Betty Compson

For the actress who married NYC Mayor Jimmy Walker, see Betty Compton.

Betty Compson
Publicity photo, 1930
Born	Betty Luicime Compson (1897-03-19)March 19, 1897 Beaver, Utah, U.S.
Died	Glendale, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1915–1948
Spouse(s)	James Cruze (1925–1930) Irving Weinberg ( 1933 - 1937 ) Silvius Jack Gall (1944-1962) (his death)

Betty Compson (March 19, 1897 – April 18, 1974) was an American actress and film producer. Born Eleanor Luicime Compson in Beaver, Utah, she had an extensive film career. Her father died when she was young, and she was forced to drop out of school and earn a living for herself and her mother. She obtained employment as a violinist at a theater in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Silent films

Compson began in silents with her first film in November 1915. She made 41 films in 1916 alone, although all of them were shorts for Al Christie with the exception of one feature Almost a Widow. She continued this pace of making numerous short films well into the middle of 1918 when after a long apprenticeship with Christie she started making features exclusively. She completed The Miracle Man (1919) for George Loane Tucker. Compson's rise as a star in motion pictures began with her portrayal of Rose in this production.

Compson in Photoplay Magazine (July 1920)

In 1920, she began to head her own company. She worked at the Hollywood Brunton studio and acquired three stories for films. Compson returned from New York City where she obtained financial backing for her motion picture productions.

Her first movie as producer was Prisoners of Love (1921). She played the role of Blanche Davis, a girl born to wealth and cursed by her inheritance of physical beauty. Compson selected Art Rosson to direct the feature. The story was chosen from a work by Catherine Henry.

Compson worked for the Christie Company as a newcomer in films, followed by Famous Players-Lasky. After completing The Woman With Four Faces (1923) she signed with a motion picture company in London, England. There she starred in a series of four films directed by Graham Cutts, a well-known English filmmaker. The first of these was a movie version of an English play called Woman to Woman (1923), the screenplay for which was co-written by Cutts and Alfred Hitchcock.

In 1928, she appeared in Court-Martial as Belle Starr, and in The Barker, a silent movie which contained some talking scenes. Compson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Barker. Mainly due to this success, she became one of the busiest actors in the new talking cinema. Unlike a number of other female stars of silent film, it was felt that her voice recorded exceptionally well. Although she was not a singer, she appeared in a number of early musicals, in which her singing voice was dubbed.

Later career

One of her most revered films remains The Docks of New York (1928), noted for its dark visual ambiance and superb performances. In 1930, she made a version of The Spoilers in which she played the role later portrayed by similar-looking Marlene Dietrich in the 1942 remake, while Gary Cooper played the part subsequently acted in the later film by John Wayne, perhaps the only time that Cooper and Wayne played precisely the same role. One major film in which she did not appear was Gone With the Wind; although she shot a Technicolor screen test for the role of Belle Watling, she was not cast in the role. Unfortunately, most of her later films were low-budget, even exploitation, efforts, though her acting was always competent.

Compson's last film was Here Comes Trouble (1948). She retired following that film and helped her husband run a business called "Ashtrays Unlimited".

Marriages

Compson wed three times, all the unions were childless. From 1924-30 she was married to film director James Cruze. Later she married and divorced agent-producer Irving Weinberg. Her third husband was Silvius Jack Gall, who died in 1962.

Death

Compson died in 1974, of a heart attack, at her home in Glendale, California, aged 77. She was interred in San Fernando Mission Cemetery in San Fernando, California. She left no surviving relatives.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Compson has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine Street.

Filmography

for main film selections see Betty Compson filmography

References

• Los Angeles Times, Betty Compson Has Film Unit, February 15, 1920, Page III1.
• Los Angeles Times, Betty Compson Star, January 2, 1921, Page III20.
• Los Angeles Times, Flashes; Star To Travel Betty Compson Signs For London Films, April 5, 1923, Page II7.
• Los Angeles Times, Ex-Film Star Betty Compson, April 23, 1974, Page A4.
• Ogden, Utah Standard-Examiner, Closeup and Comedy, Monday Evening, May 25, 1934, Page 7.

External links

• Betty Compson at the Internet Movie Database
• Photographs of Betty Compson
• 1923 passport photo(flickr.com)
• Compson as she appeared in 1947's Hard Boiled Mahoney