Betty Blythe
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Betty Blythe (born Elizabeth Blythe Slaughter, September 1, 1893 – April 7, 1972) was an American actress best known for her dramatic roles in exotic silent films such as The Queen of Sheba (1921). She appeared in 63 silent films and 56 talking pictures (known as talkies) over the course of her career.
She is famous for being one of the first actresses to appear on film in the nude, or nearly so, during the Roaring Twenties.
She is reported to have said, "A director is the only man besides your husband who can tell you how much of your clothes to take off."
Blythe began her stage work in such theatrical pieces as So Long Letty and The Peacock Princess. She worked in vaudeville as the "California Nightingale" singing songs such as "Love Tales from Hoffman".
After touring Europe and the States, she entered films in 1918 at the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, then she was brought to Hollywood's Fox studio as a replacement for actress Theda Bara.
As famous for her revealing costumes as for her dramatic skills, she became a star in such exotic films as The Queen of Sheba (1921) (in which she wore nothing above the waist except a string of beads), Chu-Chin-Chow (made in 1923; released by MGM in the US 1925) and She (1925).
She was also seen to good advantage in less revealing films like Nomads of the North (1920) with Lon Chaney and In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter (1924), produced by Samuel Goldwyn.
Other roles were as an opera star, unbilled in Garbo's The Mysterious Lady. She continued to work as a character actress. One of her last roles was a small uncredited role in a crowd scene in 1964's My Fair Lady.
Betty Blythe's name lives on through the Betty Blythe Vintage TeaRoom in West Kensington.
Known for
Murder at Glen Athol
Ann Randel
My Fair Lady
Lady at Ball (uncredited)
Luxury Liner
Miss Fenmoor (uncredited)
Money Means Nothing
Mrs. Ferris
Topper
Mrs. Goodrich (uncredited)
Joe Palooka, Champ
Mrs. Stafford
Dawn on the Great Divide
Mrs. Elmira Corkle
Hollywood Story
Herself
Earl of Puddlestone
Millicent Potter-Potter
Ever Since Eve
Mrs. Vandergrift
Freckles Comes Home
Minerva Potter
Undercurrent
Saleslady (uncredited)
Stars of Yesterday
Self
Before Midnight
Mavis Fry
The Women
Mrs. South (uncredited)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Floor Manager (uncredited)
In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter
Rita Sismondi
Runaway Daughters
Party Guest (uncredited)
Federal Fugitives
Marcia
Stolen Love
Modiste
Western Courage
Mrs. Hanley
The Miracle Kid
Madame Gloria
Hold That Kiss
Wedding Guest at Piermont's
Sisters of Eve
Mrs. Wenham Gardner
Chu-Chin-Chow
Zahrat
Delinquent Parents
Mrs. Wharton
Something in the Wind
Society Matron (uncredited)
The Gorgeous Hussy
Mrs. Wainwright
Pilgrimage
Janet Prescot
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Frau Kohner (uncredited)
Two Heads on a Pillow
Mrs. Agnes Walker
Adventure
Mrs. Buckley (uncredited)
Rainbow on the River
Flower Buyer (uncredited)
She
Ayesha
Nomads of the North
Nanette
The Scarlet Letter
Innkeeper
Top Sergeant Mulligan
Mrs. Lewis
Romance of the Limberlost
Mrs. Parker
Lena Rivers
Mathilda Nichols
Madonna of the Desert
Mrs. Brown
Our Wife
Minor Role (uncredited)
The Undercurrent
Mariska
Slander
Sis Hopkins
Mrs. Farnsworth
Tom Brown of Culver
Dolores Delight
Fair Lady
Countess Margherita
Into No Man's Land
The Countess
Over the Top
Madame Arnot
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Customer (uncredited)
The Undercover Woman
Cissy Van Horn
Snowbound
Julia Barry
Docks of New York
Mrs. Darcy
I've Been Around
Gangster's Boy
Mrs. Davis
They Were Expendable
Officer's Wife (uncredited)
Night Alarm
Mrs. Elizabeth Van Dusen
Girls in Chains
Mrs. Grey
Percy
Lolita
Tuxedo Junction
Miss Hornblower
Shed No Tears
Mrs. Peet (Uncredited)
Jiggs and Maggie in Society
Mrs. Vacuum
Only Yesterday
Mrs. Vincent (Uncredited)
Crime Doctor
Mrs. Harrington
Back Street
Gossip (uncredited)
Presenting Lily Mars
Dowager
Life in Sometown, U.S.A.
Mrs. Himber (uncredited)
Domestic Troubles
Carrie
The Spanish Cape Mystery
Mrs. Godfrey
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood
Mrs. Murdock (uncredited)
Piano Mooner
Society Woman
Badge of Honor
Mrs. Claire van Alstyne
Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat
Mrs. Manning
A Million Bid
Mrs. Gordon
A Fig Leaf for Eve
Lavinia Sardham
What Do You Think? (Number Two)
Bar 20
Mrs. Stevens
Glorious Betsy
Princess Fredericka
Honky Tonk
Mrs. Wilson
Sarong Girl
Miss Ellsworth
The Queen of Sheba
Queen of Sheba
Mr. Muggs Steps Out
Puddin' Head
Mrs. Bowser
Inflation
Next Door Neighbor Who Begins Hoarding (uncredited)
Disraeli
Cheers of the Crowd
Lil Langdon Walton
A Girl of the Limberlost
Mrs. Parker
The Silver Horde
Mildred Wayland
Espionage
Train Passenger
Yours for the Asking
May (uncredited)
House of Errors
Mrs. Martha Randall
The Breath of Scandal
Sybil Russell
Burnt Wings
Helen
How Women Love
Rosa Roma
Spotlight Scandals
Mrs. Baker
Misbehaving Husbands
Effie Butler
Occasionally Yours
Bunny Winston
The Perfect Clue
Ursula Chesebrough
Folly of Vanity
Mrs. Ridgeway (modern sequence)
Charge It
Mille Garreth
The Girl from Gay Paree
Mademoiselle Fanchon
Beating the Odds
Hebe Norse
Southern Love
The Spitfire
Jean Bronson
The Truth About Wives
Helen Frazer