Betty Lou Keim

Betty Lou Keim (September 27, 1938 – January 27, 2010) was an American actress who worked across stage, film, and television. Born in Malden, Massachusetts, she was the daughter of a choreographer and a dancer. Her family relocated to New York when she was five, and she began receiving dance training from her father at age six, later adding voice lessons to her studies.

Keim's performing career began at age seven, when she made her stage debut in Strange Fruit under the direction of José Ferrer. Her Broadway work spanned from 1945 to 1955 and included Crime and Punishment (1947), the musical Texas, Li'l Darlin' (1949), and The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1953). She became particularly associated with the play A Roomful of Roses, in which she portrayed a mean-spirited girl — a role that brought her significant recognition on Broadway in 1956.

Alongside her stage career, Keim established a presence in television, appearing as a guest performer in numerous series and landing a co-starring role in the short-lived 1953 sitcom My Son Jeep. Her film career began in 1956 with These Wilder Years, in which she appeared alongside Barbara Stanwyck and James Cagney. That same year, she reprised her A Roomful of Roses stage role in the film adaptation Teenage Rebel, playing the daughter of Ginger Rogers. In 1957, she took a supporting role in 20th Century Fox's The Wayward Bus, and the following year she appeared in Some Came Running. Her final acting credit was the television series The Deputy, in which she starred as Fran McCord from 1959 to 1960. During her active years in the industry, she pursued her education at the Lodge Tutoring School.

Keim retired from acting in 1960 following her marriage to actor Warren Berlinger. The couple had four children. She died on January 27, 2010, at her home in Chatsworth, California, from lung cancer, at the age of 71, and was interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery.