Betty Hutton - Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile

Biography

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Betty Hutton, (born Elizabeth June Thornburg on February 26, 1921 in Battle Creek, Michigan) is a former American actor and singer.

Raised by a single mother, Hutton (along with her sister, Marion Hutton) started singing in the family's speakeasy at age 3. Related troubles with the police kept the family on the move, and eventually they moved to Detroit. When interviewed as an established star appearing at the premiere of Let's Dance (1950), her mother (arriving with her (following a police escort)) commented "This time the police were in front of us." Hutton sang in several local bands as a teenager, and at one point visited New York City hoping to perform on Broadway, where she was rejected.

A few years later, she was scouted by orchestra leader Vincent Lopez, who gave Hutton her entry into entertainment. In 1939 she appeared in several musical shorts for Warner Bros., and appeared on Broadway in Panama Hattie and Two for the Show, both produced by Buddy DeSylva.

When DeSylva became a producer at Paramount Pictures, Hutton was signed to starring role in The Fleet's In in 1942. She made 14 films in 11 years during the 1940s and early 1950s, including Annie Get Your Gun for MGM, which hired Hutton to replace an exhausted Judy Garland in the role of Annie Oakley. The film and the leading role, retooled for Hutton, was a smash hit, with the biggest critical praise going to Betty, but Hutton, like her closest movie musical rival -- Garland -- was earning a reputation for being extremely difficult.

In 1942, she signed with Capitol Records, one of the first artists to do so, but was unhappy with their management, and then signed with RCA Victor. Her time as a Hollywood star came to an end due to contract disagreements with Paramount following The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and Somebody Loves Me (1952), a biopic of singer Blossom Seeley.

Hutton worked in radio, appeared in Las Vegas and in nightclubs, then tried her luck on the new medium of television. An original musical TV "spectacular" written especially for Hutton, Satin 'n Spurs (1954), was an enormous flop with the public and critics. Desilu took a chance on Betty and gave her a sitcom The Betty Hutton Show, which quickly faded. Her last TV outing was a brief guest appearance in 1975 on the popular detective show Baretta.

In 1967, she was signed to star in two low-budget Westerns for Paramount, but was fired shortly after the projects began. Afterwards, Hutton had trouble with alcohol and substance abuse, eventually attempting suicide after losing her singing voice in 1970, and having a nervous breakdown. However, after regaining control of her life through a church, she converted to Roman Catholicism and went on to teach acting and to cook at a rectory in Rhode Island.

She replaced Dorothy Loudon as the evil Miss Hannigan in Annie on Broadway for a limited run in 1980. Her last known performance in any medium was on Jukebox Saturday Night, which aired on PBS in 1983. She was interviewed by Robert Osborne for TCM's "Private Screenings" in April 2000. Married four times with three daughters, as of 2006, Hutton resides near Palm Springs, California.

Hit songs

It's Oh So Quiet
Murder He Says
Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief
I Wish I Didn't Love You So
It Had To Be You
Hit the Road to Dreamland
Orange Colored Sky
You Can't Get a Man with a Gun
Can't Stop Talking
Blow A Fuse

Filmography

Paramount Headliner: Queens of the Air (1938) (short subject)
Vincent Lopez and His Orchestra (1939) (short subject)
One for the Book (1939) (short subject)
Three Kings and a Queen (1939) (short subject)
Public Jitterbug Number One (1939) (short subject)
The Fleet's In (1942)
A Letter from Bataan (1942) (short subject)
Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
Strictly G.I. (1943) (short subject)
Happy Go Lucky (1943)
Let's Face It (1943)
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)
And the Angels Sing (1944)
Skirmish on the Home Front (1944) (short subject)
Here Come the Waves (1944)
Incendiary Blonde (1945)
Duffy's Tavern (1945)
Hollywood Victory Caravan (1945) (short subject)
The Stork Club (1945)
Cross My Heart (1946)
The Perils of Pauline (1947)
Dream Girl (1948)
Red, Hot and Blue (1949)
Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
Let's Dance (1950)
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Sailor Beware (1952) (cameo)
Somebody Loves Me (1952)
Spring Reunion (1957)

External links

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