Betty Field(1916-1973)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Thespian Betty Field was born in Boston on February 8, 1916, the
daughter of a salesman and his wife. Ancestors on her father's side
were Mayflower colonists Priscilla and John Alden. Her parents divorced
while she was still young and Betty eventually learned to speak Spanish
while traveling with her mother to various Spanish-speaking countries
during her childhood. Mother and daughter settled in Newton, Massachusetts, after the mother remarried. Betty's passion for the theatre was sparked
during her early teens and by 1932 she was enrolled at the American
Academy of Dramatic Art. She made her professional debut in a 1933
summer stock production of "The First Mrs. Fraser" and soon was cast in
stage roles elsewhere. She even found work in a London theater
production of "She Loves Me" in early 1934.
Rather plaintive in appearance with flat but highly distinctive tones,
Betty's Broadway debut came about as an understudy in the comedy "Page
Miss Glory" in November of 1934, courtesy of
George Abbott, in which Betty also had a
minor role. Therafter she performed frequently in the comedy mold, and
in the service of Abbott, with such delightful plays as "Three Men on a
Horse (1935), "Boy Meets Girl" (1936) "Room Service" (1937) and "The
Primrose Path (1939), and earning fine reviews for the last two.
After seeing her performance on stage as Henry Aldrich's girlfriend
Barbara in "What a Life" (1938), Paramount executives utilized her
services when they transferred
What a Life (1939) to film. The
studio not only liked what they saw but signed her to a seven-year
contract. Throughout the 1940s Betty appeared in a variety of leading
ingénue and co-star roles. The important part of Mae, the farm girl, in
John Steinbeck's classic
Of Mice and Men (1939) starring
Burgess Meredith and
Lon Chaney was an early highlight, although
it didn't provide her the necessary springboard for stardom. Part of
the problem was that the rather reserved actress tended to shun the
Hollywood scene (she still lived quietly with her mother).
While performing for Abbott again on Broadway in "Ring Two" (1939),
Betty met the show's playwright Elmer Rice
and the couple married in 1942. Their three children, John Alden,
Judith and Paul, would appear on occasion with their mother on the
summer stock stage. Betty also enhanced husband Rice's plays "Flight to
the West" (1940) and "A New Life" (1943), which were designed
especially for her.
Betty offered consistent, quality work even when the movies she
appeared in met with less-than-stellar reviews. She was afforded the
opportunity to work with some of Hollywood's finest leading men,
including Fredric March in
Victory (1940) and
Tomorrow, the World! (1944),
John Wayne in
The Shepherd of the Hills (1941),
Robert Cummings in
Flesh and Fantasy (1943) and
Joel McCrea in
The Great Moment (1944). Tops on
the list was her heart-tugging performance as the anguished daughter
victimized by father Claude Rains in the
classic soaper Kings Row (1942).
She purposely did not renew her Paramount contract at this point and,
following another sterling performance in
The Southerner (1945), took a long
break from camera work. Back on Broadway, she appeared in such
distinguished plays as "The Voice of the Turtle" and her husband's
"Dream Girl" (Rice also directed) for career sustenance. She won the
New York Drama Critics Circle award for the latter in 1946. Her Hedvig
in Ibsen's "The Wild Duck" was also critically lauded.
An isolated return to Paramount to play what should have been a career
highlight ended up a major disappointment,. While her Daisy Buchanan in
F. Scott Fitzgerald's
The Great Gatsby (1949) had
mixed reviews (some felt she was miscast and not glamorous enough for
the part), the movie itself (which was extensively trimmed) and her
underwhelming co-star Alan Ladd were
also cited as problems. Still a marquee value on Broadway, however, she
displayed great range in such fare as "Twelfth Night", "The Rat Race",
"Peter Pan" (taking over for
Jean Arthur), "The Fourposter" (she
and Burgess Meredith replaced
Jessica Tandy and
Hume Cronyn) and "Ladies of the Corridor"
Betty's soulful features took on a hardened, careworn veneer by the
time she returned to Hollywood in the mid-1950's. Nevertheless, she had
a "Field" day as a character player appearing in a number of drab,
dressed-down roles. She lent credence to a number of fascinatingly
flawed small-town moms and matrons in films, among them
cream-of-the-crop hits Picnic (1955),
starring Kim Novak,
Bus Stop (1956) with
Marilyn Monroe and
Peyton Place (1957) headlining
Lana Turner and
Hope Lange. The stage plays "The Seagull",
"Waltz of the Toreadors", "Touch of the Poet" and "Separate Tables"
also accentuated this newly mature phase of her career.
TV took up a large percentage of Betty's time in the 1950s and 1960s
with a number of showcase roles. She continued at a fairly steady pace
but without much fanfare (as she preferred). Divorced from Rice in
1956, she married and split from lawyer and criminologist Edwin J.
Lukas before settling down permanently with husband/artist Raymond
Olivere in 1968. Betty's swan song in films was a small, featured part
in Clint Eastwood's
Coogan's Bluff (1968) as a floozie
type, looking noticeably older than she was. Mixing in such stalwart,
brittle roles on stage as Amanda in "The Glass Menagerie" and Birdie in
"The Little Foxes", she made one of her last theater appearances in the
difficult role of the mother in "The Effect of Gamma Rays on
"Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds" in 1971.
Betty suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage in Hyannis, Massachusetts in
1973, just as she was about to leave and film
The Day of the Locust (1975).
Cast in the flashy role of "Big Sister", an evangelist, her part was
taken over by Geraldine Page. At age 57,
Hollywood lost a somewhat undervalued talent who enjoyed the work more
than the stardom that often accompanied it.
daughter of a salesman and his wife. Ancestors on her father's side
were Mayflower colonists Priscilla and John Alden. Her parents divorced
while she was still young and Betty eventually learned to speak Spanish
while traveling with her mother to various Spanish-speaking countries
during her childhood. Mother and daughter settled in Newton, Massachusetts, after the mother remarried. Betty's passion for the theatre was sparked
during her early teens and by 1932 she was enrolled at the American
Academy of Dramatic Art. She made her professional debut in a 1933
summer stock production of "The First Mrs. Fraser" and soon was cast in
stage roles elsewhere. She even found work in a London theater
production of "She Loves Me" in early 1934.
Rather plaintive in appearance with flat but highly distinctive tones,
Betty's Broadway debut came about as an understudy in the comedy "Page
Miss Glory" in November of 1934, courtesy of
George Abbott, in which Betty also had a
minor role. Therafter she performed frequently in the comedy mold, and
in the service of Abbott, with such delightful plays as "Three Men on a
Horse (1935), "Boy Meets Girl" (1936) "Room Service" (1937) and "The
Primrose Path (1939), and earning fine reviews for the last two.
After seeing her performance on stage as Henry Aldrich's girlfriend
Barbara in "What a Life" (1938), Paramount executives utilized her
services when they transferred
What a Life (1939) to film. The
studio not only liked what they saw but signed her to a seven-year
contract. Throughout the 1940s Betty appeared in a variety of leading
ingénue and co-star roles. The important part of Mae, the farm girl, in
John Steinbeck's classic
Of Mice and Men (1939) starring
Burgess Meredith and
Lon Chaney was an early highlight, although
it didn't provide her the necessary springboard for stardom. Part of
the problem was that the rather reserved actress tended to shun the
Hollywood scene (she still lived quietly with her mother).
While performing for Abbott again on Broadway in "Ring Two" (1939),
Betty met the show's playwright Elmer Rice
and the couple married in 1942. Their three children, John Alden,
Judith and Paul, would appear on occasion with their mother on the
summer stock stage. Betty also enhanced husband Rice's plays "Flight to
the West" (1940) and "A New Life" (1943), which were designed
especially for her.
Betty offered consistent, quality work even when the movies she
appeared in met with less-than-stellar reviews. She was afforded the
opportunity to work with some of Hollywood's finest leading men,
including Fredric March in
Victory (1940) and
Tomorrow, the World! (1944),
John Wayne in
The Shepherd of the Hills (1941),
Robert Cummings in
Flesh and Fantasy (1943) and
Joel McCrea in
The Great Moment (1944). Tops on
the list was her heart-tugging performance as the anguished daughter
victimized by father Claude Rains in the
classic soaper Kings Row (1942).
She purposely did not renew her Paramount contract at this point and,
following another sterling performance in
The Southerner (1945), took a long
break from camera work. Back on Broadway, she appeared in such
distinguished plays as "The Voice of the Turtle" and her husband's
"Dream Girl" (Rice also directed) for career sustenance. She won the
New York Drama Critics Circle award for the latter in 1946. Her Hedvig
in Ibsen's "The Wild Duck" was also critically lauded.
An isolated return to Paramount to play what should have been a career
highlight ended up a major disappointment,. While her Daisy Buchanan in
F. Scott Fitzgerald's
The Great Gatsby (1949) had
mixed reviews (some felt she was miscast and not glamorous enough for
the part), the movie itself (which was extensively trimmed) and her
underwhelming co-star Alan Ladd were
also cited as problems. Still a marquee value on Broadway, however, she
displayed great range in such fare as "Twelfth Night", "The Rat Race",
"Peter Pan" (taking over for
Jean Arthur), "The Fourposter" (she
and Burgess Meredith replaced
Jessica Tandy and
Hume Cronyn) and "Ladies of the Corridor"
Betty's soulful features took on a hardened, careworn veneer by the
time she returned to Hollywood in the mid-1950's. Nevertheless, she had
a "Field" day as a character player appearing in a number of drab,
dressed-down roles. She lent credence to a number of fascinatingly
flawed small-town moms and matrons in films, among them
cream-of-the-crop hits Picnic (1955),
starring Kim Novak,
Bus Stop (1956) with
Marilyn Monroe and
Peyton Place (1957) headlining
Lana Turner and
Hope Lange. The stage plays "The Seagull",
"Waltz of the Toreadors", "Touch of the Poet" and "Separate Tables"
also accentuated this newly mature phase of her career.
TV took up a large percentage of Betty's time in the 1950s and 1960s
with a number of showcase roles. She continued at a fairly steady pace
but without much fanfare (as she preferred). Divorced from Rice in
1956, she married and split from lawyer and criminologist Edwin J.
Lukas before settling down permanently with husband/artist Raymond
Olivere in 1968. Betty's swan song in films was a small, featured part
in Clint Eastwood's
Coogan's Bluff (1968) as a floozie
type, looking noticeably older than she was. Mixing in such stalwart,
brittle roles on stage as Amanda in "The Glass Menagerie" and Birdie in
"The Little Foxes", she made one of her last theater appearances in the
difficult role of the mother in "The Effect of Gamma Rays on
"Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds" in 1971.
Betty suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage in Hyannis, Massachusetts in
1973, just as she was about to leave and film
The Day of the Locust (1975).
Cast in the flashy role of "Big Sister", an evangelist, her part was
taken over by Geraldine Page. At age 57,
Hollywood lost a somewhat undervalued talent who enjoyed the work more
than the stardom that often accompanied it.