Georgia Backus

Georgia Belden Backus (October 13, 1901 – September 7, 1983) was an American actress, writer, director, and producer whose work spanned stage, radio, and film. Born in Columbus, Ohio, to a theatrical family, she was named for her uncle George Backus, a light comedic actor who appeared in Florenz Ziegfeld's original stage production of Way Down East. Backus began performing professionally at age 14, earning a place in a local stock company. She later attended Smith College and Ohio State University, where she served as leading lady and manager of the campus dramatic society, touring the state in that capacity before receiving her degree and pursuing a career in the theatre.

After relocating to New York, Backus worked in stock theatre and appeared on Broadway during the 1924–1925 season, with credits including The Assumption of Hannele and the drama The Family. Alongside her stage work, she began writing plays and short stories and transitioned into radio as an actress, writer, and director. In 1930, CBS appointed her dramatic director of the Columbia Broadcasting System, placing her in charge of all of the network's dramatic presentations to guide the development of the radio play as an emerging art form. She assembled an innovative team and launched three experimental dramas, beginning with Behind the Words: A Drama of Thoughts on December 26, 1930. She subsequently directed The Columbia Experimental Dramatic Laboratory (1931–32), a series that laid the groundwork for the Columbia Workshop. Backus also served as an audition director for The March of Time and was a featured member of its ensemble cast, and she appeared regularly on programs including Arabesque, Brenthouse, The Eno Crime Club, and The Palmolive Beauty Box Theatre.

In 1935, Backus married Harmon J. Alexander, a radio writer whose credits include The Burns and Allen Show. The couple moved to California in 1938, and in 1939 Backus joined Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre repertory company when its radio production relocated to Los Angeles. She performed on multiple episodes of The Campbell Playhouse, including adaptations of "A Christmas Carol," "Come and Get It," "Theodora Goes Wild," "The Citadel," "Rabble in Arms," and "Huckleberry Finn," among others. Her regular radio roles also included A Date with Judy, The Story of Holly Sloan, and NBC University Theatre.

Backus's film career began with Citizen Kane (1941), in which she played Miss Anderson, the severe attendant at the library of Walter Parks Thatcher. The following year she appeared in both The Magnificent Ambersons and I Married a Witch. Over the course of the 1940s and 1950s she accumulated supporting roles in approximately 30 motion pictures, with her performance as Mrs. Warren, a helpful neighbor with a garden, in Cause for Alarm! (1951) among her most widely noted screen appearances.

On September 19, 1951, Backus appeared under subpoena as an uncooperative witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating Communism in the motion picture industry. At a subsequent HUAC hearing on May 7, 1953, director-producer-writer Robert Rossen named Backus as one of more than 50 people he identified as Communists. Her career was ended by the Hollywood blacklist. Georgia Backus Alexander died September 7, 1983, in Sun City, California, and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.