Elizabeth Ada Bronson (November 17, 1906 – October 19, 1971) was an American film and television actress who began her career during the silent film era.
Early years Bronson was born in Trenton, New Jersey, to Frank and Nellie Smith Bronson. She moved to East Orange, New Jersey and attended East Orange High School until she "convinced her parents to let her move to California to aid her career in films." Subsequently, the entire family moved to California.
Film career Bronson began her film career at the age of 16 with a bit part in Anna Ascends. At 17, she was interviewed by J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan. Although the role had been sought by such established actresses as Gloria Swanson and Mary Pickford, Barrie personally chose Bronson to play the lead in the film adaptation of his work, which was released in 1924. She appeared alongside actresses Mary Brian (Wendy Darling) and Esther Ralston (Mrs. Darling), both of whom remained lifelong friends.
Bronson played Mary, mother of Jesus, in the 1925 silent film adaptation of Ben-Hur. Although she was only onscreen for a few seconds, she made an appearance in the experimentally-colored segment. In 1925, she starred in another Barrie story, A Kiss for Cinderella, an artfully-made film that failed at the box office. She made a successful transition into sound films with The Singing Fool (1928), co-starring Al Jolson. She appeared in the sequel, Sonny Boy, with Davey Lee in 1929. She was the leading lady opposite Jack Benny in the romantic drama The Medicine Man (1930).
Bronson continued acting until 1933, when she married Ludwig Lauerhass, "a well-to-do North Carolinian", with whom she had one child, Ludwig Lauerhass, Jr. She did not appear in films again until Yodelin' Kid from Pine Ridge (1937) starring Gene Autry. In the 1960s, she appeared in episodic television and feature films. Her last role was an uncredited part in the television biopic Evel Knievel (1971).
Bronson, the media, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr Bronson was reclusive with the press, but received attention after being seen with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. He had his first boyhood crush on her, as he remembered in his autobiography The Salad Days:
Another important picture had just started. It was Peter Pan, directed by a clever caricature of a wildly temperamental movie director, Herbert Brenon. After exhaustive tests, Betty Bronson, a pretty and gifted girl in her middle teens, was given this famous role... I fell for Betty! It was my first intensely juvenile, deep-sighs-and-bad-sonnets love. It was not fully requited. She only flirted with me. My rival was a fellow in his twenties, a newspaperman who was to become one of New York's most respected theater critics, Richard Watts, Jr. ...In any event, I was so smitten with Betty, I could think of little else, except when I could call on her, even though her overprotective mother was always just in the next room.
It is known that Bronson kept all Fairbanks' letters and spoke of him fondly until her death.
Death On October 19, 1971, Bronson died after a protracted illness in Pasadena, California, and was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.Resting Places
Papers The UCLA Library Special Collections department houses the "Betty Bronson papers, 1920-1970", containing "materials related to Bronson's career and includes clippings, photographs, correspondence, scrapbooks, and personal and professional ephemera."
Filmography Film Year Film Role Notes 1922 Anna Ascends Bit part Uncredited Lost film1923 Java Head Janet Ammidon Lost film The Go-Getter Bit part Uncredited Lost film His Children's Children Minor Role Uncredited Lost film The Eternal City Page Uncredited Incomplete film Twenty-One Uncredited Lost film 1924 Peter Pan Peter Pan1925 Are Parents People? Lita Hazlitt Not So Long Ago Betty DoverLost film The Golden Princess Betty KentLost film A Kiss for Cinderella Cinderella (Jane) Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ Mary Alternative title: Ben-Hur1926 The Cat's Pajamas Sally Winton Lost film Paradise Chrissie Lost film Everybody's Acting Doris PooleLost film1927 Paradise for Two Sally Lane Lost film Ritzy Ritzy BrownLost film Open Range Lucy BlakeLost film Brass Knuckles June Curry1928 The Singing Fool Grace Companionate Marriage Sally Williams Alternative title: The Jazz Bride Lost film1929 The Bellamy Trial ReporterIncomplete film Sonny Boy Aunt Winigred Canfield One Stolen Night Jeanne A Modern Sappho The Locked Door Helen Reagan 1930 The Medicine Man Mamie Goltz 1931 Lover Come Back Vivian March 1932 Midnight Patrol Ellen Gray 1937 Yodelin' Kid from Pine Ridge Milly Baynum Alternative title: The Hero from Pine Ridge 1961 Pocketful of Miracles Mayor's wife Uncredited 1962 Who's Got the Action? Mrs. Boatwright Uncredited 1964 The Naked Kiss Miss Josephine Alternative title: The Iron Kiss 1968 Blackbeard's Ghost Old Lady #1 1971 Evel Knievel Sorority House Mother Uncredited Television Year Title Role Notes 1960 My Three Sons Mrs. Butler 1 episode1964 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre 1 episode Grindl Mrs. Cooper 1 episode 1965 Run for Your Life Alma Sloan 1 episode
References
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Photographs and literature