Betty Boyd

With her dark hair and expressive eyes, Betty Boyd cut a striking figure on early Hollywood screens. Born Elizabeth Boyd Smith in Kansas City, Missouri, on May 11, 1908, she was an American actress who made her mark during the silent film era and the transition to talkies. Her career spanned from 1927 to 1949, with most of her work coming in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Boyd moved to Hollywood in the mid-1920s to pursue acting. Her first role, uncredited, was in the 1927 film The Show, which starred John Gilbert and Lionel Barrymore. That same year she earned her first credited role in Off Again. In 1929 she starred in three films and had an uncredited part in a fourth, and she was named one of thirteen WAMPAS Baby Stars, alongside Josephine Dunn, Sally Blane, and Jean Arthur. 1930 was her busiest year, with eight credited films, showing her successful shift to talking pictures.

Her career slowed after 1932. In 1931 she appeared in Ex-Sweeties and Maid To Order, and in 1932 she had a supporting role in An Old Gypsie Custom and an uncredited part in A Modern Hero. Boyd's final two roles came in the late 1940s, the last being an uncredited appearance in Samson and Delilah (1949). She retired from acting but stayed in the Los Angeles area. She was married to Charles H. Over Jr., though they divorced in 1934. Betty Boyd died on September 16, 1971, in Los Angeles at age 63.