Betsy Drake

Betsy Drake

Born: September 11, 1923
Died: October 27, 2015
in Paris, France
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Betsy Drake (September 11, 1923 – October 27, 2015) was a French-born American actress and writer. She was the third wife of actor Cary Grant. She began looking for work as an actress in New York City, supporting herself by working as a Conover model. She met the playwright Horton Foote, who offered her a job as an understudy in his play Only the Heart, which enabled her to join the Actors' Equity Association and thus become a professional actress.

After coming to the attention of the producer Hal Wallis, Drake was pressured by her agent to sign a Hollywood contract. She hated Hollywood and managed to get herself released from the contract by declaring herself insane. She returned to New York City and, in 1947, read for the director Elia Kazan for the lead role in the London company of the play Deep Are the Roots. Later that year, Drake was selected by Kazan as one of the founding members of the Actors Studio.

Cary Grant first spotted her in 1947 while she was performing in London. The two, who both happened to be returning to the U.S. on the RMS Queen Mary, struck up an instant rapport. At the insistence of Grant, Drake was subsequently signed to a film contract by RKO Pictures and David Selznick, where she appeared, opposite Grant, in her first film, the romantic comedy Every Girl Should Be Married (1948). New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther called her performance “foxily amusing”.

On Christmas Day 1949, Drake and Grant married in a private ceremony organized by Grant's best man, Howard Hughes, and deliberately chose a low-key, introspective private life. They delved into transcendentalism, mysticism, and yoga. She took up causes including the plight of homeless children in Los Angeles. In 1954, they bought the "Las Palomas" estate in the Movie Colony neighborhood of Palm Springs, California.

The couple co-starred in the radio series Mr. and Mrs. Blanding (1951). They appeared together in the comedy-drama Room for One More (1952), and Drake appeared in a number of leading roles in England and the U.S., and a supporting role in the satiric comedy film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). Drake subsequently gave up acting to focus on her other interests, such as writing. Under the name Betsy Drake Grant, her novel Children, You Are Very Little (1971) was published by Atheneum Books. She worked as a volunteer and studied at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, and earned a Master of Education degree from Harvard University.

Drake's last screen appearance was in the documentary film Cary Grant: A Class Apart (2005), in which she reflected on Grant and their time together, and denied rumors alleging he was bisexual. Description above from the Wikipedia article Betsy Drake, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies for Betsy Drake...

Cary Grant: A Class Apart
Title: Cary Grant: A Class Apart
Character: Self
Released: June 1, 2004
Type: Movie
Documentary that explores the life and career of leading man Cary Grant through film clips and interviews. Produced as S18E03 of the long running series American Masters.
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Cary Grant: A Celebration of a Leading Man
Title: Cary Grant: A Celebration of a Leading Man
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: June 5, 1988
Type: Movie
A retrospective of the life and career of actor Cary Grant, including clips from his films and interviews with his friends and co-workers.
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Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion
Title: Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion
Character: Julie Harper
Released: August 4, 1965
Type: Movie
When a native village is apparently terrorized by a Lion, the local sergeant enlists the help of a veterinarian working at a nearby animal study center. It is soon discovered that the Lion has a unique problem, it has double vision due to the fact that it is cross eyed and therefore cannot hunt. The Lion is taken back to the study center and is soon adopted by the vet's daughter. Meanwhile, a dangerous criminal is planning to capture young Gorillas and sell them on the black market...
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Title: Wanted: Dead or Alive
Character: Lucy Fremont
Released: September 6, 1958
Type: TV
Wanted: Dead or Alive is an American Western television series starring Steve McQueen as the bounty hunter Josh Randall. It aired on CBS for three seasons from 1958–61. The black-and-white program was a spin-off of a March 1958 episode of Trackdown, a 1957–59 western series starring Robert Culp. Both series were produced by Four Star Television in association with CBS Television. The series launched McQueen into becoming the first television star to cross over into comparable status on the big screen.
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Next to No Time
Title: Next to No Time
Character: Georgie Brant
Released: August 4, 1958
Type: Movie
Unassuming planning engineer David Webb finds himself on the Queen Elizabeth to New York with instructions to negotiate a high-powered loan. His lack of confidence means he is completely out of his depth, at least until he finds his personality changes every day during the hour the ship's clocks stop to make allowance for their westward passage.
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Intent to Kill
Title: Intent to Kill
Character: Dr. Nancy Ferguson
Released: July 16, 1958
Type: Movie
While resisting pressure from his upper-class wife to take a higher-paying job in London, a Montreal physician prepares to carry out brain surgery on a Latin American president. They don't suspect that a trio of assassins is also waiting, for their chance to carry out a political assassination on the operating table.
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Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
Title: Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
Character: Jenny Wells
Released: July 29, 1957
Type: Movie
To save his career, an ad man wants a sex symbol to endorse a lipstick but in exchange, she wants him to pretend to be her lover.
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Title: General Electric Theater
Character: Ellie
Released: February 1, 1953
Type: TV
General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.
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Room for One More
Title: Room for One More
Character: Anna Perrott Rose
Released: January 10, 1952
Type: Movie
Anne and "Poppy" Rose have three quirky kids. Anne has a generous heart and the belief in the innocence of children. To the unhappy surprise of her husband she takes in the orphan Jane, a problem child who already tried to kill herself once.
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Pretty Baby
Title: Pretty Baby
Character: Patsy Douglas
Released: September 16, 1950
Type: Movie
A young woman living in Manhattan pretends to be the mother of an infant in order to get a seat on the subway.
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The Second Woman
Title: The Second Woman
Character: Ellen Foster
Released: July 7, 1950
Type: Movie
In flashback from a 'Rebecca'-style beginning: Ellen Foster, visiting her aunt on the California coast, meets neighbor Jeff Cohalan and his ultramodern clifftop house. Ellen is strongly attracted to Jeff, who's being plagued by unexplainable accidents, major and minor. Bad luck, persecution...or paranoia? Warned that Jeff could be dangerous, Ellen fears that he's in danger, as the menacing atmosphere darkens.
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Dancing in the Dark
Title: Dancing in the Dark
Character: Julie Clarke
Released: December 2, 1949
Type: Movie
Emery Slade was one of the brightest stars in Hollywood in 1932, but by 1949 his career has hit the skids. Fortunately, he is able to convince studio head Melville Crossman to cast him in the adaptation of a hit Broadway show. Crossman has one condition: Slade must travel to New York and convince the female star of the stage production to join the film. Slade goes, but, when he eyes the winsome Julie Clarke, he hatches a different scheme.
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Every Girl Should Be Married
Title: Every Girl Should Be Married
Character: Anabel Sims
Released: December 25, 1948
Type: Movie
Anabel Sims is determined to find the perfect husband. She thinks she's found her man in Madison Brown, a handsome pediatrician. She then prepares an elaborate scheme to trap him into marriage