Beverly Roberts

Beverly Louise Roberts (May 19, 1914 – July 13, 2009) was an American actress, singer, and painter born in Brooklyn, New York. Over the course of her career she worked as a film actress, stage performer, and business executive in the entertainment industry.

Roberts began her career as a stage actress before a Warner Bros. talent scout discovered her singing in a nightclub in 1935. She signed with the studio and made her film debut the following year in The Singing Kid (1936), appearing alongside Al Jolson. Also in 1936, she co-starred with Humphrey Bogart in Two Against the World. In 1937 she appeared opposite George Brent in God's Country and the Woman, the first Technicolor film produced by Warner Bros. Between 1937 and 1939 she appeared in sixteen films. Roberts and Errol Flynn signed with Warner Bros. on the same day. She later left the studio, reportedly after losing significant roles to actresses including Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland. By 1940 she had returned to stage acting and singing, and in the late 1940s and early 1950s she made numerous appearances in radio and television.

Her Broadway career spanned from 1932 to 1944 and included five productions. Among her stage credits were the plays Girls in Uniform and The Passionate Pilgrim, the dramas Uncle Harry and Heart of a City, and the thriller Ten Little Indians.

In 1954, Roberts relocated to New York City to serve as administrator of the Theater Authority, an organization whose membership comprised the five major entertainment unions and which held jurisdiction over performers appearing at charity events and telethons. She held that position until her retirement in 1977, after which she moved to Laguna Niguel, California.

Roberts shared her life with actress Wynne Gibson, whom she had first met while both appeared in the 1938 film Flirting with Fate. Gibson followed Roberts to New York and the two maintained homes together on Long Island in West Babylon, New York, and in Laguna Niguel. Gibson died in 1987. Roberts never married and had no children.

In her later years Roberts received recognition for her early film work. She appeared in the 2000 documentary I Used to Be in Pictures, which featured interviews with former Hollywood actors and actresses reflecting on the industry's early era. In 2002 her 1936 film China Clipper was screened at the grand opening of the Del Mar Theater in Santa Cruz, California, where she was honored, and that same year she was recognized at the Cinecon Film Festival in Hollywood. On October 18, 2006, she appeared as a guest of honor at the 84th anniversary celebration of the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood alongside Sybil Jason, where a screening of The Singing Kid was followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience. Roberts died in her sleep at her Laguna Niguel home on July 13, 2009, at the age of 95.