Betty Garrett

At 91 years old, Betty Garrett has this physical status:

Betty Garrett (May 23, 1919 – February 12, 2011) was an American actress, comedian, actor, and dancer.

She appeared on Broadway and was later signed to a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film contract.

She appeared in numerous musical films before returning to Broadway and making guest appearances on several television shows. Garrett later became known for her appearances in two famous 1970s sitcoms: Archie Bunker's liberal neighbor Irene Lorenzo in All in the Family and landlady Edna Babish in Laverne & Shirley.

She appeared in television series such as Grey's Anatomy, Boston Public, and Becker, as well as in several Broadway plays and revivals in later years.

Early life

Garrett was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, and the niece of Elizabeth Octavia (née Stone) and Curtis Garrett. Her parents moved to Seattle, Washington, where her mother's sheet music department at Sherman Clay was located, and her father worked as a traveling salesman shortly after her birth. Garrett and her mother lived in a string of luxury hotels in order to minimize costs, owing to his alcoholism and fiscal irresponsibility's to their divorce.

Garrett's mother told her fiancé she had jilted in order to marry Curtis when she was eight years old. They settled in Regina, Saskatchewan, where her new stepfather worked in the meat packing industry. Her mother learned that her new husband was involved in a sexual affair with his male assistant a year later, so she and Betty returned to Seattle. Garrett attended the Annie Wright School in Tacoma, where she earned a full scholarship after graduating from public grammar school. There was no drama department at the academy, so she regularly planned musical performances and plays for special occasions. The bishop encouraged the princess to pursue a career on stage after her senior year appearance in Twelfth Night. Martha Graham, who was in Seattle for a concert tour, and the dancer recommended her for a scholarship at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City at the same time, and her mother's sister arranged an interview.

Garrett and her mother arrived in Manhattan in the summer of 1936, and Garrett began classes in September. Graham and Anna Sokolow taught dance, Sandy Meisner for drama, Lehman Engel for guitar, and Margaret Webster for the Shakespearean classics, among her students were Daniel Mann and Richard Conte. She felt she was meant to be a dramatic actress and moved away from comedy to comedic roles.

Personal life

Garrett was invited to perform a comedy sketch at the Actor's Lab in Hollywood while performing in Los Angeles. Larry Parks, the show's producer, was on display at the time. He invited her to join him for a drink, then led her to the top of Mulholland Drive, where he told her, "You're the girl I'm going to marry." The two were inseparable for two weeks over the next two weeks. Garrett left Chicago for a nightclub appearance. Parks eventually joined her and introduced her to her mother, who lived in nearby Joliet, Illinois. The parks returned to Los Angeles to film Counter-Attack, and Garrett travelled to New York to prepare for Laffing Room Only with Olsen and Johnson, but before rehearsals began, she called Parks and proposed marriage. On September 8, 1944, the two were wed, four months after their first meeting. Lloyd Bridges, an actor, was the best man on the planet. Garrett and Parks lived in Malibu Beach for a month and then lived apart for the next two years while pursuing their careers.

She supported Adlai Stevenson's campaign in the 1952 presidential election as a Democrat.

Garrett and Parks were married before his death in 1975. They had two sons, composer Garrett Parks, and actor Andrew Parks. Betty Garrett produced Madison Claire Parks, her son Garrett Parks' granddaughter, and Karen Culliver, a Broadway actress.

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Early career

Garrett spent the summer months in the Borscht Belt, where she had the opportunity to work with Danny Kaye, Jerome Robbins, Carol Channing, Imogene Coca, and Jules Munshin, and she was encouraged to fine tune her singing and dancing abilities. She appeared in Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre as an understudy in what was to be its last stage performance, a poorly reviewed and short-lived performance of Danton's Death that gave her the opportunity to collaborate with Joseph Cotten, Ruth Ford, Martin Gabel, and Arlene Francis. She appeared in satirical and political revues staged by Martha Graham's dance company at Carnegie Hall and the Alvin Theatre, as well as in the Village Vanguard's satirical and political revues staged by the Brooklyn-based Flatbush Arts Theatre, which later changed its name to the American Youth Theatre and relocated to Manhattan. During this period, she joined the Communist Party and began appearing at fundraisers for progressive causes.

Garrett appeared in Of V We Sing on Broadway in 1942, but the show was cancelled after 76 performances, but she was later cast in Let Freedom Sing, the Harold Rome revue. It came after only eight performances, but producer Mike Todd knew it and ordered her to understudie Ethel Merman and appear in a small role in the 1943 Cole Porter musical Something for the Boys. During the season, Merman became sick, allowing Garrett to take the lead for a week. She appeared in Jackpot, a Vernon Duke/Howard Dietz musical starring Nanette Fabray and Allan Jones at this time. Garrett began touring the country with her nightclub act after the show ended quickly.

Garrett performed in Laffing Room Only, which closed there, and went on tour with the show as it ran in Detroit and Chicago. She returned to New York and was cast in Call Me Mister, which reunited her with Harold Rome, Lehman Engel, and Jules Munshin. In The New York Times, she received critical acclaim and the Donaldson Award for her appearance, which prompted Al Hirschfeld to caricature her. Louis B. Mayer's arrival led to her signing with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for one year. Garrett appeared in "Big City" in January 1947 and made her film debut starring George Murphy and Robert Preston. Mayer renewed her marriage and appeared in On the Town, Take Me Out To The Ball Game, Taking Me Out To The Ball Game, and Neptune's Daughter in a snap.

Garrett and her partner Larry Parks wanted to cash in on its fame by playing at the London Palladium and then touring the United Kingdom with their nightclub revue. Its success prompted them to return to the country three times, but television's increasing success resulted in the demise of music hall entertainment. Garrett appeared alongside Janet Leigh and Jack Lemmon in My Sister Eileen, a 1955 musical revival of Ruth McKenney's 1940 theatrical adaptation of stories. When Judy Holliday walked out of the project due to a labor dispute, Garrett got to be involved. Holliday and Sydney Chaplin were displaced by Parks in the Broadway production of Bells Are Ringing while recuperating from the show's holiday this year. Over the next two decades, there will be a lot of changes. She appeared on Broadway in two short-lived plays (Beg, Borrow or Steal with Parks, Pat Hingle's Chance of Being Lucky) and a musical version of Spoon River Anthology, as well as guest appearances on The Dinah Shore Chevy Show and The Fugitive.

Later career

Frank Lorenzo and his feisty Irish-American wife Irene were among the new residents to the neighborhood in the fall of 1973. Call Me Mister's publicity man, Bernard West and Mickey West knew Garrett from her time with the American Youth Theatre, and Jean Stapleton had been in the cast of Bells Are Ringing, so Garrett seemed to be the front runner in the role of Irene. It didn't come back to Sada Thompson after just being on taping one episode, but Thompson, who was ill at the time, requested to be released from her service, effectively ending Garrett's role. Irene, a source of annoyance for Protestant Archie, was Catholic, and she assumed several of the handyman household chores traditionally associated with husbands, and she presented Archie Bunker with a kind of nemesis. She later worked at Archie as a forklift operator, earning less money than the man she replaced (but more than Archie). Garrett remained with the series from 1973 to 1975. She was named the Golden Globe Runner in 1974 for her appearance on the series.

Garrett's one-woman show Betty Garrett and Other Songs was on display in Westwood, California, when she was offered the job of landlady Edna Babish in Laverne & Shirley the following year. Frank Laverne's father was a five-time divorcee who eventually married Laverne's father. Although Garrett said she never had enough to do on the show, she did appreciate the fact that her musical talents were occasionally integrated into the plot. Garrett was forced to leave early in 1981 because she had promised to appear with Sandy Dennis, Jack Gilford, Hope Lange, and Joyce Van Patten in The Supporting Cast on Broadway, when the show was supposed to be its final season. After just eight performances, the play was overturned, but returning to Laverne & Shirley was not a viable option, considering that the writers had outlined Edna's disappearance by having her divorce Frank, although this was not discussed in detail until the series's final season.

Garrett performed in Murder, She Wrote, The Golden Girls, Harts of the West, Union Square, Boston Public, Becker, and More in St. Louis as Katie, the feisty Irish maid and the 2001 Broadway revival of Follies, receiving acclaim for her role in "Broadway Baby" on television. She co-founded Theatre West and directed Arthur Miller's The Price and appeared in the play Waiting in the Wings. Spoon River Anthology and Betty Garrett and Other Songs were two of her Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards, respectively.

In 2003, Garrett became a member of the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. She was honored at the Music Box Theatre in Hollywood for her 90th birthday in 2009.

During Turner Classic Movies' first annual Classic Film Festival in 2010, Garrett appeared alongside former two-time co-star Esther Williams. The Daughter of Neptune was shown at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California, while the Aqualilies, a Williams-inspired swimming troupe, performed.

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