From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Betsy Drake (September 11, 1923 – October 27, 2015) was a French-born American actress and writer. She was the third wife of actor Cary Grant. She began looking for work as an actress in New York City, supporting herself by working as a Conover model. She met the playwright Horton Foote, who offered her a job as an understudy in his play Only the Heart, which enabled her to join the Actors' Equity Association and thus become a professional actress. After coming to the attention of the producer Hal Wallis, Drake was pressured by her agent to sign a Hollywood contract. She hated Hollywood and managed to get herself released from the contract by declaring herself insane. She returned to New York City and, in 1947, read for the director Elia Kazan for the lead role in the London company of the play Deep Are the Roots. Later that year, Drake was selected by Kazan as one of the founding members of the Actors Studio. Cary Grant first spotted her in 1947 while she was performing in London. The two, who both happened to be returning to the U.S. on the RMS Queen Mary, struck up an instant rapport. At the insistence of Grant, Drake was subsequently signed to a film contract by RKO Pictures and David Selznick, where she appeared, opposite Grant, in her first film, the romantic comedy Every Girl Should Be Married (1948). New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther called her performance “foxily amusing”. On Christmas Day 1949, Drake and Grant married in a private ceremony organized by Grant's best man, Howard Hughes, and deliberately chose a low-key, introspective private life. They delved into transcendentalism, mysticism, and yoga. She took up causes including the plight of homeless children in Los Angeles. In 1954, they bought the "Las Palomas" estate in the Movie Colony neighborhood of Palm Springs, California. The couple co-starred in the radio series Mr. and Mrs. Blanding (1951). They appeared together in the comedy-drama Room for One More (1952), and Drake appeared in a number of leading roles in England and the U.S., and a supporting role in the satiric comedy film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). Drake subsequently gave up acting to focus on her other interests, such as writing. Under the name Betsy Drake Grant, her novel Children, You Are Very Little (1971) was published by Atheneum Books. She worked as a volunteer and studied at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, and earned a Master of Education degree from Harvard University. Drake's last screen appearance was in the documentary film Cary Grant: A Class Apart (2005), in which she reflected on Grant and their time together, and denied rumors alleging he was bisexual. Description above from the Wikipedia article Betsy Drake, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Biography from TMDB.
- September 11, 1923
- October 27, 2015 (aged 92)
- Paris, France
- Actor, also writer
- 9 on MovieCove · 13 credits in all
What are Betsy Drake's films like?
Across their 9 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Bonds and Self.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 1 · Wry 0 · Earnest 8
Light 8 · Serious 1 · Dark 0
Grounded 6 · Stylized 3 · Heightened 0
Gentle 8 · Charged 1 · Intense 0
Steady 9 · Shifting 0 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 1 · Some laughs 5 · Funny 3
Slow burn 6 · Even-paced 3 · Relentless 0
Casual 8 · Engaged 1 · Full focus 0
Easy watch 8 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 0
Resolved 8 · Open-ended 1 · Ambiguous 0
Roles they play
Usually the Ally: 3 of 6 analyzed roles.
- Heroas Anabel Sims in Every Girl Should Be Married (1948)
- Tricksteras Anabel Sims in Every Girl Should Be Married (1948)
- Heroas Patsy Douglas in Pretty Baby (1950)
- Allyas Ellen Foster in The Second Woman (1950)
- Allyas Jenny Wells in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
- Allyas Julie Harper in Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion (1965)
Moods and endings
- Happy8
- Bittersweet1
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Betsy Drake's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 2 of their 9 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Pluto TV (2).
Subscription and free streaming for Betsy Drake's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
13 credits, 9 with a MovieCove page; 2 appearances as themselves are hidden until asked for.
The Killer of Fossil Gulch (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1970)
Midcredits score: 43rd percentile of all films
Houseboat(1958)
Midcredits score: 67th percentile of all films
Wanted: Dead or Alive (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1958)
Next to No Time!(1958)
Midcredits score: 30th percentile of all films
Intent to Kill (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1958)
Midcredits score: 80th percentile of all films
General Electric Theater (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1953)
Room for One More(1952)
Midcredits score: 85th percentile of all films
Pretty Baby(1950)
Midcredits score: 65th percentile of all films
The Second Woman(1950)
Midcredits score: 50th percentile of all films
Dancing in the Dark(1949)
Midcredits score: 19th percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 55th percentile of all films
Career shape
Star power in the 82nd percentile of 239,109 people with a billed film role, over a full career of 13 titles from 1948 to 1970.
Biggest box office
Houseboat (1958)
Highest rated
Room for One More (1952)
Most popular right now
Houseboat (1958)
Film career
- 1948Screen debut· Every Girl Should Be Married
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
How do Betsy Drake's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 55th percentile, the median of all 9; across their 9 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 61st percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up2
- 50th to 74th4
- 25th to 49th2
- Below 25th1
Shape of the crowd
None of their 9 titles divides audiences: 6 are Crowd Pleasers.
- Crowd Pleaser6
- Broadly Agreed2
- Mixed1
Reviewers score the acting 61/100 in their films, across 9 reviewed titles; fans 75, detractors 37. The element that speaks to their work as an actor.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Betsy Drake work with?
People who share at least 2 of Betsy Drake's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Cary Grant shares the most, 3.
Writers
- Jack RoseShared titles: Houseboat (1958), Room for One More (1952)See all 2 shared titles with Jack Rose
- Melville ShavelsonShared titles: Houseboat (1958), Room for One More (1952)See all 2 shared titles with Melville Shavelson
Actors
- Cary GrantShared titles: Houseboat (1958), Room for One More (1952), Every Girl Should Be Married (1948)See all 3 shared titles with Cary Grant
- Randy StuartShared titles: Room for One More (1952), Dancing in the Dark (1949)See all 2 shared titles with Randy Stuart
Composers
- Cyril J. MockridgeShared titles: Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), Dancing in the Dark (1949)See all 2 shared titles with Cyril J. Mockridge