Betty Blythe

Acting

Betty Blythe

Born 1893-08-31 · Los Angeles, California, USA

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.

Acting credits

My Fair Lady poster
7.5

A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.

My Fair Lady

1964

They Were Expendable poster
6.5

After a demonstration of new PT boats, Navy brass are still unconvinced of their viability in combat, leaving Lt. "Rusty" Ryan frustrated. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, however, Ryan and his buddy Lt. Brickley are told they can finally take their squadron into battle. The PT boats quickly prove their worth, successfully shooting down Japanese planes, relaying messages between islands, and picking off a multitude of enemy ships.

They Were Expendable

1945

Honky Tonk poster
6.4

Fast-talking con-man and grifter Candy Johnson rises to be the corrupt boss of Yellow Creek, but his wife's alcoholic father tries to set things right.

Honky Tonk

1941

The Women poster
7.2

A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.

The Women

1939

Letter from an Unknown Woman poster
7.8

A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember. As she tells the story of her lifelong love for him, he is forced to reinterpret his own past.

Letter from an Unknown Woman

1948

The Postman Always Rings Twice poster
7.1

A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

1946

Undercurrent poster
5.9

After a rapid engagement, a dowdy daughter of a chemist weds an industrialist, knowing little of his family or past. He transforms her into an elegant society wife, but becomes enraged whenever she asks about Michael, his mysterious long-lost brother.

Undercurrent

1946

Miss Ambition poster
NR

A beautiful and ambitious young woman leaves her boyfriend for a famous sculptor, and later--after she models for his statue "Miss Ambition"--marries an old but wealthy art collector. However, things don't turn out quite the way she planned.

Miss Ambition

1918

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty poster
6.8

Walter Mitty, a daydreaming writer with an overprotective mother, likes to imagine that he is a hero who experiences fantastic adventures. His dream becomes reality when he accidentally meets a mysterious woman who hands him a little black book. According to her, it contains the locations of the Dutch crown jewels hidden since World War II. Soon, Mitty finds himself in the middle of a confusing conspiracy, where he has difficulty differentiating between fact and fiction.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

1947

Topper poster
6.7

Madcap couple George and Marion Kerby are killed in an automobile accident. They return as ghosts to try and liven up the regimented lifestyle of their friend and bank president, Cosmo Topper. When Topper starts to live it up, it strains relations with his stuffy wife.

Topper

1937

Presenting Lily Mars poster
6.5

Starstruck Indiana small-town girl Lily is pestering theatrical producer John Thornway for a role but he is reluctant.

Presenting Lily Mars

1943

Our Wife poster
6.8

A musician's ex-wife wants him back after he finds love and success.

Our Wife

1941

Fair Lady poster
8.0

Countess Margherita is a Sicilian girl who is about to be married, but Caesar Maruffi, the head of a criminal syndicate, wants her for himself. He arranges to have the bridegroom assassinated, and Norvin Blake, a young American (Robert Elliott), almost loses his life in his attempt to save him.

Fair Lady

1922

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood poster
5.8

When two bumbling barbers act as agents for a talented but unknown singer, they stage a phony murder in order to get him a plum role.

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood

1945

Snowbound poster
10.0

Assuming he is marrying a wealthy girl, Peter Foley passes a fraudulent check. To save him from jail, Julia Barry poses as his wife. Peter is actually in love with Alice Blake. He encounters complications with motorcycle cop Bull, who is engaged to Julia. A friend of Alice adds to the mix-up. All wind up snowbound together in a mountain lodge.

Snowbound

1927

The Third Generation poster
7.0

When Alden Van Dusen, a third-generation member of a prestigious old New York family, is faced with the alternatives of allowing his firm to go bankrupt or becoming involved in fraud, he decides on suicide. As he is about to drown himself, Alden is attacked by a thug and, in the ensuing struggle, his assailant is killed. Seizing upon the opportunity, Alden changes identities with the dead man and drifts West, where he becomes an employee in his firm's mine.

The Third Generation

1920

Adventure poster
6.4

A rough and tumble man of the sea falls for a meek librarian.

Adventure

1945

Federal Fugitives poster
6.3

A government agent goes undercover in order to apprehend a saboteur who caused a plane crash.

Federal Fugitives

1941

The Breath of Scandal poster
9.0

When Charles Hale is visiting his mistress, Sybil Russell, he is shot in the arm by Sybil's estranged and outraged husband. Hale's daughter, Marjorie, is so shocked to discover in this abrupt fashion her father's philandering that she leaves her wealthy home and goes to the slums to do settlement work. Marjorie, who is engaged to the district attorney, is there placed in a compromising position by her father's assailant, who intends to revenge himself upon the entire Hale family.

The Breath of Scandal

1924

Rainbow on the River poster
8.7

A young boy is forced to leave his family in the South and move in with relatives he doesn't know in New York.

Rainbow on the River

1936

Back Street poster
6.4

A woman's love for and devotion to a married man results in her being relegated to the "back streets" of his life.

Back Street

1932

Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat poster
6.5

To solve the murder of a man shot in a locked room, Chan must wade through a Fun House, the writings of an unscrupulous author, and chess pieces.

Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat

1944

Sis Hopkins poster
6.3

An unsophisticated farm girl enrolls in college and stars in the campus musical.

Sis Hopkins

1941

Girls in Chains poster
4.7

A fired teacher finds work at a girls reform school and helps a detective on a case.

Girls in Chains

1943