Betty Lou Gerson (April 20, 1914 – January 12, 1999) was an American actress, predominantly in radio, but also in film and television, and as a voice actress.

Biography

Early life
Gerson was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but raised in Birmingham, Alabama, where her father was an executive with a steel company. She was educated in private schools in Birmingham and Miami, Florida. At age sixteen, Gerson moved with her family to Chicago, Illinois where she performed in the radio serial The First Nighter Program. She later moved again to New York City, New York.


Radio and Film
She began her acting career in radio drama in 1935, while still in her 20s, and became a mainstay of soap operas during this period, appearing on Arnold Grimm's Daughter (as the titular daughter Constance in 1938), Midstream (in the leading role, Julia), Women in White (as Karen Adams) Road of Life (as Nurse Helen Gowan), Lonely Women (as Marilyn Larimore), and the radio version of The Guiding Light, as Charlotte Wilson in the mid-1940s. She co-starred with Jim Ameche in the 1938 summer drama Win Your Lady and was the resident romantic lead on such romantic anthologies as Curtain Time, and Grand Hotel.

Moving to Los Angeles in the 1940s, she soon established herself on such series as The Whistler, I Love Adventure, the historical drama Mr. President (as the presidential secretary), Crime Classics, Escape, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. She was heard in several episodes of Lux Radio Theater, notably as Glinda in a 1950 dramatization of The Wizard of Oz. She also played a variety of feminine roles on Johnny Modero, Pier 23.

Around this time, she was cast as the narrator in Walt Disney's version of Cinderella (also 1950). 11 years later, she provided the voice of the villainous, selfish socialite Cruella De Vil in the Walt Disney animated feature One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). Her few on-camera film roles include appearances in The Fly (1958), The Miracle on the Hills (1959), and Mary Poppins (1964) in a small cameo as an old crone. In television, she made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of murderer Marjory Davis in the episode, "The Case of the Foot-Loose Doll" (1959). She also guest starred on The Twilight Zone, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Hazel, and The Rifleman.


Family and Later life
In 1936, Gerson married Joseph T. Ainley at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. At that time, he was radio director of the Leo Burnett Company, Incorporated.

Gerson retired in 1966, though still using her voice, working at the telephone answering service of her second husband, Lou Lauria. She was honored as a Disney Legend in 1996. She returned to films one last time in 1997, providing the voice of Frances the fish in Cats Don't Dance. On January 12, 1999, she died of a massive stroke at the age of 84.

Best films