Betty Field
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| Betty Field | |
|---|---|
 Actress Betty Field (1947) photo taken by Carl Van Vechten |
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| Born | February 8, 1913 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | September 13, 1973 (aged 60) Hyannis, Massachusetts |
| Spouse(s) | Elmer Rice (1942-1956) Edwin J. Lukas (1957-1967) Raymond Olivere (1968-1973) |
Betty Field (February 8, 1913[1] in Boston, Massachusetts - September 13, 1973 in Hyannis, Massachusetts) was an American film and stage actress.
Field began her acting career on the London stage in Howard Lindsay's farce, She Loves Me Not. Following its run she returned to the United States and appeared in several stage successes, before making her film debut in 1939. Her role as Mae, the only female character, in Of Mice and Men (1939) established her as a dramatic actress. She starred opposite John Wayne in the 1941 film The Shepherd of the Hills. Field played supporting roles in films such as Kings Row (1942), in which she played a victim of incest, although that fact was not readily apparent due to the heavy censorship of the time.
Field preferred performing on Broadway in plays like Elmer Rice's Dream Girl and Jean Anouilh's The Waltz of the Toreadors, but returned to Hollywood regularly, appearing in Flesh and Fantasy (1943), The Southerner (1945), The Great Gatsby (1949), Picnic (1955), Bus Stop (1956), Peyton Place (1957), BUtterfield 8 (1960) and Birdman of Alcatraz (1962). Her final film role was in Coogan's Bluff in 1968.
Her first marriage, to playwright Elmer Rice, ended in divorce. The couple had three children. Field died from a cerebral haemorrhage in Hyannis, Massachusetts, aged 60.
