Betsy Blair was born in Cliffside, New Jersey, a child model before finding work as a chorus dancer at the early age of 15. She received her first mini-break on Broadway in "Panama Hattie" in 1940 delivering a single line, but by the next year she had copped the ingénue lead in William Saroyan 's "The Beautiful People." At around the same time, she met dancer extraordinaire Gene Kelly and married him in 1940. Despite her background in dance, Betsy was admittedly not in the same league as a Vera-Ellen , Cyd Charisse , or Ann Miller , so she was never afforded the opportunity to glide with Gene in films. Moreover, she never even appeared in a musical film. She made her large screen debut in 1947 and, for the next couple of years, appeared in a number of above-average dramas such as The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947), A Double Life (1947) starring Ronald Colman , The Snake Pit (1948), wherein she played a demented inmate alongside Olivia de Havilland , and a shining role in Another Part of the Forest (1948). After such promise, things came to a halt. Betsy had been involved in SAG politics as early as 1946 proposing the formation of the first Anti-Discrimination committee. Within a year the House Un-American Activities Committe began to investigate Betsy and others in the motion picture industry and what they considered left-wing extremist viewpoints. Her name appeared in the "Red Channels" and that was that. Her career was undone. By the early 1950s, all film offers had dried up. The only reason Betsy won the female lead in the 1955 cinematic classic Marty (1955) was because her husband threatened to stop shooting at MGM if they didn't let her work despite the blacklist. It would be the role of a lifetime for Betsy. As the touching plain-Jane girlfriend of Ernest Borgnine 's title butcher, Betsy won the Cannes Film and British Film acting award s, not to mention an Oscar nomination. It did not help her overcome the blacklist, however. By 1957, she was divorced from Kelly and had moved to Europe to avoid the Hollywood shun. In 1963, she married producer/director Karel Reisz . They would remain together for almost 40 years until his death in London of a blood disorder in 2002. Betsy later published her memoirs and discussed quite candidly her life on Broadway , life with Gene Kelly , and life amid the blacklisting. She continued to live in England before passing away from cancer on 13th March, 2009. She was 85 years old.
Blacklisted because of her left-wing sympathies, although she never actually joined the Communist Party. She wanted to join, but the Party decided that she was more useful as the wife of "liberal, progressive" Gene Kelly . Nonetheless, she was blacklisted despite an Academy Award nomination for Marty (1955). She later transplanted herself to England for a long period. Played Polly Draper 's character's mother on "thirtysomething" (1987) originally, but Lois Smith took over the role later for reasons unknown.Played "Old Laura Brown" in The Hours (2002). The director and producer believed that people would not recognize the character. Julianne Moore , who played "Young Laura Brown", re-shot her scenes with age makeup.Had a daughter, Kerry Kelly , born in 1942 with Gene Kelly .Chose a book of song lyrics and an ice cream maker as her book and luxury, respectively, as a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs (broadcast 17 June 2005). Her records included Gene Kelly 's "I Got Rhythm," Jimmy Durante 's "Someone To Love," and a song from "Porgy and Bess.".Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1980.Fluent in French.Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Actors Branch).Upon her death she was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in London, England. Her ashes are currently in possession of her daughter.
Marty is a 34-year-old butcher whose Italian family is constantly after him to get married. He meets plain-looking schoolteacher Clara. They are both lonely, unglamorous people who have resigned themselves to their unloved lives. But they manage, in time, to grope their way to love.
After living seven years with the mechanic Aldo, having a daughter with him, the simple woman Irma is informed that her absent husband had just died in Sydney. She becomes upset when Aldo proposes to marry her and she tells him that she is going to leave him. Unable to explain how much he loves her, Aldo takes their daughter Rosina and travels with her, meeting different women in different places, trying to establish a new relationship and fill the emptiness of his sentimental life. He visits his former lover Elvia; he meets and lives with the widow Virginia, who owns a gas station; he lives with the prostitute Andreina. But these relationships never complete the needy Aldo.