Betta St. John obit

Betta St. John, Actress in ‘South Pacific’ and ‘Dream Wife,’ Dies at 93

She also appeared with Marlene Dietrich in 'Destry Rides Again,' with Christopher Lee in two British horror films and with Gordon Scott in a couple of Tarzan movies. 

She was not on the list.

Betta St. John, who portrayed the lovely island girl Liat in the original Broadway production of South Pacific and starred as a princess alongside Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in the MGM romantic comedy Dream Wife, has died. She was 93.

St. John died June 23 of natural causes at an assisted living facility in Brighton, England, her son, TV producer Roger Grant, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The California native played one of the survivors of an airline crash, who is chased by a crocodile in Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957) — the first Tarzan film in 15 years and the first one in color — and then returned for Tarzan the Magnificent (1960). Both films starred Gordon Scott as the King of the Jungle.

St. John also starred with Stewart Granger, Ann Blyth and Robert Taylor in All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953); with Victor Mature, Piper Laurie and Vincent Price in the 3-D adventure Dangerous Mission (1954); and with Arthur Kennedy in Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Naked Dawn (1955).

At age 10, she sang and made her onscreen debut in Destry Rides Again (1939), starring Marlene Dietrich and Jimmy Stewart.

St. John had what she called “her first grown-up movie part” when she portrayed Tarji, a Middle Eastern princess who becomes engaged to businessman Clemson Reade (Grant) after he foolishly splits with his fiancé (Kerr), in Dream Wife (1953), directed and co-written by Sidney Sheldon.

The actress, who was married to late English actor-singer Peter Grant, lived in London over the years and made several movies in the U.K., including the Christopher Lee-starring horror films Corridors of Blood (1958), also featuring Boris Karloff, and Horror Hotel (1960).

“My last film, Horror Hotel, was sort of an embarrassment because I didn’t like horror movies,” she said in a 2008 interview. “But I’m glad I did it because, apparently, it’s a cult film and very good in its way.”

Betty Jean Striegler was born on Nov. 26, 1929, in Hawthorne, California. Her father, George, was an electrician; her mother, May, put her in theatrical school on Saturdays starting at age 7. She learned “dancing, singing and all the bits you do at an early age,” she recalled. “If the studios needed children, they contacted the theatrical schools.”

She landed her first job in Destry Rides Again, where she sat in the back of a moving wagon and sang “Little Joe, the Wrangler,” which Dietrich had performed earlier in the classic Western. She was hired to play Dietrich’s Frenchy as a child, but most of her lines were cut.

St. John passed on a minor part in The Wizard of Oz (1939) because her family was going on vacation, but she did make an Our Gang short in 1940, then showed up in Merle Oberon’s Lydia (1941) and Jane Eyre (1943), starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine.

Discovered by scouts for Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, St. John — still a sophomore in high school — and her mom boarded a train and headed to New York. On her 16th birthday, she took the stage in Carousel — it was only Rodgers & Hammerstein’s second musical, after Oklahoma! — as the daughter Louise. She then continued with the show’s touring company.

In 1949, she originated the role of the innocent Liat alongside Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza in the wildly anticipated South Pacific, performing “Happy Talk” with hand gestures as Bloody Mary (Juanita Hall) sang the memorable show tune. (France Nuyen portrayed Liat in the 1958 movie adaptation at Fox.)

After New York, she went with South Pacific in 1951 to the West End, where Englishman Peter Grant played her leading man in the role of Lieutenant Joe Cable (Martin and her son, Larry Hagman, were in the production, too).

She and Grant married in November 1952 and were together until his death from cancer in 1992 at age 69.

In the trailer for Dream Wife, St. John is nicely billed as “the Screen’s New Dream Girl … the ‘Happy Talk’ Girl of the Stage Hit South Pacific.”

She appeared as a disabled woman in the CinemaScope epic The Robe in 1953, then made four films that reached theaters the next year: Dangerous Mission, the musical The Student Prince (as another foreign princess), The Law vs. Billy the Kid and The Saracen Blade, the last two directed by William Castle.

Her big-screen résumé also included Alias John Preston (1955), High Tide at Noon (1957) and The Snorkel (1958).

St. John quit acting in the early ’60s. “I thought my career was long enough, and I didn’t feel I was giving up very much at that point,” she said. “But I gave it up mainly because I wanted to stay home and raise the children, and my family was much more important to me.

“Very few actors, even if they’re extremely successful, can keep a family and marriage together, with a good career going, too. By that time, I had come to terms that I didn’t have the kind of acting ability that would keep on going forever.”

She was inducted into the Hawthorne Hall of Fame in 2019 and spent the past four years living full-time in England.

In addition to her son, survivors include her daughters, Karen and Deanna, and her grandchildren, Kristen, Matt, Drew and Michael.

 

Filmography

Actress

The Third Man (1959)

The Third Man

Sara

TV Series

1965

2 episodes

 

Rendezvous (1957)

Rendezvous

Maria Carmona

TV Series

1960

1 episode

 

Christopher Lee in The City of the Dead (1960)

The City of the Dead

Patricia Russell

1960

 

Tarzan the Magnificent (1960)

Tarzan the Magnificent

Fay Ames

1960

 

International Detective (1959)

International Detective

Josephine Santino

TV Series

1960

1 episode

 

The Four Just Men (1959)

The Four Just Men

Princess Toma

TV Series

1960

1 episode

 

Armchair Theatre (1956)

Armchair Theatre

Cecilia Brady

TV Series

1959

1 episode

 

Tim Turner in The Invisible Man (1958)

The Invisible Man

Toni and Terry Trent

TV Series

1959

1 episode

 

BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950)

BBC Sunday-Night Theatre

Frances McCulloch

TV Series

1959

1 episode

 

Boris Karloff in Corridors of Blood (1958)

Corridors of Blood

Susan

1958

 

The Snorkel (1958)

The Snorkel

Jean Edwards (as Betta St.John)

1958

 

ITV Play of the Week (1955)

ITV Play of the Week

Ann DeeverBelinda MacDonald

TV Series

1958

2 episodes

 

High Tide at Noon (1957)

High Tide at Noon

Joanna MacKenzie

1957

 

Gordon Scott in Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957)

Tarzan and the Lost Safari

Diana Penrod

1957

 

The Errol Flynn Theatre (1956)

The Errol Flynn Theatre

TV Series

1956

1 episode

 

Rheingold Theatre (1953)

Rheingold Theatre

JoanPatriciaPeg Hardy

TV Series

1955–1956

3 episodes

 

The Count of Monte Cristo (1956)

The Count of Monte Cristo

Martha Crane

TV Series

1956

1 episode

 

Alias John Preston (1955)

Alias John Preston

Sally Sandford

1955

 

Charlita, Arthur Kennedy, and Betta St. John in The Naked Dawn (1955)

The Naked Dawn

Maria Lopez

1955

 

The Vise (1954)

The Vise

Laura

TV Series

1955

1 episode

 

Scott Brady and Betta St. John in The Law vs. Billy the Kid (1954)

The Law vs. Billy the Kid

Nita Maxwell

1954

 

Ann Blyth, John Ericson, and Edmund Purdom in The Student Prince (1954)

The Student Prince

Princess Johanna

1954

 

The Saracen Blade (1954)

The Saracen Blade

Lady Iolanthe Rogliano

1954

 

Dangerous Mission (1954)

Dangerous Mission

Mary Tiller

1954

 

Stewart Granger, Robert Taylor, and Ann Blyth in All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953)

All the Brothers Were Valiant

Native Girl

1953

 

Richard Burton, Victor Mature, and Jean Simmons in The Robe (1953)

The Robe

Miriam

1953

 

Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, and Betta St. John in Dream Wife (1953)

Dream Wife

Tarji

1953

 

Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles in Jane Eyre (1943)

Jane Eyre

Girl (uncredited)

1943

 

Joseph Cotten and Merle Oberon in Lydia (1941)

Lydia

Blind Orphan (uncredited)

1941

 

Waldo's Last Stand (1940)

Waldo's Last Stand

Tap Dancer (as Betty Jean Striegler)

Short

1940

 

Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, Brian Donlevy, Mischa Auer, Irene Hervey, Warren Hymer, Allen Jenkins, Una Merkel, and Charles Winninger in Destry Rides Again (1939)

Destry Rides Again

Singing Girl in Wagon (uncredited)