Betty Hutton Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Betty Hutton
OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Singer
BIRTH DATE: February 26, 1921
DEATH DATE: March 11, 2007
PLACE OF BIRTH: Battle Creek, Michigan
PLACE OF DEATH: Palm Springs, California
Originally: Elizabeth Jane Thornburg
AKA: Elizabeth Thornburg
AKA: Betty Hutton
AKA: Elizabeth June Thornburg
Full Name: Elizabeth Jane Hutton
AKA: Elizabeth June Hutton
AKA: Elizabeth Hutton
Nickname: "The Blond Bombshell"
Nickname: "The Blond Blitz"

Best Known For

A popular film actress of the 1940s and 1950s, Betty Hutton starred in such films as Annie Get Your Gun and Greatest Show on Earth.

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Betty Hutton

APA Style

Betty Hutton. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 01:59, May 18, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/betty-hutton-21147363.

Harvard Style

Betty Hutton. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/betty-hutton-21147363 [Accessed 18 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Betty Hutton." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 18 2013, 01:59 http://www.biography.com/people/betty-hutton-21147363.

MHRA Style

"Betty Hutton," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/betty-hutton-21147363 [accessed May 18, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Betty Hutton," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/betty-hutton-21147363 (accessed May 18, 2013).

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Betty Hutton [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 18] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/betty-hutton-21147363.

Bluebook Style

Betty Hutton, http://www.biography.com/people/betty-hutton-21147363 (last visited May 18, 2013).

AMA Style

Betty Hutton. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/betty-hutton-21147363. Accessed May 18, 2013.

Synopsis

Born in Michigan in 1921, Betty Hutton began singing as a child. She later sang on the street to help earn money for her family. In her teens, Hutton began performing in nightclubs. She later sang with bandleader Vincent Lopez's group. In 1940, she performed on Broadway in Two for the Show. She soon moved to film, earning parts in 1942's The Fleet's In and 1944's The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, among other roles. Hutton starred in one of her most famous films,

Quotes

"My husbands all fell in love with Betty Hutton. None of them fell in love with me."

– Betty Hutton

"Professionally, my career was great. But never was the scene offstage great for me."

– Betty Hutton

"I quit school when I was 9 years old and starting singing on street corners because my mother was an alcoholic."

– Betty Hutton

Annie Get Your Gun, in 1950. By the 1960s, she had largely dropped out of sight. Hutton became a drama teacher in her later years. She died in 2007 in California.

Early Life

Born Elizabeth Jane Thornburg on February 26, 1921, in Battle Creek, Michigan, entertainer Betty Hutton started performing at a young age. Her father walked out on the family when she was a toddler, and her mother did what she could to take care of Betty and her sister, Marion, including selling homemade gin and beer during Prohibition. At the age of 3, Hutton began singing as a way to earn spare change from her mother's customers.

According to the Washington Post, Hutton's family situation grew more dire over the years: "I quit school when I was 9 years old and starting singing on street corners because my mother was an alcoholic," Hutton later explained. By age 15, Hutton was working professionally, appearing in a Detroit nightclub. There, she was discovered by bandleader Vincent Lopez. It was Lopez's idea for her change her last name to Hutton.

Career Highlights

After performing with Lopez for a time, Hutton went out on her own. She made her Broadway debut in 1940's Two for the Show. Later that year, she appeared with Ethel Merman in Panama Hattie. Soon, she moved to film, brought out to Hollywood by a Paramount executive.

Hutton brought an explosive energy to her movie roles, beginning with 1942's The Fleet's In with Dorothy Lamour and William Holden. Two years later, she starred in the 1944 wartime comedy The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, directed by Preston Sturges, and her platinum locks and curvy figure quickly earned her nicknames such as "the Blond Bombshell" and "the Blond Blitz."

More starring film roles soon followed. In 1945, Hutton played entertainer Texas Guinan in Incendiary Blonde. She then brought the life of silent film star Pearl White to the big screen in 1947's The Perils of Pauline. In 1950, the actress tackled perhaps her most famous role in the hit musical Annie Get Your Gun, about famed sharpshooter and western star Annie Oakley.

Hutton had two major film projects in 1952: She starred in Cecil B. DeMille's grand spectacular Greatest Show on Earth and in the biopic Somebody Loves Me, based on the life and career of vaudeville singer and actress Blossom Seeley. These movies proved to be two of Hutton's final big screen efforts.