Betsy Blair
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| Betsy Blair | |
| Birth name | Elizabeth Winifred Boger |
| Born | December 11, 1923 (age 83) Cliffside Park, New Jersey, USA |
| Spouse(s) | Gene Kelly (September 1941-1957) Karel Reisz (1963-2002) |
Betsy Blair (b. Elizabeth Winifred Boger on December 11, 1923 in Cliffside Park, New Jersey) is an Oscar-nominated American character actress.
She was originally a dancer and was first married to actor/dancer Gene Kelly. They were married in September 1941, remained married for sixteen years and had one child together before divorcing in 1957. At the time she held some extreme political views and admittedly attempted to join the Communist Party. Her application was rejected as the Party felt she would be more valuable as the wife of the very liberal Kelly. He claimed to have had no knowledge of her political views and was insulated from political damage by his Irish Catholic extraction, which had also, by his own account, protected liberal actor Robert Ryan.
She starred in such films as A Double Life (1946) and The Snake Pit (1948) in the late 1940s. In the 1950s, she was under investigation from HUAC and almost lost one of her signature roles, that of Marty's girlfriend in Marty (1955). For this performance, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and prizes from the Cannes Film Festival. Her career, nonetheless, was damaged during the McCarthy era, and she found work on stage in New York City.
Following her divorce, Blair moved to Europe where she appeared in various films, including Michelangelo Antonioni's Il Grido (1957). She married director/ producer Karel Reisz in 1963, and would appear sporadically in other films, such as Costa-Gavras' Betrayed (1988) and the mini-series Scarlett in 1994. She was widowed in 2002.
Blair filmed scenes for Stephen Daldry's The Hours (2002), playing the older version of Julianne Moore's character. The producers realised it would be too confusing for audiences seeing the same character played by a different actress, so Blair was dropped and her scenes were reshot with Moore in old-age make-up.
