Classic Film Journeys: Betty Compson
Betty Compson was born Eleanor Lucime Compson on March 19, 1897 in Beaver, Utah. Her parents were Virgil and Mary Compson. Her father worked as a mining engineer and prospector and also owned a grocery store. Her mother worked as a maid.
Compson’s father died when she was young, and she began seeking employment opportunities in her teens. After completing her sophomore year at Salt Lake High School, at the age of 16 she worked as a violinist at a theater in Salt Lake City, Utah. She later began acting in vaudeville sketches and touring with her sketches. She was noticed by Hollywood producers. Producer Al Christie offered her a contract and paved the way for her first silent film. Wanted, a leading lady (1915).
In 1916 she appeared in over 20 films, most of them for Christie. After the success of The Miracle Man (1919) she worked for Paramount. Compson followed this experience by starting her own production company, Betty Compson Productions, which offered her autonomy and control over funding and scripts. The first film of her company was prisoners of love (1921), in which she starred as Blanche Davis.
After Paramount refused to give Compson a raise, she signed a deal with a film company in London and starred in four films including woman to woman (1923) and The White Shadow (1923). Both films were written by Graham Cutts and Alfred Hitchcock. They proved popular and Paramount offered her a raise.
Compson returned to Hollywood and performed there The enemy sex (1924), directed by James Cruze, whom she married in 1925. They divorced years later, shortly before the release of their first talkie, The Big Gabbo (1929). Her divorce nearly bankrupted her, forcing her to sell her home and several possessions.
When Comspon’s Paramount contract was not renewed, she turned to freelance work for low-budget studios. She entered The Beauty of Broadway (1926), The ladybug (1927), The big city (1928), court martial (1928), The docks of New York (1928) and The Barker (1928). She received an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in The Barker but lost to Mary Pickford coquette (1929).
Compson’s last success was The spoilers (1930) with Gary Cooper. She auditioned for the role of Belle Watling in Blown by the wind (1939), but did not get the role. She did, however, secure a small role in Hitchcock’s Mr and Mrs Smith (1941).
Compson married twice more. She married producer Irving Weinberg in 1933, although the marriage ended in 1937. She next married boxer Silvius Gall and remained married to him until his death in 1962. Her last film role was in That’s trouble (1948).
After leaving the film industry, Compson started a cosmetics line and supported her husband with his Ashtrays Unlimited business.
Compson died of a heart attack on April 18, 1974, at the age of 77. She was buried with her mother in San Fernando Mission Cemetery in San Fernando, California.
In 1910, Compson and her family resided at 273 S. 400 E., Salt Lake City, Utah. By 1930, she lived with Cruze at 4400 Oakwood Ave., Los Angeles, California. In 1934 she was residing with Weinberg at 7315 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, California. The houses are no more.
Compson’s 1940’s home still stands at 441 Randolph St., Glendale, California. She lived here with her mother and a lodger named James Kinney.
Compson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame honoring her work in films. Her star is located at 1751 Vine St., Los Angeles, California.
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–Annette Bochenek for Classic Movie Hub
Annette Bochenek writes our monthly Classic Movie Travels column. Here you can read all articles from Annette’s Classic Movie Travel.
Annette Bochenek, from Chicago, Illinois, is a graduate student at Dominican University and an independent scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the blog Hometowns to Hollywood, where she writes about her travels exploring the legacies and hometowns of Golden Age stars. Annette also hosts the Hometowns to Hollywood film series in the Chicago area. She has appeared in Turner Classic Movies and is the President of the Chicago chapter of TCM Backlot. Not only does she write for Classic Movie Hub, but also for Silent Film Quarterly, nostalgia digestand Magazine of the Chicago Art Deco Society.
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