Beatrice Roberts
Alice Beatrice Roberts was an American film actress.
Early years
Roberts was born on March 7, 1905, in New York City. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Colin M. Roberts, and she attended Winthrop High School.
She entered several beauty pageants, including the 1924 and 1925 Miss America pageants in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She won the "Most Beautiful Girl in Evening Gown" award each time.
Career
Roberts went to Hollywood in 1933 and between then and 1949, she appeared in nearly 60 films. From 1938 she worked exclusively at Universal Pictures through special arrangement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Author Charles Higham explains that MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer "had noticed her when she appeared as a guest in a party scene in San Francisco; soon afterward, he began dating her. He fell in love with her; for years, she was the love of his life. She shared with him a passion for operettas and Viennese waltzes; she was an accomplished pianist, which, of course, appealed to him. Mayer insisted on keeping her under contract, loaning her out for picture after picture... He had an under-the-table arrangement with Universal to have her placed on semipermanent loan-out, and for the next 10 years she appeared in Universal films as maids, nurses, or secretaries." Her most notable role was that of Queen Azura in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, a 1938 serial for Universal.
Personal life
On October 31, 1919, aged 14, Roberts married Robert Ripley, aged 29, owner of Ripley's Believe It or Not. Their marriage was "a union that only lasted three months, but which wasn't dissolved officially until 1926." She married Robert A. Dillon in Tijuana, Mexico, on May 17, 1928. That marriage was annulled on September 8, 1933, because Dillon was a bigamist, having had another wife at the time of his marriage to Roberts. In 1940, Roberts married John Wesley Smith.
Death
Roberts died on July 24th, 1970, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, from pneumonia, aged 65.
Selected filmography
Fast Life – Guest Melody Cruise – Ship Passenger Pilgrimage – Sick Nurse My Weakness – Mannequin. Woman's Journal My Woman – Party Girl The Worst Woman in Paris? – Gossip at Club Bon Vivant The Return of Chandu – Party Guest The Captain Hates the Sea – Passenger Night Life of the Gods – One of the 3 Graces Naughty Marietta – Minor Role Times Square Lady – Casa Nova Patron West Point of the Air – Woman in Party at Night Club China Seas – Ship's Passenger Broadway Melody of 1936 – Showgirl Wife vs. Secretary – Party Guest We Went to College – Sightseeing Alumnus's Wife San Francisco – Forrestal Guest Sinner Take All – Hat Check Girl Park Avenue Logger – Peggy O'SheaBill Cracks Down – Susan BaileyOutlaws of the Orient – AliceLove Takes Flight – Joan LawsonFlash Gordon's Trip to Mars – Queen AzuraThe Devil's Party – Helen McCoyPioneers of the West – Anna BaileyTight Shoes – Waitress San Antonio Rose – Diner Mob Town – Bit Role Never Give a Sucker an Even Break – Stewardess Bombay Clipper – Miss Kane – Secretary What's Cookin'? – Miss Lewis Gang Busters – O'Brien's Secretary The Mystery of Marie Roget – Woman #2 Reading Newespaper It Comes Up Love – BerniceFrankenstein Meets the Wolf Man – Varja – Barmaid He's My Guy – Secretary Phantom of the Opera – Nurse Fired Wife – Divorcee Adventures of the Flying Cadets – Hill Aerial Secretary Top Man – War Plant Worker Phantom Lady – Monteiro's Maid Her Primitive Man – Maid Jungle Woman – Inquest Juror The Invisible Man's Revenge – Nurse Allergic to Love – Mrs. Walker Reckless Age – WAVE Dead Man's Eyes – Nurse Hi, Beautiful – Hostess Song of the Sarong – Radio Telephone Operator Strange Confession – Miss Rogers, Secretary This Love of Ours – Surgical Nurse Scarlet Street – Secretary Because of Him – Wife The Scarlet Horseman – Halliday's Maid The Mysterious Mr. M – Dr. Walker The Killers – Nurse White Tie and Tails – Marie The Brute Man – Nurse The Egg and I – Nurse Time Out of Mind – Mrs. Weber Ride the Pink Horse – Shop Manager The Senator Was Indiscreet – Woman Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid – MotherFor the Love of Mary – DorothyYou Gotta Stay Happy – Maid An Act of Murder – Nurse Coble Family Honeymoon – Belle Criss-Cross – Nurse