Betty Garrett
Born: 1919-05-23 in Saint Joseph, Missouri, USA
Died: 2011-02-12
Known For: Acting
Biography
Betty Garrett (May 23, 1919 - February 12, 2011) was an American actress, comedian, singer and dancer, who starred in several Hollywood musicals and stage roles. She was at the top of her game when the Communist scare in the 1950s brought her career to a screeching, ugly halt. She and her husband Larry Parks, an Oscar-nominated actor, were summoned by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and questioned about their involvement. As the drama played out, a very pregnant Garrett was never called to testify, but her husband was. With his admission of Communist Party membership from 1941-1945 and refusal to name names, he made it to the Hollywood Blacklist. After the incident, Garrett and Parks worked up nightclub singing/comedy acts along with appearing in legit plays. Although Parks never quite shook off the blacklist incident, he did win a role in John Huston's film, Freud (1962). Garrett went on to appear in roles in many television series.
Filmography
2012
- Carol Channing: Larger Than Life as Self
2011
2009
- Dark and Stormy Night as Mrs. Hausenstout
- Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1940s: Stars, Stripes and Singing as (archive footage)
2008
2007
- Trail of the Screaming Forehead as Mrs. Cuttle
2005
- Grey's Anatomy as Eleanor
2002
- Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer as Self
2000
- Boston Public as Miriam Guber
- Frank Sinatra Memorial as Self
1998
- Becker as Mrs. Firth
- The Long Way Home as Veronica
1997
- Union Square as Agnes
1996
1994
- The Good Life as Phyllis
- That's Entertainment! III as (archive footage)
1986
1985
- The Golden Girls as Sarah
- That's Dancing! as Ruth Sherwood (archive footage)
1984
- Murder, She Wrote as Kit Parkins
1981
- Mr. Merlin
- All the Way Home as Catherine
1977
- The Love Boat as Martha McCoy
1976
- Laverne & Shirley as Edna Babish
1974
- Dinah! as Self
- That's Entertainment! as (archive footage) (uncredited)
1972
- Hollywood: The Dream Factory as Self (archive footage)
1971
- Great Performances as Mary Hallen
- All in the Family as Irene Lorenzo
1963
- The Fugitive as Margaret Ruskin
1962
1957
- The Shadow on the Window as Linda Atlas
1956
- The Dinah Shore Chevy Show as Self
1955
- My Sister Eileen as Ruth Sherwood
1950
- The Colgate Comedy Hour as Self
- The Costume Designer as Self (archive footage)
1949
- On the Town as Brunhilde Esterhazy
- Neptune's Daughter as Betty Barrett
- Take Me Out to the Ball Game as Shirley Delwyn
1948
- Words and Music as Peggy Lorgan McNeil
- Big City as Shoo Shoo Grady