By Lee Pfeiffer
Actress Betsy Blair has died of cancer in London. She was 85. Blair arrived in Hollywood as the teen-aged wife of up-and-coming Gene Kelly. They remained married until 1957. Blair initially seemed to be on a promising career of her own, scoring a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination opposite Ernest Borgnine in
Marty. However, her passion for left-wing political causes put her out of favor in an industry that was dominated by pressure from the likes of Senator McCarthy. Blair soon found her career had come to a standstill in the United States. She relocated to Europe, where things improved for her, but she did make a temporary digression to study speech therapy. She later married the acclaimed director Karel Reisz. Blair acted periodically on TV and in films in recent years, but turned down a major role in the movie
The Hours to care for the dying Reisz. For more
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