Bette Henritze

Bette Joan Henritze (May 23, 1924 – February 22, 2018) was an American actress whose career spanned stage, film, and television across more than six decades. Born in Betsy Layne, Kentucky, to Ada Howell Henritze, a secretary, and William Price Henritze, an electrician, she relocated to New York City to train at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the HB Studio.

Henritze made her Broadway debut in 1948 in Jenny Kissed Me, performing under the name Bette Howe. By 1950 she was working with the company at the Barter Theatre in Virginia. Her Off-Broadway career began in 1956 with two Seán O'Casey plays, Purple Dust and Pictures in the Hallway. She subsequently joined the Phoenix Theatre Company, appearing in their 1959 production of The Power and the Glory as a peasant woman, followed by Lysistrata as Nikodike, and in 1960 by Peer Gynt, She Stoops to Conquer, and The Plough and the Stars as Bessie. In 1963 she portrayed Mary Todd Lincoln in Abe Lincoln in Illinois at the Phoenix, and that same year joined the original cast of Edward Albee's The Ballad of the Sad Café, which starred Colleen Dewhurst. At Circle in the Square she played Emilia in Othello in 1964 and took various roles in the 1965 production of Bertolt Brecht's Baal. She also performed with the New York Shakespeare Festival in The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale, and King Lear.

In 1967, Henritze was the sole female recipient of the Obie Award for Best Actress, recognized for her Off-Broadway performances across six productions: Measure for Measure as Mariana, The Long Christmas Dinner as Ermengarde, Queens of France as Mademoiselle Pointevin, The Displaced Person as Mrs. Shortley, The Rimers of Eldritch as Mary Windrod, and All's Well That Ends Well as Mariana. The following year she appeared in the Broadway musical Here's Where I Belong, which closed after a single performance.

Her Broadway career continued across several decades and included a wide range of productions. In 1972 she played Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing and performed in the musical Lotta. She was part of the original Broadway cast of Over Here! in 1974, alongside Janie Sell and Phyllis Somerville, in a production nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical. In 1978 she played Susan Ramsden in Man and Superman, and in 1979 appeared in the Roundabout Theatre Company's A Month in the Country, starring Tammy Grimes. She starred in On Borrowed Time and was in the original Broadway cast of The Octette Bridge Club in 1985. In 1986 she performed Off-Broadway in Daughters alongside Marisa Tomei. She played Eva Temple in the 1989 Broadway production of Orpheus Descending, which starred Vanessa Redgrave, and the following year joined the original cast of Lettice and Lovage, starring Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack. Henritze also appeared in Giants, Sons of Giants and Dr. Cook's Garden during her Broadway tenure. Her final Broadway credits were Inherit the Wind in 1996 and the original cast of Noël Coward's Waiting in the Wings in 1999.

On screen, Henritze made her film debut in the Oscar-winning The Hospital in 1971, followed by Rage in 1972. She appeared in the Oscar-nominated The World According to Garp in 1982, Brighton Beach Memoirs as Mrs. Murphy in 1986, Other People's Money as Emma in 1991, and The Object of My Affection as Mrs. Skinner in 1998. She played Dolores Engler in Judy Berlin in 1999, appeared as Mrs. Leacock in the Oscar-nominated Far from Heaven in 2002, and as Annie in Taking Woodstock in 2009. In 1970 she portrayed Anna Ames in The Happiness Cage, a role she reprised in the film adaptation. Her television work included The Edge of Night, The Defenders, East Side/West Side, and the role of the Mother in the 1965 special The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood, starring Liza Minnelli. In 1973 she reprised her stage role of Ursula in a television filming of Much Ado About Nothing, and in 1996 she appeared in the Emmy Award-winning television movie Harvest of Fire.

Henritze died on February 22, 2018, in Lynbrook, New York, at the age of 93.