- Born
- Died
- A sunny singer, dancer and comic actress, Betty Garrett starred in several Hollywood musicals and stage roles. She was at the top of her game when the Communist scare in the 1950s brought her career to a screeching, ugly halt. She and her husband Larry Parks, an Oscar-nominated actor, were summoned by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and questioned about their involvement.
As the drama played out, a very pregnant Garrett was never called to testify, but her husband was. With his admission of Communist Party membership from 1941-1945 and refusal to name names, he made it to the Hollywood Blacklist. After the incident, Garrett and Parks worked up nightclub singing/comedy acts along with appearing in legit plays. Although Parks never quite shook off the blacklist incident, he did win a role in John Huston's film, Freud (1962). Garrett went on to appear in roles in many television series.
- IMDb mini biography by: rocknrollunderdawg
- SpouseLarry Parks(September 9, 1944 - April 13, 1975) (his death, 2 children)
- Children
- Long back length hair
- Godmother of Jeff Bridges.
- She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Live Theatre at 6706 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on May 23, 2003 (her 84th birthday).
- Best known by the public for her roles as Irene Lorenzo on All in the Family (1971) and as Edna Babish on Laverne & Shirley (1976).
- Her father was an alcoholic travelling salesman who died when she was still a child.
- Played two different characters on two different shows that were married to an Italian man named Frank. First on All in the Family, then on Laverne and Shirley.
- [on working with Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre] He had an unbroken string of successes. But unfortunately, I joined the company just in time for the first flop, "Danton's Death". He was a genius, but in that one he let his genius get slightly out of hand. He loaded up the little theater with thousands of dollars worth of lights, and tore out the stage and put in elevator platforms, so all the actors were constantly moving up and down out of the depths. I remember we all had to make noises in the night, in addition to our roles. I did animal noises. Joseph Cotten had to do sex noises. Can you imagine? Joseph Cotten?
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