Betta St. John, 'Tarzan' Actress, Dead at 93

Betta St. John, perhaps best known for her roles in the classic Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957) and Tarzan the Magnificent (1960), has passed away. She was 93.

Her son, TV producer Roger Grant, shared the news with The Hollywood Reporter yesterday, July 7, though St. John died on June 23. Grant revealed that the Golden Age actress, who was active in the industry from 1939 to 1965, died of natural causes in her assisted living facility in Brighton, England.

St. John played a survivor of a plane crash, who was famously chased by a crocodile, in the first Tarzan film she was featured in, before returning for a sequel a few years later. She also starred in the rom-com Dream Wife, alongside Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. Her final film was in 1960, in a horror flick called The City of the Dead, though she did appear on a small handful of television episodes until 1965.

She made her screen debut at just 10 years old in Destry Rides Again, which starred Marlene Dietrich and Jimmy Stewart, and made her Broadway debut at 16, after being discovered by scouts for Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II as a high school sophomore. She played Louise in Carousel, later becoming a member of the Original Broadway Cast of South Pacific. When the musical transferred to the West End in 1951, St. John traveled to London, where her future husband, Peter Grant, joined the cast.

The next year, in 1952, they were wed, remaining married until he passed away of cancer in 1992.

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