Betta St. John Passes On

Betta St. John who appeared in such movies as The Robe  (1953) and The City of the Dead (1960--retitled Horror Hotel in the US), died on June 23 2023 at the age of 93.

Betta St. John was born Betty Jean Striegler in Hawthorne, California on November 26 1929. She was only seven when her mother enrolled her in a theatrical school. She made her film debut when she was only about 10, in an uncredited role in Destry Rides Again (1939). As a child actor she also appeared in bit parts in  Lydia (1941), and Jane Eyre (1943).  She appeared in the 1940 "Our Gang" short "Waldo's Last Stand." She was 16 when she made her Broadway debut in Carousel. In 1949 she appeared on Broadway in South Pacific.

Betta St. John appeared in her first adult role on film in the romantic comedy Dream Wife in 1953. In the Fifties she appeared in the movies The Robe (1953), All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953), Dangerous Mission (1954), The Saracen Blade (1954), The Student Prince (1954), The Law vs. Billy the Kid (1954), The Naked Dawn (1955), Alias John Preston (1955), Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957), Hide Tide at Noon (1957), The Snorkel (1958), Corridors of Blood (1958), Tarzan the Magnificent (1960), and The City of the Dead (1960). She made her television debut in an episode of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents in 1955. In the Fifties she guest starred on the shows The Count of Monte Cristo, The Errol Flynn Theatre, ITV Play of the Week, BBC Sunday-Night Theatre, The Invisible Man, Armchair Theatre, The Four Just Men, International Detective, and Rendezvous.

Betta St. John retired from acting in 1960 to concentrate on raising her family. She made only two more appearances afterwards, in the two part episode "Members Only"of the TV series The Third Man.

In her brief career Betta St. John played a number of notable roles. In Dream Wife she played Princess Tarji from the fictional nation of Bukistan. In The Robe she was the disabled woman Miriam. In Tarzan and the Lost Safari she played one of the survivors of a plane crash. Among her most notable roles were those in her two horror movies. In Corridors of Blood she played the niece of Dr. Thomas Bolton (Boris Karloff), who is obsessed with developing an inhalable anaesthetic in London in 1840. In The City of the Dead she played antiques dealer Patricia Russell, who also happens to be the granddaughter of the local pastor. Betta St. John's career was not long and she never had the opportunity to play a wide variety of roles, she did well with the parts she played and she was always memorable.