Betty Compson

Actor

About

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Also Known As

The Vagabond Violinist, Eleanor Luicime Compson

Birth Place

Beaver, Utah, USA

Born

March 18, 1897

Died

April 18, 1974

Cause of Death

Heart Attack

Biography

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Petite, fair-haired, beautiful and highly-paid leading lady of the silent era. Billed in vaudeville as 'The Vagabond Violinist', Compson was signed in 1915 for a series of Al Christie comedy shorts. She made her dramatic debut as a member of a confidence gang in "The Miracle Man" (1919) and went on to star in dozens of films both in the USA and England (among them "The Little Minister," ...

Filmography

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Here Comes Trouble (1948)

Second Chance (1947)

Hard Boiled Mahoney (1947)

Her Adventurous Night (1946)

Confessions of a Vice Baron (1943)

Mrs. Lola Morgan

Danger! Women at Work (1943)

Photos & Videos

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Singin' In The Rain (1952) -- (Movie Clip) I'm Not An Actor!

White Shadow, The (1924) -- (Movie Clip) A Willing Victim

Family & Companions

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James Cruze

Husband

Director. Married in October 1925; divorced in May 1930.

Irving Wineberg

Husband

Producer. Married briefly during 1930s.

Silvius Jack Gall

Husband

Boxer. Married from the 1940s until his death in 1962.

Biography

Petite, fair-haired, beautiful and highly-paid leading lady of the silent era. Billed in vaudeville as 'The Vagabond Violinist', Compson was signed in 1915 for a series of Al Christie comedy shorts. She made her dramatic debut as a member of a confidence gang in "The Miracle Man" (1919) and went on to star in dozens of films both in the USA and England (among them "The Little Minister," "Rustle of Silk," "The White Flower," "Wise Guy" and "Twelve Miles Out"). She was memorable as a dejected prostitute rescued from suicide in Josef von Sternberg's highly stylized "Docks of New York" (1928), as the assistant to a mad ventriloquist (Erich Von Stroheim) in her then-husband, James Cruze's "The Great Gabbo" (1929) and in Hitchcock's "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" (1941).

Filmography

Cast (Feature Film)

Here Comes Trouble (1948)

Second Chance (1947)

Hard Boiled Mahoney (1947)

Her Adventurous Night (1946)

Confessions of a Vice Baron (1943)

Mrs. Lola Morgan

Danger! Women at Work (1943)

Roar of the Press (1941)

Zis Boom Bah (1941)

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)

The Invisible Ghost (1941)

Escort Girl (1941)

Laughing at Danger (1940)

Strange Cargo (1940)

They Asked for It (1939)

News Is Made at Night (1939)

Cowboys from Texas (1939)

Mad Youth (1939)

Mrs. [Lola] Morgan

The Mystic Circle Murder (1939)

Cafe Hostess (1939)

Hotel Imperial (1939)

Blondes at Work (1938)

Blanche Revelle

Torchy Blane in Panama (1938)

Under the Big Top (1938)

Two Gun Justice (1938)

The Port of Missing Girls (1938)

A Slight Case of Murder (1938)

The Beloved Brat (1938)

Federal Bullets (1937)

God's Country and the Man (1937)

Circus Girl (1937)

Laughing Irish Eyes (1936)

Bulldog Edition (1936)

Killer at Large (1936)

Millionaire Kid (1936)

The Drag-Net (1936)

Two Minutes to Play (1936)

August Week-end (1936)

Hollywood Boulevard (1936)

Manhattan Butterfly (1935)

False Pretenses (1935)

Clarissa Stanhope

Too Many Millions (1934)

Notorious but Nice (1933)

West of Singapore (1933)

Destination Unknown (1933)

The Silver Lining (1932)

Guilty or Not Guilty (1932)

The Gay Diplomat (1931)

Baroness Alma Corri

Three Who Loved (1931)

Helga Larson Hanson

The Virtuous Husband (1931)

The Lady Refuses (1931)

Midnight Mystery (1930)

The Great Gabbo (1930)

Blaze o' Glory (1930)

The Case of Sergeant Grischa (1930)

The Czar of Broadway (1930)

She Got What She Wanted (1930)

The Boudoir Diplomat (1930)

Inside the Lines (1930)

Isle of Escape (1930)

The Spoilers (1930)

Those Who Dance (1930)

Weary River (1929)

Scarlet Seas (1929)

The Time, the Place, and the Girl (1929)

On With the Show (1929)

Street Girl (1929)

Freddie Joyzelle

Skin Deep (1929)

Woman To Woman (1929)

The Barker (1928)

The Docks of New York (1928)

Masked Angel (1928)

Court-Martial (1928)

The Desert Bride (1928)

Life's Mockery (1928)

Kit Miller/Isabelle Fullerton

Love Me and the World Is Mine (1928)

The Big City (1928)

Say It With Diamonds (1927)

Temptations of a Shop Girl (1927)

Ruth Harrington

The Ladybird (1927)

Cheating Cheaters (1927)

The Palace of Pleasure (1926)

The Belle of Broadway (1926)

The Wise Guy (1926)

Counsel for the Defense (1925)

The Pony Express (1925)

Locked Doors (1925)

Mary Reid Carter

New Lives for Old (1925)

Eve's Secret (1925)

Paths to Paradise (1925)

The Stranger (1924)

The Fast Set (1924)

The Enemy Sex (1924)

The Female (1924)

Ramshackle House (1924)

The Garden of Weeds (1924)

Dorothy Delbridge

The Rustle of Silk (1923)

The Woman With Four Faces (1923)

The White Flower (1923)

Hollywood (1923)

Over the Border (1922)

To Have and To Hold (1922)

Lady Jocelyn Leigh, the king's Wardrobe

The Law and the Woman (1922)

The Bonded Woman (1922)

Always the Woman (1922)

The Green Temptation (1922)

Genelle/Coralyn/Joan Parker

Prisoners of Love (1921)

At the End of the World (1921)

The Little Minister (1921)

For Those We Love (1921)

Ladies Must Live (1921)

Christine Bleeker

The Little Diplomat (1919)

The Light of Victory (1919)

The Prodigal Liar (1919)

The Devil's Trail (1919)

The Miracle Man (1919)

The Terror of the Range (1919)

The Border Raiders (1918)

Producer (Feature Film)

For Those We Love (1921)

Life Events

1912

First vaudeville performance, billed as "The Vagabond Violinist"

1915

Film acting debut in "Wanted--a Leading Lady"

1919

Dramatic debut, "The Miracle Man"

1948

Retired from acting to become a businesswoman in California

Videos

Singin' In The Rain (1952) -- (Movie Clip) I'm Not An Actor! After the premiere, silent-movie star Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) with musical partner Cosmo (Donald O’Connor) in Hollywood, gets mobbed and, with a coy contemporary-swashbuckling escape, meets opinionated Cathy (Debbie Reynolds), early in MGM’s Singin’ In The Rain, 1952.

White Shadow, The (1924) -- (Movie Clip) A Willing Victim Alfred Hitchcock at 24 was the art director, screenwriter, assistant director and probably most other things, Graham Cutts the credited director, in the 1924 British melodrama The White Shadow, from Lost And Found: American Treasures From The New Zealand Film Archive, Part 2, 2013, original score by Michael D. Mortilla.

Weary River (1929) -- (Movie Clip) Members Only Neat opening from director Frank Lloyd finds Richard Barthelmess (Jerry) and Betty Compson (Alice) as popular denizens of a speakeasy which, we learn, he owns, as we also discover he’s maybe mobbed-up, in the First National/Warner Bros. part-talkie/Musical Weary River, 1929.

Weary River (1929) -- (Movie Clip) It's Up To You Bootlegger Jerry (Richard Barthelmess) and gal Alice (Betty Compson) begin talking and singing upon adjourning to their apartment, sampling a standard before performing an original by Louis Silvers and Grant Clarke, dubbed by Johnny Murray, in the part-talkie Weary River, 1929.

Weary River (1929) -- (Movie Clip) Sung By Its Composer Starting at the speakeasy owned by incarcerated Jerry (Richard Barthelmess), director Frank Lloyd travels via radio to the prison where he’s performing (title song by Louis Silvers and Grant Clarke), Betty Compson his girl, Louis Natheaux a snarky rival, in the part-talking Weary River. 1929.

Lady Refuses, The (1931) -- (Movie Clip) A Short Life And A Merry One Sir Gerald (Gilbert Emery) has just been stood-up by playboy son Russell (John Darrow), who scampers with disreputable Berthine (Margaret Livingston), only later noticing vagrant June (Betty Compson), pursued by the bobbies, but rescued by the baronet, early in The Lady Refuses, 1931.

Lady Refuses, The (1931) -- (Movie Clip) Blighter Can't Even Crawl Made-over June (Betty Compson) has secretly been positioned by the English nobleman father of Russell (John Darrow) to pry him away from gold-digging Berthine (Margaret Livingston) and her crowd, this being their first not-accidental encounter, in The Lady Refuses, 1931, directed by George Archainbaud.

Escort Girl -- (Movie Clip) Wild Goose Chase Racketeer Greg (Wheeler Oakman) tells worried partner Ruth (Betty Compson) why the new under-cover cop, who's engaged to her daughter, needs to be kept close in Escort Girl, 1941.

Blondes at Work - (Original Trailer) In the fourth Torchy Blane movie, Torchy (Glenda Farrell) investigates the murder of a department store owner.

Beloved Brat, The - (Original Trailer) A compassionate teacher (Dolores Costello) tries to reach a spoiled tomboy (Bonita Granville) in The Beloved Brat (1938).

Torchy Blane in Panama - (Original Trailer) For the sixth Torchy Blane movie, Lola Lane takes over the role to pursue bank robbers in Torchy Blane in Panama (1938).

Slight Case Of Murder, A - (Original Trailer) Edward G. Robinson is a gangster who stumbles on a killing in the comedy A Slight Case Of Murder, 1938, based on the play by Damon Runyon and Howard Lindsay.

Strange Cargo - (Original Trailer) Devil's Island prisoners are changed forever by a prisoner who thinks he's Jesus in Strange Cargo (1940) starring Clark Gable & Joan Crawford.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith - (Original Trailer) A quarrelsome couple discovers their marriage isn't legal in Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941), a romantic comedy directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Companions

James Cruze

Husband

Director. Married in October 1925; divorced in May 1930.

Irving Wineberg

Husband

Producer. Married briefly during 1930s.

Silvius Jack Gall

Husband

Boxer. Married from the 1940s until his death in 1962.

Bibliography

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