Nancy Olson

Nancy Olson is an American actress born on July 14, 1928, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she was raised alongside her brother, David. Her father, Henry John Olson, was a physician, and her mother, Evelyn Bertha, was of Swedish descent. Olson went on to build a career spanning film, television, and Broadway before retiring from acting in the mid-1980s.

Paramount Pictures signed Olson to a film contract in 1948, and she quickly moved toward more prominent roles. She was considered for the part of Delilah in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949), a role that ultimately went to Hedy Lamarr. Her first significant screen credit came in Canadian Pacific (1949) opposite Randolph Scott. That same year, director Billy Wilder cast her as Betty Schaefer in Sunset Boulevard (1950), a performance that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her on-screen pairing with William Holden was well received, and the two subsequently appeared together in Union Station, Force of Arms, and Submarine Command. Her work in Sunset Boulevard also led to a guest appearance on the radio program Dimension X in a September 15, 1950, episode titled "Hello Tomorrow."

Additional film work during the 1950s included Big Jim McLain (1952), So Big (1953), and Battle Cry (1955), all made for Warner Bros. Olson also developed a notable association with Walt Disney productions. She appeared alongside Hayley Mills in Pollyanna (1960) and starred opposite Fred MacMurray in The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and its sequel, Son of Flubber (1963). Later Disney credits included Smith! (1969) with Glenn Ford and Snowball Express (1972) with Dean Jones. She also appeared in the disaster film Airport 1975 (1974). In 1997, she made a brief, uncredited appearance in Flubber, the remake of The Absent-Minded Professor, and she returned to the screen once more in Dumbbells (2014).

After relocating to New York City, Olson appeared on Broadway between 1957 and 1961. Her stage credits include the comedy The Tunnel of Love, Send Me No Flowers, and Mary, Mary. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s she also took on guest roles in television, among them a December 1, 1965, appearance on The Big Valley in an episode titled "Night of the Wolf," in which she played the mother of Ron Howard's character.

In her personal life, Olson married lyricist Alan Jay Lerner in 1950, becoming his third wife. The couple had two daughters, Liza and Jennifer, before divorcing in 1957. In 1962 she married Alan W. Livingston, a longtime Capitol Records executive known for creating Bozo the Clown and for signing artists including The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and Judy Garland to the label. They had one son, Christopher. Livingston died in 2009. In 2022, Olson published a memoir titled A Front Row Seat: An Intimate Look at Broadway, Hollywood, and the Age of Glamour.