Betty Blythe
Born: 1893-08-31 in Los Angeles, California, USA
Died: 1972-04-07
Known For: Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Betty Blythe (born Elizabeth Blythe Slaughter, September 1, 1893 – April 7, 1972) was an American actress best known for her dramatic roles in exotic silent films such as The Queen of Sheba (1921). She appeared in 63 silent films and 56 talking pictures (known as talkies) over the course of her career. She is famous for being one of the first actresses to appear on film in the nude, or nearly so, during the Roaring Twenties. She is reported to have said, "A director is the only man besides your husband who can tell you how much of your clothes to take off." Blythe began her stage work in such theatrical pieces as So Long Letty and The Peacock Princess. She worked in vaudeville as the "California Nightingale" singing songs such as "Love Tales from Hoffman". After touring Europe and the States, she entered films in 1918 at the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, then she was brought to Hollywood's Fox studio as a replacement for actress Theda Bara. As famous for her revealing costumes as for her dramatic skills, she became a star in such exotic films as The Queen of Sheba (1921) (in which she wore nothing above the waist except a string of beads), Chu-Chin-Chow (made in 1923; released by MGM in the US 1925) and She (1925). She was also seen to good advantage in less revealing films like Nomads of the North (1920) with Lon Chaney and In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter (1924), produced by Samuel Goldwyn. Other roles were as an opera star, unbilled in Garbo's The Mysterious Lady. She continued to work as a character actress. One of her last roles was a small uncredited role in a crowd scene in 1964's My Fair Lady. Betty Blythe's name lives on through the Betty Blythe Vintage TeaRoom in West Kensington.
Filmography
1964
- My Fair Lady as Lady at Ball (uncredited)
1956
- Runaway Daughters as Party Guest (uncredited)
1951
- Hollywood Story as Herself
1950
- Rebecca as Mrs. Danvers
1948
- Letter from an Unknown Woman as Frau Kohner (uncredited)
- Shed No Tears as Mrs. Peet (Uncredited)
- Luxury Liner as Miss Fenmoor (uncredited)
- Madonna of the Desert as Mrs. Brown
1947
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty as Floor Manager (uncredited)
- Jiggs and Maggie in Society as Mrs. Vacuum
- Something in the Wind as Society Matron (uncredited)
1946
- The Postman Always Rings Twice as Customer (uncredited)
- Undercurrent as Saleslady (uncredited)
- Joe Palooka, Champ as Mrs. Stafford
- The Undercover Woman as Cissy Van Horn
1945
- They Were Expendable as Officer's Wife (uncredited)
- Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood as Mrs. Murdock (uncredited)
- Adventure as Mrs. Buckley (uncredited)
- Docks of New York as Mrs. Darcy
1944
- Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat as Mrs. Manning
- A Fig Leaf for Eve as Lavinia Sardham
1943
- Crime Doctor as Mrs. Harrington
- Spotlight Scandals as Mrs. Baker
- Mr. Muggs Steps Out
- Presenting Lily Mars as Dowager
- Bar 20 as Mrs. Stevens
- Sarong Girl as Miss Ellsworth
- Girls in Chains as Mrs. Grey
1942
- Inflation as Next Door Neighbor Who Begins Hoarding (uncredited)
- Dawn on the Great Divide as Mrs. Elmira Corkle
- Freckles Comes Home as Minerva Potter
- Piano Mooner as Society Woman
- House of Errors as Mrs. Martha Randall
1941
- Honky Tonk as Mrs. Wilson
- Tuxedo Junction as Miss Hornblower
- Puddin' Head as Mrs. Bowser
- Our Wife as Minor Role (uncredited)
- Federal Fugitives as Marcia
- Sis Hopkins as Mrs. Farnsworth
- The Miracle Kid as Madame Gloria
- Top Sergeant Mulligan as Mrs. Lewis
1940
- Earl of Puddlestone as Millicent Potter-Potter
- Misbehaving Husbands as Effie Butler
1939
- The Women as Mrs. South (uncredited)
1938
- Romance of the Limberlost as Mrs. Parker
- Hold That Kiss as Wedding Guest at Piermont's
- Gangster's Boy as Mrs. Davis
- Delinquent Parents as Mrs. Wharton
- Life in Sometown, U.S.A. as Mrs. Himber (uncredited)
1937
- Topper as Mrs. Goodrich (uncredited)
- Espionage as Train Passenger
- What Do You Think? (Number Two)
1936
- The Gorgeous Hussy as Mrs. Wainwright
- Rainbow on the River as Flower Buyer (uncredited)
- Yours for the Asking as May (uncredited)
- Murder at Glen Athol as Ann Randel
1935
- The Spanish Cape Mystery as Mrs. Godfrey
- Cheers of the Crowd as Lil Langdon Walton
- The Perfect Clue as Ursula Chesebrough
- I've Been Around
- Western Courage as Mrs. Hanley
1934
- The Scarlet Letter as Innkeeper
- Two Heads on a Pillow as Mrs. Agnes Walker
- Money Means Nothing as Mrs. Ferris
- A Girl of the Limberlost as Mrs. Parker
- Night Alarm as Mrs. Elizabeth Van Dusen
- Ever Since Eve as Mrs. Vandergrift
- Badge of Honor as Mrs. Claire van Alstyne
1933
- Only Yesterday as Mrs. Vincent (Uncredited)
- Pilgrimage as Janet Prescot
- Before Midnight as Mavis Fry
1932
- Back Street as Gossip (uncredited)
- Lena Rivers as Mathilda Nichols
- Tom Brown of Culver as Dolores Delight
1931
- Stars of Yesterday as Self
1928
- Glorious Betsy as Princess Fredericka
- Stolen Love as Modiste
- Into No Man's Land as The Countess
- Domestic Troubles as Carrie
- Sisters of Eve as Mrs. Wenham Gardner
1927
- Snowbound as Julia Barry
- A Million Bid as Mrs. Gordon
- The Girl from Gay Paree as Mademoiselle Fanchon
1924
- Folly of Vanity as Mrs. Ridgeway (modern sequence)
- Chu-Chin-Chow as Zahrat
- In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter as Rita Sismondi
- Southern Love as Dolores
- The Spitfire as Jean Bronson
- The Breath of Scandal as Sybil Russell
1923
- The Truth About Wives as Helen Frazer
1922
- How Women Love as Rosa Roma
- Fair Lady as Countess Margherita
- His Wife's Husband as Olympia Brewster
1921
- Disraeli
- Charge It as Mille Garreth
- The Queen of Sheba as Queen of Sheba
- Mother o' Mine as Fan Baxter
1920
- Nomads of the North as Nanette
- The Silver Horde as Mildred Wayland
- The Third Generation as Helen Van Dusen
- Burnt Wings as Helen
- Occasionally Yours as Bunny Winston
1919
- Beating the Odds as Hebe Norse
- The Undercurrent as Mariska
1918
- Miss Ambition as Edith Webster
- Over the Top as Madame Arnot
- A Game with Fate as Elaine Huntington
- The Green God as Muriel Temple
- The Business of Life as Elena Clydesdale
- The King of Diamonds as Lucille Bennett