Zina Bethune (born February 17, 1945 in New York City) is an American actress, dancer and choreographer.
Bethune started formal ballet training at age 6 at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet.[1] By age 14 she was dancing with the New York City Ballet. As a child performer, she also appeared in several American daytime television dramas, including a stint as the first Robin Lang on The Guiding Light from May 1956 to April 1958. Zina Bethune played Franklin D. Roosevelt's daughter in Sunrise at Campobello in 1960.
Bethune starred as The Girl alongside the young Harvey Keitel's J. R. in Martin Scorsese's first feature movie Who's That Knocking at My Door. That movie was commercially released in 1967, although much of it (including Bethune's acting parts) was filmed in 1965 for Scorsese's film project at New York University.
Bethune also was featured on the CBS TV series The Nurses, 1962–1965, and other series, including Kraft Television Theatre (with Martin Huston in the series finale), Route 66, The Judy Garland Show, Pantomime Quiz, Hollywood Squares,The Invaders, Young Dr. Malone, and Dr. Kildare.
Throughout her life, Bethune has worked with disabled students. She herself was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11 and at 17 she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia.
Bethune founded Bethune Theatredanse in 1980, a multimedia performance company which has been designated as the official resident company of the Los Angeles Theatre Center. She founded Dance Outreach, now known as Infinite Dreams, in 1982, which currently enrolls about 1,000 disabled children in dance-related activities throughout Southern California.