Buckley, Betty (b. 1947), actress and singer. She was born in Big Spring, Texas, and educated at Texas Christian College before going to New York and studying acting with Stella Adler. A Broadway diva who took a long time to become a stage star, Buckley spent a lot of her career replacing others in hit shows, but she did get to originate some important roles on her own: Martha Jefferson in 1776 (1969), the aging glamour cat Grizabella in the American production of Cats (1982), and the Victorian actress playing the title male lead in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1985). Frank Rich in the New York Times described Buckley's performance in Cats as “a coursing delivery [that] rattles the rafters . . . in her ratty, prostitute‐like furs and mane she is a poignant figure of down‐and‐out catwomanhood.”

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.