Betty Ross Clarke
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Betty Ross Clarke (born May Clarke, May 1, 1892 – January 24, 1970) was an American stage and film actress. She appeared in more than 30 films between 1920 and 1940, including silent and sound films, in both credited and uncredited roles.
During the 1920s, Clarke appeared in 14 silent films, including 11 U.S. films, two British films and one German film. In the United States, she worked for film companies that included Famous Players-Lasky, Thomas H. Ince, and Vitagraph Studios. She played the female lead in the film If I Were King opposite William Farnum and had other starring roles in silent films.
Clarke's first screen role in a "talkie" was as the character Dot Aldrich in The Age for Love. During the 1930s, she appeared in more than 20 sound films, including both feature films and short films. She typically played character roles, both credited and uncredited. Of note, she replaced the actress Sara Haden as Aunt Millie in two feature length Andy Hardy films. Betty Ross Clarke was occasionally billed in screen credits as "Betsy Ross Clarke" or "Betty Ross Clark," and her name appears as "Betty Ross-Clarke" in some databases, such as the Internet Broadway Database.
Throughout her career, Clarke often performed on both the theater stage and in films during the same time period. A newspaper advertisement in 1922 noted that audience members could "see her on stage and screen at the same time," because she was performing in the play The Morning Him and also starring in the film At the Sign of the Jack O'Lantern. Commenting on the difference between stage and film acting, Clarke remarked that the "silent drama affords an easier life to those who choose it, for one has the nights free, to do as one likes. On the boards an actor's or actresses's time is always taken up."
Most of the silent films in which Clarke appeared have not survived. However, the films If I Were King and Mother o' Mine are preserved in the silent film archive of the Library of Congress. A print of Mother o' Mine is also housed in the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The silent film Traveling Salesman, with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in the leading role, can be found in the George Eastman House Motion Picture Collection in Rochester, New York. Many of the later sound films in which she appeared are still available, including Murders in the Rue Morgue, A Bride for Henry, Love Finds Andy Hardy, Judge Hardy's Children, and Four Wives.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 0.636 |
Birthday | 1892-05-01 |
Place of Birth | Langdon, North Dakota, USA |
Also Known As | Betsy Ross Clark, Betty Ross Clark, Betty Ross, May Clarke, |
1922
The Man from Downing Street
0/0
Someone in India is deciphering secret codes and passing information from London's Downing Street to the natives, so Captain Robert Kent comes down fr...
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The Man from Downing Street
1932
Murders in the Rue Morgue
6.1/126
In 19th century Paris, a maniac abducts young women and injects them with ape blood in an attempt to prove ape-human kinship but constantly meets fail...
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Murders in the Rue Morgue
1938
Love Finds Andy Hardy
6.2/23
Andy Hardy becomes entangled with three different girls all at the same time.
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Love Finds Andy Hardy
1921
The Fox
0/0
Santa Fe, a tramp, is saved from a jeering mob in the desert town of Caliente by Annette, the sheriff's daughter; and after adopting Pard he gets a jo...
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The Fox
1936
The Public Pays
7/6
In this MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short, a protection racket preying on milk distribution is broken through the persistence of law enforcement and...
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The Public Pays
1937
A Night at the Movies
5.1/9
A Night at the Movies is a short film starring Robert Benchley. It was Benchley's greatest success since How to Sleep, and won him a contract for more...
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A Night at the Movies
1937
A Bride for Henry
5.5/6
On the day of her wedding a young woman's fiancé doesn't show up, sleeping off the results of the previous night's wild bachelor party. Miffed, the wo...
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A Bride for Henry
1936
Three Married Men
0/0
Jennie Mullins and her fiancé Peter Cary are happily in love but their families are miserable about their relationship. The Carys and Mullinses have b...
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Three Married Men
1938
Judge Hardy's Children
6.1/4
Judge Hardy takes a business trip to Washington, DC, where Andy promptly falls for the French ambassador's daughter.
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Judge Hardy's Children
1938
Too Hot to Handle
5.8/17
While in Shanghai reporting on the Sino-Japanese war, Chris Hunter, a shrewd news reporter, meets pilot Alma Harding. She does not trust him, but he m...
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Too Hot to Handle
1931
The Age for Love
0/0
A comedy-drama about marriage and divorce. A wife does not want children, her husband leaves her and marries a woman who does.
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The Age for Love
1938
Woman Against Woman
6.5/2
A newlywed unhappily discovers that her husband's scheming ex-wife still has a controlling influence in his life and home.
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Woman Against Woman
1938
Hold That Kiss
6.5/2
Two young people meet at a wedding and begin dating, each thinking the other is extremely wealthy. Comedy.
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Hold That Kiss
1921
Traveling Salesman
0/0
A practical joke makes a man get off before his intended stop, leading to all sorts of trouble.
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Traveling Salesman
1939
Four Wives
5.1/8
In this sequel to Four Daughters, Ann struggles to move on after the death of her husband as she falls in love with Felix, but on the day of her enga...
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Four Wives
1921
Her Social Value
0/0
A shop girl has ambitions of marrying up.
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Her Social Value
1940
Untamed
4.3/3
A courageous doctor braves a fierce blizzard in the Canadian wilderness to save a remote community from a deadly epidemic. He has come North to visit...
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Untamed
1924
Straws in the Wind
0/0
A benefactor ejects a tramp who covets his wife and later adopts the child of the girl the tramp saved from suicide.
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Straws in the Wind
1924
The Cost of Beauty
0/0
A rich woman refuses to bear her husband a child, but adopts a son by his mistress after his death.
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The Cost of Beauty
1933
Headline Shooter
5.8/4
A newsreel photographer neglects his love life to get the perfect shot.
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Headline Shooter
1938
The Chaser
6/1
A sleazy lawyer gains clients by showing up at terrible accidents. His boss, determined to stop him, hires a pretty girl to cozy up and coerce the tr...
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The Chaser
1938
Another Romance of Celluloid
5/2
This second entry in MGM's "Romance of Film" series documents how celluloid movie film is processed and features behind-the-scenes glimpses of current...
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Another Romance of Celluloid
1937
Blossoms On Broadway
4/2
A young singer hopes to become a success on Broadway.
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Blossoms On Broadway
1920
If I Were King
0/0
J. Gordon Edwards silent adventure melodrama about a famous poet who is allowed to rule France for a week!
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If I Were King
1920
Romance
9/1
A young man planning to marry receives a cautionary tale from his bishop based on the sad tale of the bishop's own early romance.
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Romance
1921
Brewster's Millions
6/1
Monte Brewster learns that he has inherited $10 million from his late grandfather, but then learns that he must spend $2 million in less than a year a...
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