Betsy Blair

BETSY BLAIR

ELIZABETH WINIFRED ROGER

December 11, 1923 (Cliffside Park, Newark, New Jersey, USA) - March 13, 2009 (London, UK).

Her real first and last name is Elizabeth Winfer Rogers.

From an early age she studied dance and had success in dance competitions. At the age of twelve a talented girl filmed for advertising in magazines, graduated from college in 1948 and moved to New York, where she began working as a chorister in the orchestra B. Rose.

Blair met the famous dancer, choreographer and movie musical actor Gene Kelly and became his wife in 1940.

Her ability to move and her voice led Blair to Broadway in 1941.

She had been in the movies since 1947, in the movie The Guilt of Janet Ames. The first successful film for the actress was the tape "Snake Pit" (1948, directed by A. Litvak).

Only in 1955 came the real fame in the film directed by Delbert Mann "Marty", where Betsy Blair played simple, shy, unsophisticated, not very happy heroine Clara. The actress was nominated for an Oscar, won the Cannes IFF Award, received other awards.

In 1956, the actress divorced Gene Kelly and permanently moved to Europe. Lived from 1957 in London. Here she has had another success, Blair played one of the most significant roles in his kinokarera - Isabel in the film by Spanish director J.A. Bardem "Main Street", creating a poignant human image, the story of the survival of a small man in the cruel environment of the provincial town. Woman abandoned and unloved, but still loving Blair played and in Michelangelo Antonioni′s "Scream" ("Desperation").

In the 60's the actress played mostly in Italy, in later years was filmed in France and England. One of the last roles of the actress in the television series "Scarlett" (2003), where she played the role of Sister Mercy.

From 1957 she was married to producer and director Karel Reiz until his death in 2002.

She died of blood cancer at the age of 86 in a London hospital.

PRIZES AND AWARDS

BAFTA Award (1955):

Best Foreign Actress ("Marty")