Betty Lynn
Encyclopedia
Betty Lynn is an American
actress. She is best known for playing Thelma Lou
(Barney Fife
's girlfriend) in The Andy Griffith Show
.
, Missouri
, Lynn began acting in radio. She was later discovered in a Broadway production by Darryl F. Zanuck
and signed to 20th Century Fox
. Lynn made her film debut in the 1948 film Sitting Pretty opposite Robert Young
. That same year, she appeared in June Bride
with Bette Davis
followed by roles in Mother Is a Freshman
(1949),, Cheaper by the Dozen
(1950), and Payment on Demand
(1951).
In the 1953-1954 television season, Lynn was cast as June Wallace, the fictititous sister-in-law of the Ray Bolger
character in the ABC
sitcom Where's Raymond?
Allyn Joslyn
played her husband, Jonathan Wallace. Lynn and Joslyn left the series in its second season when it was renamed The Ray Bolger Show
.
After guest starring on various television series including Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
, The Gale Storm Show
, Sugarfoot
, and Markham, Lynn won the role of Thelma Lou on The Andy Griffith Show. She portrayed the role regularly from 1961 until 1965, then made a final guest appearance in one episode during the sixth season(1965–1966).
Following the end of The Andy Griffith Show, Lynn continued appearing in various television and film roles. In 1986, she reprised the role of Thelma Lou in the reunion television movie Return to Mayberry
in which Thelma Lou and Barney Fife were finally married. In 2006, Lynn retired from acting and relocated to Mount Airy
, North Carolina
, the hometown of Andy Griffith
and the town on which Mayberry is believed to have been based despite Griffith's repeated denials.
Betty Lynn makes monthly appearances at the Andy Griffith Museum in Mount Airy to sign autographs and meet with her fans.
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress. She is best known for playing Thelma Lou
Thelma Lou
Thelma Lou is a character on the American television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show . The character appeared in 26 episodes. Thelma Lou is Barney Fife's girlfriend and is portrayed by Betty Lynn.-Overview:...
(Barney Fife
Barney Fife
Bernard "Barney" Fife is a fictional character in the American television program The Andy Griffith Show, portrayed by comic actor Don Knotts. Barney Fife is a deputy sheriff in the slow paced, sleepy southern community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
's girlfriend) in The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
.
Career
Born Elizabeth Ann Theresa Lynn in Kansas CityKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Lynn began acting in radio. She was later discovered in a Broadway production by Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
and signed to 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
. Lynn made her film debut in the 1948 film Sitting Pretty opposite Robert Young
Robert Young (actor)
Robert George Young was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. .-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father...
. That same year, she appeared in June Bride
June Bride
June Bride is a 1948 American comedy film directed by Bretaigne Windust. Ranald MacDougall's screenplay, based on the unproduced play Feature for June by Eileen Tighe and Graeme Lorimer, was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Comedy. The film starred Bette...
with Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
followed by roles in Mother Is a Freshman
Mother Is a Freshman
Mother Is a Freshman is a 1949 comedy motion picture directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Loretta Young and Van Johnson.The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Costume Design.-Principal cast:*Loretta Young - Mrs...
(1949),, Cheaper by the Dozen
Cheaper by the Dozen (1950 film)
Cheaper by the Dozen is a 1950 film based upon the 1948 book Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. The film and book describe growing up in a family with twelve children in Montclair, New Jersey. It was made in Technicolor with Leon Shamroy as cinematographer...
(1950), and Payment on Demand
Payment on Demand
Payment on Demand is a 1951 drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt. The screenplay by Bernhardt and Bruce Manning chronicles a marriage from its idealistic early days to its dissolution.-Plot synopsis:...
(1951).
In the 1953-1954 television season, Lynn was cast as June Wallace, the fictititous sister-in-law of the Ray Bolger
Ray Bolger
Raymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hank in The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
character in the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
sitcom Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond? is a 1953-1954 ABC situation comedy television series starring Ray Bolger as Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man who is consistently barely on time for his performances...
Allyn Joslyn
Allyn Joslyn
Allyn Joslyn was an American stage, film and television actor.-Biography:Allyn Joslyn was born in Milford, Pennsylvania, the son of a mining engineer...
played her husband, Jonathan Wallace. Lynn and Joslyn left the series in its second season when it was renamed The Ray Bolger Show
Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond? is a 1953-1954 ABC situation comedy television series starring Ray Bolger as Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man who is consistently barely on time for his performances...
.
After guest starring on various television series including Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, is a weekly CBS anthology television series, was telecast on Friday nights from 1951 until 1959. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by Schlitz beer...
, The Gale Storm Show
The Gale Storm Show
The Gale Storm Show is an American sitcom starring Gale Storm. The series premiered on September 29, 1956, and ran until 1960 for 143 half-hour black-and-white episodes, initially on CBS and in its last year on ABC...
, Sugarfoot
Sugarfoot
Sugarfoot is the title of a TV western that aired from 1957 to 1961. The series featured Will Hutchins as fledgling frontier lawyer Tom Brewster and Jack Elam as sidekick Toothy Thompson...
, and Markham, Lynn won the role of Thelma Lou on The Andy Griffith Show. She portrayed the role regularly from 1961 until 1965, then made a final guest appearance in one episode during the sixth season(1965–1966).
Following the end of The Andy Griffith Show, Lynn continued appearing in various television and film roles. In 1986, she reprised the role of Thelma Lou in the reunion television movie Return to Mayberry
Return to Mayberry
Return to Mayberry is an American television reunion movie for the 1960s American sitcoms The Andy Griffith Show and, to an extent, Mayberry R.F.D. as well. The movie premiered on April 13, 1986 on NBC, and was the highest-rated telemovie of 1986. Sixteen of the original cast members reunited for...
in which Thelma Lou and Barney Fife were finally married. In 2006, Lynn retired from acting and relocated to Mount Airy
Mount Airy, North Carolina
Mount Airy is a city in Surry County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,388.-History:Mount Airy was settled in the 1750s as a stagecoach stop on the road between Winston-Salem and Galax, Virginia. It was named for a nearby plantation...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, the hometown of Andy Griffith
Andy Griffith
Andy Samuel Griffith is an American actor, director, producer, Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer, and writer. He gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan's epic film A Face in the Crowd before he became better known for his television roles, playing the lead...
and the town on which Mayberry is believed to have been based despite Griffith's repeated denials.
Betty Lynn makes monthly appearances at the Andy Griffith Museum in Mount Airy to sign autographs and meet with her fans.
Honors
In 2007, Lynn was inducted of the Missouri Walk of Fame, located in Marshfield, MissouriMarshfield, Missouri
Marshfield is a city in Webster County, Missouri, United States. The population was 6,633 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat and part of the Springfield, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...
.
Selected filmography
| Film | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes | ||
| 1948 | Apartment for Peggy Apartment for Peggy Apartment for Peggy is a 1948 film about a depressed professor whose spirits are lifted when he rents part of his home to a young couple. It was based on the novelette An Apartment for Jenny by Faith Baldwin. Campus exteriors were filmed at the University of Nevada, Reno.-Plot:Jason Taylor is a... |
Wife | Credited as Betty Ann Lynn | ||
| 1949 | Father was a Fullback Father was a Fullback Father was a Fullback is a 1949 black-and-white Twentieth Century Fox film based on a comedy by Clifford Goldsmith. The film is about a college American football coach and his woes... |
Constance "Connie" Cooper | |||
| 1956 | Meet Me in Las Vegas Meet Me in Las Vegas Meet Me in Las Vegas is an MGM musical comedy produced by Joe Pasternak and directed by Roy Rowland filmed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope. The film has a running time of 112 minutes.-Cast and crew:... |
Young Bride | Alternative title: Viva Las Vegas! | ||
| Television | |||||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | ||
| 1958 | M Squad M Squad M Squad is an American police drama television series that ran from 1957 to 1960 on NBC. Its format would later inspire the creation of spoof TV show Police Squad! Its sponsor was the Pall Mall cigarette brand; Lee Marvin, the program's star, appeared in its commercials during the... |
Susan Baines | 1 episode | ||
| Lawman Lawman (tv series) Lawman is an American Western television series originally telecast from 1958 to 1962 starring John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop and featuring Peter Brown as Deputy Marshal Johnny McKay on the ABC Television Network. The series was set in Laramie, Wyoming during the mid to late 1870s. Warner Bros.... |
Edna Phillips | 1 episode | |||
| Wagon Train Wagon Train Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65... |
Molly Richardson | 1 episode | |||
| Bronco Bronco (TV series) Bronco is a Western series on ABC from 1958 through 1962. It was shown by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The program starred Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne, a former Confederate officer who wandered the Old West, meeting such well-known individuals as Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Jesse James,... |
Molly Bailey | 1 episode | |||
| 1959 | Tales of Wells Fargo Tales of Wells Fargo Tales of Wells Fargo is an American Western television series that ran from March 18, 1957 to June 2, 1962 on NBC. Produced by Revue Productions, the series aired in a half-hour format until its final season when it expanded to an hour.-Synopsis:... |
Mary Francis | 1 episode | ||
| Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer is the title used for two syndicated television series that followed the adventures of fictional private detective Mike Hammer... |
Mona | 1 episode | |||
| 1960 | National Velvet | Barbara Howard | 1 episode | ||
| 1963 | The Farmer's Daughter The Farmer's Daughter (TV series) The Farmer's Daughter is an American situation comedy series that was produced by Screen Gems Television and aired on ABC from September 20, 1963 to April 22, 1966. It was sponsored by Lark cigarettes and Clairol for whom the two leading stars often appeared at show's end promoting the products... |
Sylvia | 2 episodes | ||
| 1965 | The Smothers Brothers Show The Smothers Brothers Show The Smothers Brothers Show is an American fantasy sitcom featuring the Smothers Brothers that aired on CBS on Friday nights at 9:30 p.m. ET from September 17, 1965 to September 9, 1966, co-sponsored by Alberto-Culver's VO5 hairdressing products and American Tobacco... |
Vera | 1 episode | ||
| 1967–1970 | My Three Sons My Three Sons My Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS... |
Lois Bradley | 1 episode | Janice or Janet/Dawson | 6 episodes |
| 1965 | The Smothers Brothers Show The Smothers Brothers Show The Smothers Brothers Show is an American fantasy sitcom featuring the Smothers Brothers that aired on CBS on Friday nights at 9:30 p.m. ET from September 17, 1965 to September 9, 1966, co-sponsored by Alberto-Culver's VO5 hairdressing products and American Tobacco... |
Vera | 1 episode | ||
| 1966–1968 | Family Affair Family Affair Family Affair is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 12, 1966 to September 9, 1971. The series explored the trials of well-to-do civil engineer and bachelor Bill Davis as he attempted to raise his brother's orphaned children in his luxury New York City apartment. Davis' traditional... |
Miss Lee | 4 episodes | ||
| 1969 | The Mod Squad The Mod Squad The Mod Squad is a television series that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. This series starred Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III, and Tige Andrews... |
Mrs. Hill | 1 episode | ||
| 1974 | Little House on the Prairie Little House on the Prairie (TV series) Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books... |
Bridget | 1 episode | ||
| 1978 | Barnaby Jones Barnaby Jones Barnaby Jones is a television detective series starring Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether as father- and daughter-in-law who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles. A spin-off from Cannon, the show ran on CBS from January 28, 1973 to April 3, 1980, beginning as a midseason replacement... |
Mrs. Russell | 1 episode | ||
| 1986 | Matlock Matlock (TV series) Matlock is an American television legal drama, starring Andy Griffith in the title role of attorney Ben Matlock. The show originally aired from September 23, 1986 to May 8, 1992 on NBC, where it replaced The A-Team, then from November 5, 1992 until May 7, 1995 on ABC.The show's format was similar... |
Sarah | 5 episodes | ||