Betty Compson
Encyclopedia
Betty Compson was an American actress. 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 in a Salt Lake City, Utah
, theater.
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 London, England motion picture company. 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 (1924), 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.
(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".
. Later she married and divorced agent-producer Irving Weinberg. Her third husband was Silvius Jack Gall. He died in 1962.
Betty Compson died in 1974, of a heart attack, at her home in Glendale, California
. She was 77. She was interred in San Fernando Mission Cemetery
in San Fernando, California
. She left no surviving relatives.
Sound
Beaver, Utah
Beaver is a city in Beaver County, Utah, United States. The population was 2,454 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Beaver County.Settled by Mormon pioneers in 1856, Beaver was one of a string of Mormon settlements extending the length of 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 in a Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
, theater.
Silent films
Compson made 25 films in 1916 alone, although most of them are shorts. 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.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
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
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
Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created on July 19, 1916 from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company -- originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays -- and Jesse L...
. After completing The Woman With Four Faces (1923) she signed with a London, England motion picture company. There she starred in a series of four films directed by Graham Cutts
Graham Cutts
Graham Cutts was a British film director who was one of the leading British directors in the 1920s. His fellow director A. V. Bramble believed that Gainsborough Pictures had been built on the back of his work. His daughter was actress Patricia Cutts...
, a well-known English filmmaker. The first of these was a movie version of an English play called Woman to Woman (1924), the screenplay for which was co-written by Cutts and Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
.
In 1928, she appeared in Court-Martial
Court Martial (1928 film)
__notoc__Court Martial is a silent film directed by George B. Seitz, starring Jack Holt, Betty Compson as Belle Starr, and Frank Austin as Abraham Lincoln, and released by Columbia Pictures....
as Belle Starr
Belle Starr
Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr , better known as Belle Starr, was a notorious American outlaw.-Early life:...
, and in The Barker
The Barker
The Barker is a 1928 romantic drama film which tells the story of a woman who comes between a man and his estranged son. It stars Milton Sills, Dorothy Mackaill, Betty Compson, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and released by First National Pictures in December 1928...
, a silent movie
Silent Movie
Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
which contained some talking scenes. Compson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
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 YorkThe Docks of New York
The Docks of New York is a silent film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring George Bancroft, Betty Compson and Baclanova. It tells the story of a prostitute who tries to rise above her life on the docks by finding love...
(1928), noted for its dark visual ambiance and superb performances. In 1930, she made a version of The Spoilers
The Spoilers (1930 film)
The Spoilers is a 1930 film directed by Edward Carewe and set in Nome, Alaska during the 1898 Gold Rush. The film features Gary Cooper as Roy Glennister, Kay Johnson as Helen Chester, Betty Compson as Cherry Malotte, and William "Stage" Boyd as Alec MacNamara, and culminates in a spectacular...
in which she played the role later portrayed by similar-looking Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
in the 1942 remake, while Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
played the part subsequently acted in the later film by John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, 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
Gone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
; although she shot a Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
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".
Private life
Compson wed three times and produced no children. From 1924 to 1930 she was married to film director James CruzeJames Cruze
James Cruze was a silent film actor and film director.-Life:Cruze was born as Jens Vera Cruz Bosen. The Vera Cruz middle name came from the battle of Vera Cruz. He was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but did not practice the religion after his teenage years...
. Later she married and divorced agent-producer Irving Weinberg. Her third husband was Silvius Jack Gall. He died in 1962.
Betty Compson died in 1974, of a heart attack, at her home in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
. She was 77. She was interred in San Fernando Mission Cemetery
San Fernando Mission Cemetery
The San Fernando Mission Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery located at 11160 Stranwood Avenue in the Mission Hills community of the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California, near the San Fernando Mission....
in San Fernando, California
San Fernando, California
San Fernando is a city located in the San Fernando Valley, in northwestern region of Los Angeles, California, United States. The population was 23,645 at the 2010 census, up from 23,564 at the 2000 census.-History:...
. She left no surviving relatives.
Partial Filmography
Silent- The Miracle ManThe Miracle Man (1919 film)The Miracle Man is a 1919 dramatic film based on a 1914 play by George M. Cohan, which in turn is based on the novel of the same title by Frank L. Packard. It was directed by George Loane Tucker and stars Thomas Meighan, Betty Compson, and Lon Chaney...
(1919) - Prisoners of Love (1921)
- For Those We LoveFor Those We LoveFor Those We Love is a 1921 silent film rural drama produced by and starring Betty Compson and distributed by Goldwyn Pictures. It co-starred Lon Chaney and was directed by Arthur Rosson. Today it is a lost film. -Cast:*Betty Compson - Bernice Arnold...
(1921) - At the End of the World (1921)
- Ladies Must Live (1921)
- The Little Minister (1921)
- The Law and the Woman (1922)
- The Green Temptation (1922)
- Over the Border (1922)
- Always the Woman (1922)
- The Bonded Woman (1922)
- To Have and to HoldTo Have and to Hold (1922 film)To Have and to Hold is a 1922 silent film historical drama produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by George Fitzmaurice and starred Bert Lytell and Betty Compson in this the second outting for this story which had been filmed in 1916 with Mae Murray...
(1922) - Kick InKick In (1922 film)Kick In is a silent film crime drama produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures.-Production background:...
(1922) - Woman to WomanWoman to Woman (1923 film)Woman to Woman is a 1923 British silent drama film directed by Graham Cutts, with Alfred Hitchcock as the assistant director. The film was adapted from the play Woman to Woman by Michael Morton.-Preservation status:...
(1923) directed by Alfred HitchcockAlfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood... - The White ShadowThe White Shadow (film)The White Shadow is a British drama film directed by Graham Cutts and starring Betty Compson, Clive Brook, and Henry Victor.Long thought to have been a completely lost film, in August 2011 the National Film Preservation Foundation announced that the first three reels of the six-reel picture had...
(1923) directed by Graham CuttsGraham CuttsGraham Cutts was a British film director who was one of the leading British directors in the 1920s. His fellow director A. V. Bramble believed that Gainsborough Pictures had been built on the back of his work. His daughter was actress Patricia Cutts... - The Royal Oak (1923)
- The White FlowerThe White FlowerThe White Flower is a 1923 silent film romantic drama produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was the last film directed by early female director Julia Crawford Ivers whose son James Van Trees was the film's cinematographer. Betty Compson and Edmund Lowe star in...
(1923) - The Rustle of Silk (1923)
- The Woman With Four Faces (1923)
- The Stranger (1924)
- Miami (1924)
- Dangerous VirtueThe Prude's FallThe Prude's Fall is a 1924 British silent drama film directed by Graham Cutts and starring Jane Novak, Julanne Johnston and Warwick Ward. It was an adaptation of a play by Rudolph Besier and May Edington with the screenplay written by Alfred Hitchcock. Its German title is Seine zweite Frau...
(1924) - The Enemy Sex (1924)
- The Female (1924)
- Ramshackle House (1924)
- The Fast Set (1924)
- The Garden of Weeds (1924)
- Locked Doors (1925)
- New Lives for Old (1925)
- Eve's Secret (1925)
- Beggar on HorsebackBeggar on HorsebackBeggar on Horseback is a play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly.A parody of the expressionistic parables that were popular at the time, it rails against the perils of trading one's artistic talents for commercial gain. At its core is Neil McRae, a poor, young classical composer...
(1925) - Paths to ParadisePaths to ParadisePaths to Paradise is a 1925 silent comedy directed by Clarence Badger, produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on a 1914 play, The Heart of a Thief, by Paul Armstrong and stars Raymond Griffith and Betty Compson. The film was lost for many decades...
(1925) - The Pony ExpressThe Pony Express (1925 film)The Pony Express is a silent 1925 Western film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by James Cruze and starred his wife Betty Compson along with Ricardo Cortez, Wallace Beery, and George Bancroft. Prints of this film survive but it hasn't...
(1925) - Counsel for the Defense (1925)
- The Palace of Pleasure (1926)
- Wise Guy (1926)
- The Belle of Broadway (1926)
- The Ladybird (1927)
- Say It with Diamonds (1927)
- Temptations of a Shop Girl (1927)
- Love Me and the World Is Mine (1927)
- Cheating Cheaters (1927)
- The Big CityThe Big City (1928 film)The Big City is a 1928 crime film directed by Tod Browning. It is now a lost film. The last known print of the film had been sent to Australia in the late 1950s...
(1928) - The Desert Bride (1928)
- The Masked Angel (1928)
- Life's Mockery (1928)
- Court-Martial (1928)
- The Docks of New YorkThe Docks of New YorkThe Docks of New York is a silent film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring George Bancroft, Betty Compson and Baclanova. It tells the story of a prostitute who tries to rise above her life on the docks by finding love...
(1928)(*her last pure silent film)
Sound
- The BarkerThe BarkerThe Barker is a 1928 romantic drama film which tells the story of a woman who comes between a man and his estranged son. It stars Milton Sills, Dorothy Mackaill, Betty Compson, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and released by First National Pictures in December 1928...
(1928) - Scarlet Seas (1928)
- Weary River (1929)
- On with the ShowOn with the Show (1929 film)On with the Show! is a 1929 American musical film released by Warner Bros. The film is noted as the first ever all-talking all-color feature length movie, and the second color movie released by Warner Bros.; the first was a partly color, black-and-white musical, The Desert Song . -Plot:With unpaid...
(1929) - The Time, the Place and the Girl (1929)
- Street GirlStreet GirlStreet Girl is a musical comedy/drama film directed by Wesley Ruggles and released by RKO Radio Pictures, it's the first official production of RKO but was released soon after Syncopation the second production of RKO.-Plot summary:...
(1929) - Skin Deep (1929)
- The Great GabboThe Great GabboThe Great Gabbo is an American early sound film musical drama film directed by James Cruze, based on a story by Ben Hecht and starring Erich von Stroheim and Betty Compson....
(1929) - Woman to Woman (1929)
- The Show of Shows (1929)
- Blaze o'Glory (1929)
- The Case of Sergeant GrischaThe Case of Sergeant Grischa (film)The Case of Sergeant Grischa is a 1930 American drama film directed by Herbert Brenon, based on the German novel of the same name. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Sound Recording .-Cast:...
(1930) - Isle of Escape (1930)
- Those Who Dance (1930)
- Czar of Broadway (1930)
- Midnight MysteryMidnight Mystery-Cast:* Betty Compson as Sally Wayne* Lowell Sherman as Tom Austen* Raymond Hatton as Paul Cooper* Hugh Trevor as Gregory Sloane* June Clyde as Louise Hollister* Ivan Lebedeff as Mischa Kawelin* Rita La Roy as Madeline Austen* Marcelle Corday as Harriet Cooper...
(1930) - Inside the Lines (1930)
- The SpoilersThe Spoilers (1930 film)The Spoilers is a 1930 film directed by Edward Carewe and set in Nome, Alaska during the 1898 Gold Rush. The film features Gary Cooper as Roy Glennister, Kay Johnson as Helen Chester, Betty Compson as Cherry Malotte, and William "Stage" Boyd as Alec MacNamara, and culminates in a spectacular...
(1930) - She Got What She Wanted (1930)
- The Boudoir Diplomat (1930)
- Cowboys from TexasCowboys from TexasCowboys from Texas is a 1939 American Western "Three Mesquiteers" B-movie directed by George Sherman.- Cast :* Robert Livingston as Stony Brooke* Raymond Hatton as Rusty Joslin* Duncan Renaldo as Renaldo* Carole Landis as June Jones...
(1939) - Mad YouthMad YouthMad Youth is a 1940 American film directed by Melville Shyer.The film is also known as Girls of the Underworld .- Cast :*Mary Ainslee as Marian Morgan*Betty Compson as Lucy Morgan*Willy Castello as Count DeHoven...
(1940)