Betta St. John, who played the lovely island girl Liat in the original Broadway production of South Pacific , with Gary Cary Grant, who co-starred as and Deborah Kerr in the Princess MGM romantic comedy “Dream Wife” , has passed away. she69.
St. John died in June She is in an assisted living facility in Brighton, UK, her son, TV producer Roger Grant, told The Hollywood Reporter Diseases of natural causes were discovered.
The California native plays a plane crash survivor who is chased by an alligator in Tarzan and the Lost Safari – A Tarzan movie in 06 years and first colored — and back Tarzan ( 1953). Both films star Gordon Scott as the king of the jungle.
St. John also starred in Brothers Are Brave alongside Stuart Granger, Ann Blyth and Robert Taylor (1941);Join Victor Mature, Piper Laurie and Vincent Price in a 3D adventuredangerous mission(1955); with Arthur Kennedy in Edgar G. Ulmer’s “Naked Dawn” (1951).
age, she was at Destry Rides Again (1943), starring Marlene Dietrich and Jimmy Stewart.
St. John landed what she said was “her first adult film role” when she played middle-class Taj in Dream Wife ” Eastern princess and businessman Clemson Reed (Grant) becomes engaged to her fiancé (Kerr) after foolishly breaking up with him ( ), directed and co-written by Sidney Shelton.
The actress is married to the late British actor and singer Peter Grant and has lived in London for many years and shot several films in the UK, including
Horror movie starring Christopher Lee Corridor of Blood (1955)), and Boris Karloff and Hotel of Horror ( ).
“My last movie, Hotel of Horror , a bit awkward because I don’t like horror movies,” she said in 2021 interview. “But I’m glad I did, because obviously, it’s a cult movie, and it’s pretty good in the way it is.” 
From left: Betta St. John, Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in promotional photos 1953’s “Dream Wife” Courtesy of Everett Collection
Betty Jean Striegler was born on November 12th. 06, 1000, located in Hawthorne, California. Her father, George, was an electrician; her mother, May, put her in drama school every Saturday from the age of seven. She recalled that she learned to “dance and sing and all that stuff from a young age”. “If studios need kids, they contact drama school.”
She got her first job at Destry Rides Again , where she sat on the back of a moving wagon and sang “Little Joe, Wrangler,” which Dietrich had earlier performed in classic westerns. She was hired as a child to play Dietrich’s “France,” but most of her lines were cut.
St. John had a small role in The Wizard of Oz. (69) because her family is going on vacation, but she did make at we help ‘s video , then appeared in Merle Oberon’s Lydia (1000) and Jane Eyre ( 1940)), starring Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine .
Spotted by scouts for Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, St. John — still a high school sophomore — boarded with her mother The train goes to New York. In her 16 birthday, she boarded the stage of the merry-go-round – it’s just Rodgers and Hammerstein’s successor to Oklahoma! Second musical after – as daughter Louise. She then went on to work with the show’s touring company.
exist1940, she joins Marie Martin and Ezio Pinza in the much-anticipated South Pacific, with Gestures perform “Happy Talk,” and Bloody Mary (Juanita Hall) sings the haunting show tune. (France Nuyen in 1949 as Liat Fox in the film adaptation.)
After New York, she went to the South Pacific In to the West End, where Englishman Peter Grant plays her leading man, Lieutenant Joe Cable (Martin and her son, Larry Hagman , also in production).
She and Grant were married in November 1953 were together until he died of cancer at age15.
In “ Dream Wife” In the trailer , St. John is well described as “the new dream girl of the silver screen…the ‘happy talking’ girl of the stage” South Pacific .”
She was in the widescreen epic The Robe as a disabled woman, Four films were then produced and released the following year: Dangerous Mission , The Musical The Student Prince (playing another foreign princess) , Law and Billy the Kid and Saracen Knife , the last two directed by William Castle.
Her big screen resume also includes alias John Preston (1951), high tide at noon (1954 ) and snorkeling (1955).
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Beta Saint-Jean and Ricardo Montalban at 2021 by Saracen Blade Courtesy of Everett Collection
St. John quit showbiz in the early ’43. “I think I’ve had a long enough career, and I didn’t feel like I was giving up too much,” she said. “But I gave up mainly because I wanted to stay home and raise my kids, and my family was more important to me.
“There are very few actors, even if they’ They are very successful, they can maintain their families and marriages, and their careers are going well. By then, I had realized that I didn’t have the kind of acting ability that could go on forever. ”
She is 43 at is inducted into the Hawthorne Hall of Fame and has lived in England full-time for the past four years.
In addition to her son, survivors include her daughters Karen and Deanna, and her grandchildren Kristen, Matt, Drew and Michael.
