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)
- Something in the Wind as Society Matron (uncredited)
- Jiggs and Maggie in Society as Mrs. Vacuum
1946
- Undercurrent as Saleslady (uncredited)
- The Postman Always Rings Twice as Customer (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
- Presenting Lily Mars as Dowager
- Girls in Chains as Mrs. Grey
- Crime Doctor as Mrs. Harrington
- Bar 20 as Mrs. Stevens
- Sarong Girl as Miss Ellsworth
- Mr. Muggs Steps Out
- Spotlight Scandals as Mrs. Baker
1942
- Dawn on the Great Divide as Mrs. Elmira Corkle
- Inflation as Next Door Neighbor Who Begins Hoarding (uncredited)
- Freckles Comes Home as Minerva Potter
- House of Errors as Mrs. Martha Randall
- Piano Mooner as Society Woman
1941
- Our Wife as Minor Role (uncredited)
- Sis Hopkins as Mrs. Farnsworth
- Honky Tonk as Mrs. Wilson
- Federal Fugitives as Marcia
- Top Sergeant Mulligan as Mrs. Lewis
- The Miracle Kid as Madame Gloria
- Puddin' Head as Mrs. Bowser
- Tuxedo Junction as Miss Hornblower
1940
- Misbehaving Husbands as Effie Butler
- Earl of Puddlestone as Millicent Potter-Potter
1939
- The Women as Mrs. South (uncredited)
1938
- Hold That Kiss as Wedding Guest at Piermont's
- Gangster's Boy as Mrs. Davis
- Delinquent Parents as Mrs. Wharton
- Romance of the Limberlost as Mrs. Parker
- 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
- Murder at Glen Athol as Ann Randel
- Rainbow on the River as Flower Buyer (uncredited)
- Yours for the Asking as May (uncredited)
1935
- I've Been Around
- Cheers of the Crowd as Lil Langdon Walton
- Western Courage as Mrs. Hanley
- The Spanish Cape Mystery as Mrs. Godfrey
- The Perfect Clue as Ursula Chesebrough
1934
- The Scarlet Letter as Innkeeper
- Night Alarm as Mrs. Elizabeth Van Dusen
- Badge of Honor as Mrs. Claire van Alstyne
- Money Means Nothing as Mrs. Ferris
- Two Heads on a Pillow as Mrs. Agnes Walker
- A Girl of the Limberlost as Mrs. Parker
- Ever Since Eve as Mrs. Vandergrift
1933
- Only Yesterday as Mrs. Vincent (Uncredited)
- Before Midnight as Mavis Fry
- Pilgrimage as Janet Prescot
1932
- Back Street as Gossip (uncredited)
- Tom Brown of Culver as Dolores Delight
- Lena Rivers as Mathilda Nichols
1931
- Stars of Yesterday as Self
1928
- Glorious Betsy as Princess Fredericka
- Into No Man's Land as The Countess
- Stolen Love as Modiste
- Domestic Troubles as Carrie
- Sisters of Eve as Mrs. Wenham Gardner
1927
- Snowbound as Julia Barry
- The Girl from Gay Paree as Mademoiselle Fanchon
- A Million Bid as Mrs. Gordon
1924
- The Breath of Scandal as Sybil Russell
- Chu-Chin-Chow as Zahrat
- In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter as Rita Sismondi
- Folly of Vanity as Mrs. Ridgeway (modern sequence)
- Southern Love as Dolores
- The Spitfire as Jean Bronson
1923
- The Truth About Wives as Helen Frazer
1922
- Fair Lady as Countess Margherita
- His Wife's Husband as Olympia Brewster
- How Women Love as Rosa Roma
1921
- Mother o' Mine as Fan Baxter
- Disraeli
- Charge It as Mille Garreth
- The Queen of Sheba as Queen of Sheba
1920
- The Third Generation as Helen Van Dusen
- The Silver Horde as Mildred Wayland
- Nomads of the North as Nanette
- Burnt Wings as Helen
- Occasionally Yours as Bunny Winston
1919
- The Undercurrent as Mariska
- Beating the Odds as Hebe Norse
1918
- Miss Ambition as Edith Webster
- 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
- Over the Top as Madame Arnot