Rosetta Dewart Brice (August 4, 1888 – February 15, 1935), known professionally as Betty Brice, was an American actress in many silent films.
Early life
Rosetta Dewart Brice was born in Sunbury, Pennsylvania,[1] the daughter of Edward Lincoln Brice and Bessie S. Dewart Brice. Her maternal grandfather was William Lewis Dewart, a congressman from Pennsylvania.[2] Her grandmother and great-grandmother were both also named "Rosetta".[3] She was raised in Washington, D.C.[4]
Still from the American film Humility (1918) with Betty Brice, on page 32 of the September 8, 1917 Exhibitors Herald.
Career
After some time on the stage with stock companies, Brice began acting in silent films, under contract to the Lubin studio in Philadelphia. "I daresay I never will fail to feel that little thrill that comes when I see myself on the screen," she told an interviewer in 1915.[4]
Films featuring Brice, many of them short films and serials that highlighted Brice's athleticism in stunts, riding, and swimming scenes, included Michael Strogoff (1914),[5][6]The Fortune Hunter (1914),[7]The Road o' Strife (1915),[8]The Sporting Duchess (1915),[9]The Phantom Happiness (1915),[10]The Rights of Man: A Story of War's Red Blotch (1915),[11]The Meddlesome Darling (1915), A Man's Making (1915),[12]The Gods of Fate (1916),[12]Her Bleeding Heart (1916), Love's Toll (1916),[13]Loyalty (1917),[14]Humility (1918),[15] and Beau Brummel (1924).[16]
Personal life
Brice was engaged to Horace Carpentier Hurlbutt in 1908,[17] but when he objected to her acting career she broke the engagement. She soon married editor John Oliver La Gorce instead; they had a son, Gilbert Grosvenor La Gorce, before they divorced in 1913.[18] She married director and actor Jack Pratt as her second husband. She died in 1935 at age 46 from heart disease, in Van Nuys, California.[4][19]
_-_1.jpg)
