Nina Byron
{{Short description|New Zealand-American actress (1900–1987)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Nina Byron, ca. 1917.png
| caption = Byron circa 1917
| birth_name = {{nowrap|Nina Clarice Betts}}
| birth_date = {{Birth date |1900|07|27}}
| birth_place = Christchurch, New Zealand
| death_date = January 21, 1987 (aged 86)
| death_place = Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S.
| occupation = {{flatlist|
- Actress
- dancer
- showgirl
}}
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Nicholas Dunaew|1918|1922|end=div}}
- {{marriage|Harold Rosson|1924|1926|end=div}}
- {{marriage|Frank Hotaling|1939|1977|end=died}}
}}
}}
Nina Byron (born Nina Clarice Betts; July 27, 1900 – January 21, 1987) was a New Zealand–American silent film actress and showgirl.
Film actress
Byron was born Nina Clarice Betts in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1900{{cite web |title=Hotaling, Nina Clarice, 1900–1987 |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/49630231 |website=National Library Wellington |access-date=January 8, 2025}} to George Arthur Betts and his wife, Grace (Goodman) Betts."California, County Marriages, 1849-1957", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8FV-BNC ), Entry for John F Hotaling and Nina Clarice Betts, July 5, 1939.Name: George Arthur Betts. Gender: Male. Marriage Year: 1900. Marriage Place: New Zealand. Spouse: Grace Goodman. Relation: Bridegroom. Folio Number: 830.
Source Information Ancestry.com. New Zealand, Marriage Index, 1840–1937 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: New Zealand Marriage Index, 1840–1950. Microfiche. She traveled to the United States and made her first film with William S. Hart in the 1917 production Truthful Tulliver.{{cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380250418/?terms=%22nina%20byron%22&match=1 |title=Little Australian Lady Wins Place in Front of Camera, Los Angeles Times, 01 Jul 1917, p 32 |accessdate=February 15, 2024}}
As Abby Hope in The Heir of the Ages (1917), Byron was described by a critic as having substantial acting skills. She was the ingenue (stock character) for House Peters.Sees Idol, Then Ideal, Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1917, Page III6. The material she was given to work with, according to the reviewer, did not test her ability. Her character was merely required to laugh like the silent film icon Mary Pickford.Frivols. Views and Reviews, Los Angeles Times, June 25, 1917, Page II8. Her other film credits are for roles in The Cruise of the Make-Believes (1918), The Source (1918), The Dub (1919), Johnny Get Your Gun (1919), The Boomerang (1919), and her last film, The Broken Butterfly (1919).
Broadway
Byron was a member of the Ziegfeld Follies during 1923 and 1924. She was also featured in the 1924 Broadway musical Paradise Alley. {{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/nina-byron-115588
|title=Nina Byron, Internet Broadway Database |accessdate=February 15, 2024}}
Personal life
Byron met her first husband, Nicholas Dunaew, in New York City. Dunaew, a Russian silent film actor, claimed to have met Byron in 1916 and brought her and her mother to Los Angeles, where the couple married in 1918. According to Dunaew, they separated in 1920 after she left him. Unhappy with Byron's "reprehensible conduct," Dunaew asked for a divorce, stating: "She has treated me even as her mother treated her father. She left him in New Zealand, and when she heard that he had committed suicide, she laughed; Nina also laughed—these
women who had practically killed a man with cruelty laughed at his action in putting himself out of his misery."{{cite web
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times/141007705/
|title=Love... Turns... Into... Disgust... Los Angeles Times, 01 Jul 1917, p 32 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=June 21, 1922 |page=31 |accessdate=February 15, 2024}}
Her second marriage was to cinematographer Harold Rosson in 1924. The two divorced in 1926,{{cite news |title=Jean Harlow weds film camera man |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/09/19/archives/jean-harlow-weds-film-camera-man-actress-elopes-by-airplane-from.html |access-date=January 8, 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=September 19, 1933 |page=26 |url-access=subscription }} and she married set designer Frank Hotaling in 1939, to whom she remained married until his death.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{IMDb name|0126416}}
- {{IBDB name}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byron, Nina}}
Category:New Zealand film actresses
Category:New Zealand silent film actresses
Category:New Zealand female dancers
Category:Vaudeville performers