Betty Boyd - Career

Career

Born Elizabeth Boyd Smith in Kansas City, Missouri, Boyd moved to Hollywood in the mid-1920s to pursue an acting career. Her first film role, which was uncredited, was in the 1927 film The Show, which starred John Gilbert and Lionel Barrymore, great uncle to actress Drew Barrymore. Boyd's first credited role was that same year in Off Again, with her starring opposite Jack Lloyd. In 1929 Boyd starred in three films, and had an uncredited role in a fourth, as well as being named as one of thirteen WAMPAS Baby Stars in the company of actresses Josephine Dunn, Sally Blane, and future Hollywood legend Jean Arthur.

1930 was by far Boyd's biggest year of her career. That year she starred in eight films, all credited, and had made a successful transition to "talking films". In 1931 she starred in only two films, Ex-Sweeties and Maid To Order, and in 1932 she again had only two films, a supporting role in An Old Gypsie Custom and an uncredited role in A Modern Hero. By the next year her career was all but over. She had only two film acting roles afterward, both in the late 1940s. Her last role was in 1949 when she was cast uncredited in Samson and Delilah.