Betsy Blair

Betsy Blair, born Elizabeth Winifred Boger on December 11, 1923, in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, was an American actress who worked across stage, film, and television. Her father, William Kidd Boger, was a partner in a small insurance brokerage firm, and her mother, Frederica Ammon, was a schoolteacher. Blair died of cancer in London on March 13, 2009.

Blair's pursuit of performance began at age eight, when she enrolled in the Swift Sisters School of Dance. As a child she performed before Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933, won an amateur contest shortly thereafter, joined a touring amateur show, and appeared on local radio. She also joined the John Robert Powers modeling agency, where she was in regular demand by age twelve. Blair enrolled in the Professional Children's School before her mother returned her to local school; she graduated at fifteen and received a scholarship to Sarah Lawrence College, though the board of admission asked her to wait one year before enrolling.

During that interim year, Blair joined the chorus at the International Casino in Times Square, and when that venue closed she moved to the chorus of Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe beginning in January 1940, where Gene Kelly was working as choreographer. The two married in 1941, when Blair was seventeen. They had one daughter, Kerry Kelly Novick, born in 1942, and divorced sixteen years after their marriage, in 1957.

Blair's Broadway career extended from 1940 to 1960. After leaving the Diamond Horseshoe, she joined the chorus of the musical Panama Hattie, a production whose chorus also included June Allyson, Doris and Constance Dowling, and Vera-Ellen. Choreographer Robert Alton, who had previously discovered Kelly, had spotted Blair during an unsuccessful audition for Louisiana Purchase. In early 1941, she secured her first speaking stage role when playwright William Saroyan cast her as St. Agnes of the Mice in The Beautiful People at the Lyceum Theatre, playing opposite Eugene Loring. The performance drew favorable notices from critics George Jean Nathan and Richard Watts, Jr. In 1945, Blair understudied the role of Laura Wingfield, played by Julie Haydon, in the original Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie, which starred Laurette Taylor. Her Broadway credits also include King Richard II and Face of a Hero.

During her early stage years, Blair developed an interest in Marxism after Kelly introduced her to Lloyd Gough, whose weekly Marxist study group she attended. She later attempted to join the Communist Party, though she revealed in her autobiography that her application was rejected on the grounds that she would be more valuable as the wife of the progressive Kelly. In the 1950s, Blair came under investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee and was blacklisted for several years. She nearly lost the role of Marty's girlfriend in the film Marty (1955), but was restored to the part after Kelly threatened to withdraw from It's Always Fair Weather. Her performance in Marty earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress as well as prizes from the Cannes Film Festival. Earlier film work had included supporting roles in A Double Life (1947), Another Part of the Forest (1948), and The Snake Pit (1948).

Following her divorce from Kelly, Blair relocated permanently to Europe. She appeared in Juan Antonio Bardem's Calle Mayor (1956) and Michelangelo Antonioni's Il Grido (1957). In 1963 she married Czech-born British director and producer Karel Reisz, who died in 2002. Blair continued to work sporadically in later decades, collaborating with Costa-Gavras on the film Betrayed (1988) and appearing in the miniseries Scarlett (1994). In 1980 she served as a jury member at the 30th Berlin International Film Festival. She filmed scenes for Stephen Daldry's The Hours (2002), initially playing the older version of Julianne Moore's character, though it remains unclear whether she withdrew or was dropped from the project. In 2003 she published her autobiography, The Memory of All That. She was survived by her daughter Kerry Kelly Novick, three stepchildren, and several grandchildren.