Betsy drake biography

When actress Betsy Drake gave up her career to become a housewife, the role never really took.

The husband she sought so desperately to please was Cary Grant. And though he was deemed one of the world’s most desirable men, he often fell asleep after dinner and preferred television to talking with me,” she said in a filing for her divorce.

His infatuation with Sophia Loren didn’t help, but Drake’s hopes for a conventional life with him might have been a stretch in the first place.

She had a tormented childhood, at one point living in a Chicago hotel suite with a nanny while her wealthy parents lived in another hotel. Seeking answers through psychotherapy, she was an early devotee of LSD and introduced Grant to the hallucinogenic drug. She ultimately turned her back on Hollywood, studying to become a children’s therapist specializing in psychodrama.

“I divorced the whole town as well as Cary — and they divorced me,” she told the Los Angeles Times in

Drake died Oct. 27 at her home in London. She was

Her death was confirmed by Michael Schreiber, curator for the estate of artist Bernard Perlin, a close friend of Drake’s who died last year.

She never remarried and had no children. She is survived by a brother, Carlos Drake.

Drake appeared in about 10 films. Her first was “Every Girl Should Be Married” (), a comedy in which her character devises outlandish schemes to hook Grant as a husband. Her last was “Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion” ().

Others include “Dancing in the Dark” (), “Pretty Baby” (), and “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” (). She also worked with Grant in “Room for One More” ().

For years during her marriage, she chose not to work.

“I couldn’t be an actress and a housewife too,” she told gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in , three years after her divorce

As she peered through the surveyor’s scope and their newly acquired homesite at Bermuda Dunes, Betsy Drake exclaimed in her distinctive low and dulcet voice: “It looks good anyway you look at it.” The moment was photographed for The Desert Sun in April

Drake lived with her husband, Cary Grant, in Palm Springs in an idyllic Spanish house designed by famous Santa Monica architect John Byers. Friendly with Terry Ray and Ernie Dunlevie, the developers of Bermuda Dunes, Grant and Drake were keen to invest in the real estate venture. Their presence would certainly boost interest.

They had been in Palm Springs since the very start of their relationship. The Limelight-News took notice in “Glimpsed attractive Betsy Drake dining with cinema star Cary Grant and ace director Howard Hawks ” The Desert Sun noted their arrival each and every season in the early s.

Bermuda Dunes was a new resort community just east of Palm Springs and a bit west of Indio on Highway Stretching over 2, acres, it featured theacre freshwater Lake Bermuda into which Drake and Grant ceremoniously tossed king-sized gold keys symbolizing the always-open nature of the lake “for the pleasure of Bermuda Dunes’ residents.” Much bigger bodies of water figured prominently in their lives.

Drake and Grant met on a transatlantic crossing of the ocean liner Queen Mary a decade earlier in He’d seen her performing on stage in London and by chance they were on the same boat headed to America. (It wasn’t the first time Drake had made the passage. Born in Paris to two expatriate parents, Drake came from a wealthy family. Her grandfather opened the Drake Hotel in Chicago, but subsequently lost his money in the stock market crash of She returned to the United States on the SS Ile de France and had a chaotic and nomadic childhood ending up in New York City, where Elia Kazan selected her as a founding member of the Actor’s Studio.)

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Betsy Drake, the former wife of Cary Grant who starred in films including &#;Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?&#; (), &#;Room for One More&#; () with Grant and the film noir &#;The Second Woman&#; with Robert Young, died in London on October She was

Grant married Drake in (his best man was Howard Hughes) after seeing her onstage in London, and they separated in and divorced in She made out extraordinarily well in the divorce settlement, receiving more than $1 million in cash in addition to a percentage of the earnings from the 13 films he made during their marriage.

Drake and Grant met while traveling on the Queen Mary, but Drake was also aboard the Andrea Doria when that ship famously sank in ; the actress lost jewelry valued at more than $, as well as a book manuscript on which she was working.

In &#;Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?,&#; adapted from the comic stage play, Tony Randall played an ad man who gets involved in shenanigans to land an endorsement for a brand of lipstick from a Marilyn Monroe-type played by Jayne Mansfield; Drake played his secretary fiancee, who&#;s not happy when the ad man and the bombshell plan to announce their engagement on television as a publicity stunt.

Drake made her big-screen debut in &#;s holiday romantic comedy &#;Every Girl Should Be Married&#; with Grant — The New York Times declared that the actress&#;s “phenomenal ascendance from obscurity to a leading role is itself a sort of Christmas story.” Comedy &#;Room for One More&#; (), the other film in which she appeared with her husband, was also well reviewed. Variety said: &#;Cary Grant and Betsy Drake make a smart star team to head up this story of a real-life couple who open hearts and home to unfortunate children.&#; The pair also starred together in the NBC radio drama “Mr. and Mrs. Blandings.”

The actress made only nine films, the last of which was &#;s &#

American actress, writer, and psychotherapist (–)

Betsy Drake (September 11, &#; October 27, ) was an American actress, writer, and psychotherapist. She was the third wife of actor Cary Grant.

Early life and education

Betsy Drake, the eldest child of two American expatriates, was born in Paris. Her grandfather, Tracy Drake, and his brother had opened the Drake Hotel in Chicago on New Year's Eve in The Drakes lost their money in the stock-market crash. As a result, she returned to the U.S. on the SS&#;Île de France with her parents, brothers, and a nanny. She grew up in Chicago; Westport, Connecticut; Washington, DC; Virginia; North Carolina; and New York City. She went to 12 different schools, both private and public, before concentrating on theater and acting at National Park Seminary.

Career

Drake began looking for work as an actress in New York City, supporting herself by working as a Conover model. She met the playwright Horton Foote, who offered her a job as an understudy in his play Only the Heart, which enabled her to join the Actors' Equity Association and thus become a professional actress.

After coming to the attention of the producer Hal Wallis, Drake was pressured by her agent to sign a Hollywood contract. She hated Hollywood and managed to be released from the contract by declaring herself insane. She returned to New York City and, in , read for the director Elia Kazan for the lead role in the London company of the play Deep Are the Roots. Later that year, Drake was selected by Kazan as one o