Betty Lou Keim was an American actress who rose to fame in the 1950s for her portrayals of troubled and rebellious teenagers in stage, film, and television. She starred alongside some of the biggest names in Hollywood, such as Frank Sinatra, Ginger Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck, and James Cagney. However, she also gave up her promising career at the age of 21 to marry and raise a family. She died on January 27, 2010, at her home in Chatsworth, California, after a battle with lung cancer. She was 71 years old.
A Child Star on Broadway
Betty Lou Keim was born on September 27, 1938, in Malden, Massachusetts, as the daughter of a choreographer and a dancer. She moved to New York with her family when she was five years old and started taking dance and voice lessons from her father. She made her stage debut at the age of seven in the play Strange Fruit, directed by José Ferrer. She then appeared in several other plays, including Crime and Punishment with John Gielgud, The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker, and Texas, Li’l Darlin’. She became most remembered for playing a mean-spirited girl in the play A Roomful of Roses in 1956, opposite Patricia Neal. According to Wikipedia, she also acted on television, guest starring in numerous TV series, such as The Philco Television Playhouse, Kraft Theatre, and Studio One.
A Teenage Rebel on Screen
Keim made her film debut in 1956 with a role in These Wilder Years, a drama starring Barbara Stanwyck and James Cagney. She played Suzie, a young girl who was adopted by Stanwyck’s character after she gave her up as a baby. The same year, she reprised her role as Dorothy ‘Dodie’ McGowan in the film adaptation of A Roomful of Roses, titled Teenage Rebel. She co-starred with Ginger Rogers, who played her divorced mother who tried to reconnect with her after years of estrangement. Keim’s performance as a rebellious and resentful daughter earned her positive reviews from critics and audiences. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she had a contract with two studios, MGM and Fox, which was a rarity at the time. She went on to make two more films with Fox: The Wayward Bus in 1957, based on the novel by John Steinbeck, and Some Came Running in 1958, based on the novel by James Jones. In the latter, she played Dawn Hirsh, the out-of-control niece of Frank Sinatra’s character, who had a crush on a gambler played by Dean Martin. Keim’s last film role was in The Fugitive Kind in 1960, based on the play by Tennessee Williams, where she
