Betty Bronson

Betty Bronson was an American actress of the silent era who went on to sound films and television. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, she grew up in East Orange. Her first screen job was a small part in Anna Ascends. At seventeen J. M. Barrie interviewed her and picked her over Gloria Swanson and Mary Pickford for the lead in Peter Pan (1924). She played Mary in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), then took the title part in A Kiss for Cinderella, another Barrie story that failed at the box office. She moved into talking pictures with The Singing Fool (1928) opposite Al Jolson and Sonny Boy (1929), and was the leading lady to Jack Benny in The Medicine Man (1930). She acted until 1933 and returned in Yodelin' Kid from Pine Ridge, a 1937 film starring Gene Autry. In the 1960s she did episodic television and features, ending with an uncredited role in Evel Knievel (1971).