Betsy Blair

Acting

Betsy Blair

Born 1923-12-11 · Cliffside Park, New Jersey, USA

Betsy Blair -December 11, 1923 – March 13, 2009) was an American actress of film and stage, long based in London. Blair pursued a career in entertainment from the age of eight, and as a child worked as an amateur dancer, performed on radio, and worked as a model, before joining the chorus of Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe in 1940. There she met Gene Kelly. They were married the following year, when she was seventeen years old. The couple divorced sixteen years later, in 1957. After work in the theatre, Blair began her film career playing supporting roles in films such as A Double Life (1947) and Another Part of the Forest (1948). Her interest in Marxism led to an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee and Blair was blacklisted for some time, but resumed her career with a critically acclaimed performance in Marty (1955), winning a BAFTA Award and a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She continued her career with regular theatre, film and television work until the mid 1990s.

Acting credits

The Snake Pit poster
7.1

Virginia Cunningham is confused upon finding herself in a mental hospital, with no memory of her arrival at the institution. Tormented by delusions and unable to even recognize her husband, Robert, she is treated by Dr. Mark Kik, who is determined to get to the root of her mental illness. As her treatment progresses, flashbacks depict events in Virginia's life that may have contributed to her instability.

The Snake Pit

1948

Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There poster
7.0

Broadway: The Golden Age is the most important, ambitious and comprehensive film ever made about America's most celebrated indigenous art form. Award-winning filmmaker Rick McKay filmed over 100 of the greatest stars ever to work on Broadway or in Hollywood. He soon learned that great films can be restored, fine literature can be kept in print - but historic Broadway performances of the past are the most endangered. They leave only memories that, while more vivid, are more difficult to preserve. In their own words — and not a moment too soon — Broadway: The Golden Age tells the stories of our theatrical legends, how they came to New York, and how they created this legendary century in American theatre. This is the largest cast of legends ever in one film.

Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There

2003

Marty poster
7.5

Marty, a butcher who lives in the Bronx with his mother, is unmarried at 34. Good-natured but socially awkward, he faces constant badgering from family and friends to get married but has reluctantly resigned himself to bachelorhood. He then meets Clara, an unattractive school teacher. Realising their emotional connection, Marty promises to call, but family and friends try to convince him not to.

Marty

1955

Mystery Street poster
6.8

When a young woman's skeletal remains turn up on a Massachusetts beach, Barnstable cop Peter Moralas teams with Boston police and uses forensics, with the help of a Harvard professor, to determine the woman's identity, how she died, and who killed her.

Mystery Street

1950

Betrayed poster
6.1

An FBI agent posing as a combine driver becomes romantically involved with a Midwest farmer who lives a double life as a white supremacist.

Betrayed

1988

A Double Life poster
6.4

A Shakespearian actor starring as Othello opposite his wife finds the character's jealous rage taking over his mind off-stage.

A Double Life

1947

Marry Me! Marry Me! poster
5.7

Claude and Isabella met on a beach one summer and got easily involved. But while he has dreams of settling down with a family, she just wants to have fun. When Isabelle becomes pregnant, Claude is advised by both families to marry but things get more complicated when he meets an English woman.

Marry Me! Marry Me!

1968

Careless poster
7.4

Emilio Brentani leads a peaceful and uneventful life with his older sister Amalia. Until he meets Angiolina Zarri, a beautiful but fickle, wayward and coquettish young woman. Unfortunately for him, Emilio falls madly in love with her.

Careless

1962

Kind Lady poster
7.0

Mary Herries has a passion for art and fine furniture. Even though she is getting on in years, she enjoys being around these priceless articles. One day she meets a strange young painter named Elcott, who uses his painting skill to enter into her life. Little does she expect that his only interest in Mary is to covet everything she has.

Kind Lady

1951

Descent Into Hell poster
4.9

The marriage of the famous writer Alan and his young wife Lola is in a crisis. On a vacation in Haiti Lola wants to decide if their relationship still has a future...

Descent Into Hell

1986

De Bom (of het wanhoopskomitee) poster
NR

One day a garage owner finds an atomic bomb that has been lost by an airplane. He hides the bomb and shakes the country when he announces that he will not return the bomb until the production of such weapons of destruction is stopped.

De Bom (of het wanhoopskomitee)

1969

No Way Out poster
6.9

Two hoodlum brothers are brought into hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one dies, the other accuses their Black doctor of murder.

No Way Out

1950

Il Grido poster
7.5

A sugar-refinery worker flees his Northern Italy town after a woman refuses his marriage proposal.

Il Grido

1957

Another Part of the Forest poster
7.8

This 'prequel' to The Little Foxes tells how the ruthless members of the old-South Hubbard family got that way.

Another Part of the Forest

1948

All Night Long poster
6.8

Over the course of one eventful evening, the anniversary celebration of the musical and romantic partners Aurelius Rex and Delia Lane, a jealous, ambitious drummer, Johnny Cousin, attempts to tear the interracial couple apart.

All Night Long

1962

Maggie poster
NR

Following the death of her husband, Maggie Webb finds herself left with numerous debts and back taxes. Her wealthy sister-in-law, Diane, hires her to her London-based PR firm.

Maggie

1986

Main Street poster
6.3

A small town in Spain, October 1955. Isabel, a 35-year-old dreamer who feels like a failure because she is not married yet, becomes the new target of a group of soulless pranksters.

Main Street

1956

The Guilt of Janet Ames poster
5.8

A hard-drinking reporter tries to help the embittered widow of the soldier who had saved his life during the war.

The Guilt of Janet Ames

1947

Death of a Salesman poster
NR

Willy Loman is an over-the-hill salesman who faces a personal turning point when he loses his job and attempts to make peace with his family: Willy's long-suffering wife Linda, and Biff and Happy, his troubled sons and his life.

Death of a Salesman

1966

A Delicate Balance poster
6.2

In their finely appointed Connecticut home, Agnes and Tobias have grown used to the imperfection and fragility of their marriage. Quietly nursing their grief over the death of their son, they get by well enough together. Agnes' boozy sister wanders in and out, and they allow anxiety-stricken friends to move into an upstairs room. But, when their daughter, Julia, shows up announcing her fourth divorce, long-repressed emotions come to the surface.

A Delicate Balance

1973

The Halliday Brand poster
6.2

Sheriff Halliday doesn't approve of his children dating or marrying half-breeds and his blind hate threatens to alienate his whole family.

The Halliday Brand

1957

The Dolphins poster
6.6

An acid portrait of Italian youth at the time, I DELFINI follows a dreary season of discontent and viciousness in the lives of a thoroughly unpleasant group of mostly rich youngsters in a small Adriatic coast city.

The Dolphins

1960

Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer poster
7.8

American Masters Series. Documentary on Gene Kelly that gives insight into his dancing, how he formed a style (first "blue collar dancer") and developed different cinematique techniques, such as brilliantly shot dancing sequences.

Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer

2002

Suspicion poster
6.5

A sheltered heiress falls for a charming playboy and elopes with him, but soon discovers his gambling vice and mounting debts. As his lies deepen and those around them meet mysterious ends, she begins to suspect that her husband’s affection may conceal a deadly motive—and that she could be his next victim.

Suspicion

1987