Betta St. John, 'Dream Wife' and 'Tarzan' Actress, Dead at 93

The actress made movies with Cary Grant, Marlene Dietrich and Orson Welles, and starred in two 'Tarzan' movies

Betta St. John has died at the age of 93.

The actress, whose career spanned from Broadway to the big screen, died on June 23 from natural causes in an assisted living facility in England, her son, TV producer Roger Grant, told The Hollywood Reporter Friday.

St. John, whose full name is Betty Jean Striegler, was born in Hawthorne, California, and made her acting debut at only 10 years old in Destry Rides Again, starring alongside Marlene Dietrich, in 1939. In 1953, she had what she called her “first grown-up” role in Dream Wife, where she played a Middle Eastern princess engaged to a businessman played by Cary Grant.

In the first Tarzan movie in color, Tarzan and the Lost Safari, St. John played a survivor of an airline crash in the 1957 film. She returned to the franchise for Tarzan the Magnificent in 1960.

St. John, who was also a singer and dancer, was married to English actor-singer Peter Grant from 1952 until his death in 1992. She lived in London for many years, making several movies in the U.K., including horror films Corridors of Blood and Horror Hotel.

“My last film, Horror Hotel, was sort of an embarrassment because I didn’t like horror movies,” she said in a 2008 interview. “But I’m glad I did it because, apparently, it’s a cult film and very good in its way.”

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Born to father George, an electrician, and mother, May, St. John said her parents put her in Saturday theater classes starting at age 7. She learned “dancing, singing and all the bits you do at an early age,” she recalled. “If the studios needed children, they contacted the theatrical schools.”

After she appeared in Destry Rides Again, she played a dancer in the 1940 Our Gang short Waldo's Last Stand. In 1941, she had an uncredited part in Merle Oberon's Lydia. She had another uncredited role in the 1943 adaptation of Jane Eyre, starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine.

While St. John was in her second year of high school, she was discovered by scouts for Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, so she and her mom hopped on a train and headed to New York.

On her 16th birthday, she took the stage in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Carousel, on Broadway, playing Louise, the daughter of the characters Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan. St. John then continued with the show’s touring company.

In 1949, Rodgers and Hammerstein cast her as the innocent Liat alongside Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza in South Pacific, performing “Happy Talk” with hand gestures as Juanita Hall sang. Although St. John originated the role on stage, France Nuyen played the part in the 1958 film adaptation.

Other notable movies she appeared in were The Robe, The Student Prince, The Law vs. Billy the Kid, High Tide at Noon, The Saracen Blade, The Snorkel and more.

In the early 1960s, St. John quit acting. “I thought my career was long enough, and I didn’t feel I was giving up very much at that point,” she said. “But I gave it up mainly because I wanted to stay home and raise the children, and my family was much more important to me.”

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She added: “Very few actors, even if they’re extremely successful, can keep a family and marriage together, with a good career going, too. By that time, I had come to terms that I didn’t have the kind of acting ability that would keep on going forever.”

St. John was inducted into the Hawthorne Hall of Fame in 2019. Her final years were spent living in England.

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In addition to her son, St. John is survived by her daughters, Karen and Deanna, and her grandchildren, Kristen, Matt, Drew and Michael.

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