Betty Garrett (May 23, 1919 - February 12, 2011) was an American actress, comedian, singer and dancer, who starred in several Hollywood musicals and stage roles. She was at the top of her game when the Communist scare in the 1950s brought her career to a screeching, ugly halt. She and her husband Larry Parks, an Oscar-nominated actor, were summoned by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and questioned about their involvement. As the drama played out, a very pregnant Garrett was never called to testify, but her husband was. With his admission of Communist Party membership from 1941-1945 and refusal to name names, he made it to the Hollywood Blacklist. After the incident, Garrett and Parks worked up nightclub singing/comedy acts along with appearing in legit plays. Although Parks never quite shook off the blacklist incident, he did win a role in John Huston's film, Freud (1962). Garrett went on to appear in roles in many television series.

Filmography

• 2011Troupers
• 2009Dark and Stormy Night — Mrs. Hausenstout
• 2009Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1940s: Stars, Stripes and Singing — (archive footage)
• 2007Trail of the Screaming Forehead — Mrs. Cuttle
• Grey's Anatomy — Eleanor
• Boston Public — Miriam Guber
• Becker — Mrs. Firth
• 1998The Long Way Home — Veronica
• Union Square — Agnes
• Townies
• 1994That's Entertainment! III — (archive footage) (uncredited)
• The Good Life — Phyllis
• Blacke's Magic
• 1985That's Dancing! — Ruth Sherwood (archive footage)
• The Golden Girls — Sarah
• Murder, She Wrote — Kit Parkins, Martha Neilson
• 1981All the Way Home — Catherine
• Mr. Merlin
• The Love Boat — Martha McCoy
• Laverne & Shirley — Edna Babish
• 1974That's Entertainment! — (archive footage) (uncredited)
• All in the Family — Irene Lorenzo
• Great Performances — Mary Hallen
• The Fugitive — Margaret Ruskin
• 1957The Shadow on the Window — Linda Atlas
• 1955My Sister Eileen — Ruth Sherwood
• 1949Neptune's Daughter — Betty Barrett
• 1949On the Town — Brunhilde Esterhazy
• 1949Take Me Out to the Ball Game — Shirley Delwyn
• 1948Big City — Shoo Shoo Grady
• 1948Words and Music — Peggy Lorgan McNeil

Appearances as themselves (12)

• 2012Carol Channing: Larger Than Life — Self
• 2008Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1920s: The Dawn of the Hollywood Musical — Self
• 2003Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There — Self
• 2002Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer — Self
• 2000Frank Sinatra Memorial — Self
• 1996Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman — Self
• Dinah! — Self
• 1972Hollywood: The Dream Factory — Self (archive footage)
• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson — Self
• The Dinah Shore Chevy Show — Self
• The Colgate Comedy Hour — Self
• 1950The Costume Designer — Self (archive footage)