, 1893
  • Place of Birth

    Los Angeles, California, USA

Known For

Awards

1 wins & 0 nominations

Walk of Fame
1960
Motion Picture
Winner - Star on the Walk of Fame

Movies & TV Shows

All
Movies