Betty Garrett
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Betty Garrett is an American actress and dancer who belonged to the golden era of the movie musical. However, she is probably best known for a pair of roles in two prominent 1970s sitcoms. In late 1973, she joined the cast of All in the Family, playing Archie Bunker's socially liberal next-door neighbor, Irene Lorenzo, a role she would remain in until her character was phased out in late 1975. The following year she joined the cast of Happy Days spin-off, Laverne and Shirley as Edna Babish, Laverne and Shirley's landlady, who eventually married Laverne's father. She remained with that series until 1982. She was married to Larry Parks, star of The Jolson Story (1946) and Jolson Sings Again (1949). However, in 1951, Parks became one of the blacklisted "Hollywood 19" to be brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Although she herself was never accused, her career Hollywood suffered because of her husband's predicament. She found out to her happy surprise that the blacklist did not extend to Las Vegas or New York City.
[edit] Performing Career
Betty Garrett trained at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse and, undecided between drama and dance, tried both, acting with Orson Welles' famed Mercury Theatre and performing with Martha Graham's dance company. For Garrett, musical comedy seemed a happy compromise. When she was performing with the American Youth Theatre, Mike Todd saw her and signed her to understudy Ethel Merman in Something For The Boys. Other Broadway �s followed: Jackpot, Laffing Room Only, and Call Me Mister, where her rendition of "South America, Take It Away" won her the Donaldson Award, the forerunner of the Tony Award. with her husband, Larry Parks, Garrett moved to California where she starred in On The Town, Take Me Out To The Ball Game, Words and Music, Neptune's Daughter, and My Sister Eileen. She also began appearing on television in drama and variety shows, and made recordings.
Garrett and Parks formed a musical team and toured nightclubs and theatres in the United States and England. Part of the reasons the couple started acting in England was because of her husband Larry Parks being black listed, which also affected her career, making it hard for them to work in the states. The two also appeared together on Broadway in Bells Are Ringing and Beg, Borrow or Steal.
A diversified performer, when not appearing in musicals for films and stage, she has played non-musical roles, starring in plays such as A Girl Could Get Lucky, And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little, and Plaza Suite. She also appeared in Spoon River Anthology, which originated at Theatre West, went to Broadway for a four-week concert engagement, and stayed a season. When it was revived in Los Angeles several years ago, Garrett won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for this performance. Her second Los Angeles Drama Critics Award came when she first presented Betty Garrett and Other Songs at Theatre West. She has also appeared in this production at the Westwood Playhouse in Los Angeles.
Betty also ventured into directing with Arthur Miller's The Price at Theatre West. Her effort gained critical acclaim. More recently Garrett received her Star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
She is also an alumna of the Annie Wright School in Tacoma, WA.
