Betsy Blair

Betsy Blair was an American film and stage actress who spent much of her career based in London. She began performing as a child, working as a dancer and model. In 1940 she joined the chorus at Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe. She moved into the theater, playing the female lead in William Saroyan's The Beautiful People. Her early screen work included supporting parts in A Double Life (1947) and Another Part of the Forest (1948), plus a role in The Snake Pit (1948). For Marty (1955), in which she played the girlfriend, she was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress and received prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. Later films included Calle Mayor (1956) and Il Grido (1957), and she worked with Costa-Gavras on Betrayed (1988). She appeared in the 1994 mini-series Scarlett and served on the jury at the 1980 Berlin International Film Festival. Her autobiography, The Memory of All That, came out in 2003.