Betty Furness

Acting

Betty Furness

Born 1916-01-03 · New York City, New York, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Elizabeth Mary Furness (January 3, 1916 – April 2, 1994) was an American actress, consumer advocate, and current affairs commentator. She began her professional career as a model before being noticed by a talent scout and being signed to a film contract in 1932 by RKO Studios. Her first film role was as the "Thirteenth Woman" in the film Thirteen Women (1932) but her scenes were deleted before the film's release. Over the next few years, she appeared in several RKO films, and became a popular actress. Among her film successes were Magnificent Obsession (1935) and the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film Swing Time (1936). By the end of the decade, she had appeared in over forty films, but during the 1940s, she found it difficult to secure acting roles. In 1948, Furness was performing in the television series Studio One, which was broadcast live. She filled in for an actor to promote Westinghouse products during the advertisement break, and impressed the company with her easy and professional manner. They offered her a contract to promote their products and she thus became closely associated with them.

Acting credits

Headline Shooter poster
6.3

A newsreel photographer neglects his love life to get the perfect shot.

Headline Shooter

1933

Swing Time poster
6.8

Lucky is tricked into missing his own wedding to Margaret and has to make $25,000 so her father will allow him to marry her. He and business partner Pop go to New York where they run into dancing instructor Penny. She and Lucky form a successful dance partnership, but romance is blighted by his old attachment to Margaret and hers for Ricky.

Swing Time

1936

Flying Down to Rio poster
6.3

An American bandleader woos a Brazilian beauty who is already engaged to his employer. His friends try to help him, while learning the local dance, The Carioca. The first pairing of Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, and their only pre-Code film.

Flying Down to Rio

1933

Emergency Call poster
6.3

A surgeon and an ambulance driver fight racketeers who take over their hospital.

Emergency Call

1933

Ace of Aces poster
5.9

A sculptor who doesn't want to have any part of World War I is shamed by his girlfriend into joining the fight. He becomes a fighter pilot, and undergoes a complete personality change.

Ace of Aces

1933

Ellis in Freedomland poster
NR

Westinghouse claims its electric appliances "freed women from the drudgery of housework." The first half involves a dream salesman at work; the second half is focused on the "Spring Sales Event," called "Freedomland."

Ellis in Freedomland

1952

A Wicked Woman poster
5.0

A woman and her children escape severe poverty and abuse. She successfully betters her family's condition while living with the secret that she killed her abusive husband in order to protect her children from him.

A Wicked Woman

1934

The Kill poster
8.0

Jeff and his family just moved into a small, rural community. When two sinister locals tamper with Jeff's water pump, a fight breaks out among the three. Jeff is seen as a fugitive in the eyes of this bloodthirsty community...and there seems to be no way to stop them. Studio One, Season 5, Episode 1.

The Kill

1952

McFadden´s Flats poster
8.0

Dan McFadden builds an apartment house in a working-class neighborhood on New York's East Side called "McFadden's Flats." At the same time, Dan and his wife Nora send their tomboyish daughter Molly to an expensive girls' school to teach her etiquette. Molly only agrees to go after her sweetheart, Sandy MacTavish, convinces her she should. When Dan is unable to complete the apartments because of a lack of money, Sandy's father Jock, a Scottish barber and Dan's best friend, secretly backs Dan's loan at the bank, even though Jock is known for his penny-pinching ways.

McFadden´s Flats

1935

The Defender (Studio One) poster
6.1

The pilot for the television series, "The Defenders." The story of Walter and Kenneth Pearson, a father-and-son legal team. Broadcast as two segments of "Studio One," the story relates how the Pearsons defend a young man accused of killing a woman during a robbery attempt.

The Defender (Studio One)

1957

Lucky Devils poster
6.4

Two Hollywood stuntmen compete for the same pretty extra.

Lucky Devils

1933

Scarlet River poster
5.6

Unable to find open range near Hollywood, western actor Tom Baxter and his troop head to Judy Blake's ranch to shoot their film.

Scarlet River

1933

Twelve Angry Men poster
7.8

Twelve Angry Men is a 1954 teleplay by Reginald Rose for the Studio One anthology television series. Initially staged as a CBS live production on 20 September 1954, the drama was later rewritten for the stage in 1955 under the same title and again for a feature film, 12 Angry Men (1957). The episode garnered three Emmy Awards for writer Rose, director Franklin Schaffner and Robert Cummings as Best Actor.

Twelve Angry Men

1954

Fair Warning poster
7.3

In California's Death Valley a chemistry whiz-kid helps a sheriff track the man who murdered a wealthy mine owner who had been staying at a fancy winter resort.

Fair Warning

1937

Studio One: Wuthering Heights poster
9.0

Mistreated foundling Heathcliff and his stepsister Catherine fall in love, but when she marries a wealthy man, he becomes obsessed with getting revenge, even well into the next generation.

Studio One: Wuthering Heights

1950

The President's Mystery poster
5.8

The screenplay for this mystery is based upon a story suggested to Liberty Magazine by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is the tale of a prominent lawyer who shocks his snooty friends, family and colleagues by abruptly abandoning his successful practice and his wife to find true happiness. He soon falls in love with another woman and continues to keep a low profile until he learns that his first wife stands accused of murdering him

The President's Mystery

1936

Mister Cinderella poster
7.0

Boston blueblood Aloysius Merriweather loves to play jokes on people and he's come up with a joy-buzzer of a doozy. He'll send barber Joe Jenkins in his place to a dinner party aimed at squeezing a few Merriweather millions. That Cinderella plan soon turns into a pumpkin coach with the wheels fallen off. Circumstances will force shave-and-a-haircut Joe to masquerade as Merriweather for much longer.The comedy comes fast and frantic in Mister Cinderella, from Hal Roach Studios.

Mister Cinderella

1936

The Band Plays On poster
8.3

A judge hands four wayward boys to a college football coach who turns them into backfield stars.

The Band Plays On

1934

Gridiron Flash poster
4.8

A college football team recruits a tough convict.

Gridiron Flash

1934

Let's Fall in Love poster
8.0

A carnival girl pretends to be Swedish in order to win a movie role.

Let's Fall in Love

1933

Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men poster
7.8

Tough Aggie gives a street guy polish and a rich kid gumption.

Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men

1933

Beggars in Ermine poster
7.3

John Dawson loses control of his factory when he is crippled in an accident caused by a rival. Destitute, he travels the country organizing the homeless to help him regain control of his steel mill.

Beggars in Ermine

1934

Magnificent Obsession poster
7.4

A playboy tries to redeem himself after his careless behavior causes a great man's death.

Magnificent Obsession

1935

Mama Steps Out poster
7.3

A Fort Wayne, Indiana housewife (Alice Brady) drags her husband (Guy Kibbee) and daughter (Betty Furness) to Europe for culture.

Mama Steps Out

1937