Betty Garrett

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Betty Garrett
from the trailer for Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)
Born	Betty Garrett May 23, 1919 (1919-05-23) (age 90) St. Joseph, Missouri
Years active	1942–present
Spouse(s)	Larry Parks (1944–1975) (his death)

Betty Garrett (born May 23, 1919, St. Joseph, Missouri) is an American actress, comedienne and dancer who was part of the golden era of the movie musicals. However, she is probably best known for a pair of roles in two prominent 1970s sitcoms: Archie Bunker's liberal next-door neighbor, Irene Lorenzo, in All in the Family and landlady (and later Laverne's stepmother) Edna Babish in Laverne and Shirley.

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 the 1943 Broadway musical Something for the Boys. Other Broadway shows followed: Jackpot (1944), Laffing Room Only (1944), and Call Me Mister (1948), where her rendition of "South America, Take It Away" won her the Donaldson Award, the forerunner of the Tony Award.

Garrett (left) with Ann Miller and Vera-Ellen in On the Town (1949)

She married Larry Parks, star of The Jolson Story (1946) and Jolson Sings Again (1949), in 1944. They moved to California, where she made her film debut in Big City (1948), playing alongside Margaret O'Brien. She was also featured in Words and Music (1948), On the Town (1949), Take Me Out To The Ball Game (1949), Neptune's Daughter (1949), and My Sister Eileen (1955). She also began appearing on television in drama and variety shows, and made recordings.

In 1951, Parks was one of the blacklisted "Hollywood 19" brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Although Garrett was never accused, her Hollywood career suffered because of her husband's predicament. Garrett and Parks formed a musical team and toured nightclubs and theatres in the United States and England. One of the reasons the couple started acting in England was because her husband's blacklisting made it hard for them to work in the states. The two also appeared together on Broadway in Bells Are Ringing (1956) and Beg, Borrow or Steal (1960). The couple remained married until Parks' death in 1975. They had two sons: composer Garrett and actor Andrew.

Not restricted to stage and film musicals, Garrett starred in plays such as A Girl Could Get Lucky (1964), 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 her 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. In 2001, she returned to the Broadway stage in the role of Hattie Walker for the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Follies.

In late 1973, she played the liberal nemesis of conservative Archie Bunker in the television sitcom All in the Family. 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 marries Laverne's father, Frank DeFazio (played by Phil Foster). She remained with the series until 1982, when her character divorced Frank.

Betty also ventured into directing with Arthur Miller's The Price at Theatre West. Her effort gained critical acclaim.

Garrett received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 2003.

Recently in October, 2008 she appeared in the play Waiting in the Wings at the Theatre West, Los Angeles.

Filmography

• Big City (1948)
• Words and Music (1948)
• Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)
• Neptune's Daughter (1949)
• On the Town (1949)
• My Sister Eileen (1955)
• The Shadow in the Window (1957)
• Trail of the Screaming Forehead (2007)
• Dark and Stormy Night (2009)

Broadway theatre

• Of V We Sing (1942)
• Let Freedom Sing (1942)
• Something for the Boys (1943-1944)
• Jackpot (1944)
• Laffing Room Only (1944-1945)
• Call Me Mister (1946-1948)
• Bells Are Ringing (1956-1959)
• Beg, Borrow Or Steal (1960)
• Spoon River Anthology (1963-1964)
• A Girl Could Get Lucky (1964)
• The Supporting Cast (1981)
• Meet Me in St. Louis (1989-1990)
• Follies (2001)

Television

• The Ford Television Theatre (1957)
• The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1961)
• The Lloyd Bridges Show (1962)
• The Fugitive (1964)
• All in the Family (1973 - late 1975)
• The Love Boat (1978)
• Laverne and Shirley (1978–1982)
• All the Way Home (1981)
• Mr. Merlin (1982)
• Murder, She Wrote (1991)
• The Golden Girls (1991)
• Harts of the West (1994)
• The Good Life (1994)
• Townies (1996)
• Union Square (1998)
• The Long Way Home (1998)
• Boston Public (2003)
• Becker (2003)
• Grey's Anatomy (2006)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Betty Garrett

• Betty Garrett at the Internet Movie Database
• Betty Garrett at the Internet Broadway Database
• Betty Garrett at TVGuide.com
• Betty Garrett at Turner Classic Movies
• Archive of American Television Interview with Betty Garrett in May 21, 2003 on Google Video
• Betty Garrett's autobiography Betty Garrett and Other Songs: A Life on Stage and Screen (ISBN 1568331339)