Betty Field

Field, Betty (1918–73), actress. A native New Yorker, she studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked in stock and in London before her Broadway debut in 1934 as a newspaper reporter in Miss Page Glory. Field appeared in a series of comedy hits in the 1930s but found richer characters in the 1940s, most memorably the imaginative Georgina in Dream Girl (1945), written for Field by her then‐husband Elmer Rice. Other notable Broadway performances were as Nora, the mystical Irish maid, in If I Were You (1938); the pert co‐ed Barbara in What a Life (1938); the amorous dipsomaniac Mildred Tynan in The Ladies of the Corridor (1953); the troubled society woman Deborah in A Touch of the Poet (1958); and the worried, secretive Mrs. Evans in the 1963 revival of Strange Interlude. Field's final Broadway appearance before her premature death was as the Nurse in Edward Albee's drama All Over (1971).

• Born: Feb 08, 1918 in Boston, Massachusetts
• Died: Sep 13, 1973 in Hyannis, Massachusetts
• Occupation: Actor
• Active: '40s-'60s
• Major Genres: Drama, Romance
• Career Highlights: Bus Stop, Kings Row, Of Mice and Men
• First Major Screen Credit: Of Mice and Men (1939)

Biography

Betty Field was a versatile character and lead actress said to have never repeated a characterization. She attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before appearing professionally in summer stock in 1933. The following year, Field made her Broadway debut and soon became a popular ingenue in George Abbott's comedies of the late '30s. She made her premiere feature-film appearance in What a Life (1939), reprising her role in a Broadway play of the same name. With her provocative performance in Of Mice and Men (1940), she established herself as a significant actress. Throughout the '40s, Field alternated between Broadway plays and Hollywood films. On screen she tended to play neurotic, hard-bitten women. After only making one film around 1950, Field did not return to steady film work until after 1956, when she became a character actress frequently cast as unkempt but well-meaning mothers. One of her three marriages was to playwright Elmer Rice, who wrote several plays as vehicles for her. Betty Field died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1973. ~ All Movie Guide

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