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Betty Compson

Betty Compson (March 19, 1897 - April 18, 1974) was an American actress. Born Eleanor Luicime Compson in Beaver, Utah, she had an extensive filmography. As a youth her father died 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.

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 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 (1929).

In 1928 she appeared in The Barker, a silent movie which contained some talking scenes. Compson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the performance.

One of her most revered films remains Docks of New York, noted for its dark visual ambience and superb performances, and 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 rival Wayne played precisely the same role.

Compson's last film was Here Comes Trouble (1948). She retired following that film and helped her husband run a business called "Ashtrays Unlimited".

Compson wed three times. From 1924 to 1930 she was married to film director James Cruze. 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 at her home in Glendale, California. She was 77. On her passing she was interred in San Fernando Mission Cemetery in San Fernando, California. She left no surviving relatives.

• Los Angeles Times, Betty Compson Has Film Unit, February 15, 1920, Page III1.
• Los Angeles Times, Betty Compson Star, January 2, 1921, Page III20.
• Los Angeles Times, Flashes; Star To Travel Betty Compson Signs For London Films, April 5, 1923, Page II7.
• Los Angeles Times, Ex-Film Star Betty Compson, April 23, 1974, Page A4.
• Ogden, Utah Standard-Examiner, Closeup and Comedy, Monday Evening, May 25, 1934, Page 7.

• Find-A-Grave profile for Betty Compson
• Betty Compson at the Internet Movie Database