Betty Garrett, who played Frank Sinatra’s sweetheart in two MGM musicals before her career was hampered by the Hollywood blacklist, has died in Los Angeles. She was 91.
Son Garrett Parks says Garrett died Saturday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, most likely from an aortic aneurysm.
Garrett played the flirtatious girl in love with the shy Sinatra in “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and “On the Town,” both in 1949.
Her movie career was cut short after congressmen forced her husband, actor Larry Parks, to testify in 1951 about his earlier membership in the Communist Party.
Later in life she became well-known to TV audiences with recurring roles in the 1970s sitcoms “All in the the Family” and “Laverne and Shirley.” On “All In The Family” she played the liberal-thinking neighbor, Irene Lorenzo.
