Tarzan actress Betta St. John dead at 93-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

Tarzan actress Betta St. John has died at the age of 93 (Picture: Getty)

American actress Betta St. John, best known for her role in two Tarzan movies, has died aged 93.

The actress was also a singer and dancer who worked on Broadway, the West End, and in Hollywood films.

She played lovely island girl Liat in the original Broadway production of South Pacific and starred as a princess alongside Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in the MGM romantic comedy Dream Wife.

The California native played one of the survivors of an airline crash, who was chased by a crocodile in Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957) — the first Tarzan film in 15 years and the first one in colour — and then returned for Tarzan the Magnificent (1960).

Both films starred Gordon Scott as the King of the Jungle.

St. John died on June 23 of natural causes at an assisted living facility in Brighton.

She appeared in the 1953 film Dream Wife alongside Cary Grant (Picture: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images)

Her death was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by her son, TV producer Roger Grant.

Born Betty Jean Striegler in Hawthorne, California in 1929, St. John was part of the Meglin Kiddies troupe of actors, singers and dancers as a child, working alongside Shirley Temple.

She made her film debut at 10-years-old with an uncredited part in 1939’s Destry Rides Again, which starred James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich.

St. John in the West End production of South Pacific in 1951 (Picture: Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Going on to play an orphan in 1943’s Jane Eyre, that part was also uncredited, however she then switched her focus to the stage, playing a small role in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway musical Carousel, from 1945 until 1947.

In 1949 she appeared in South Pacific for the first time on Broadway, before it travelled to the West End.

While she would go on to star in several films in the 1950s and 1960s, including The Robe, The Dream Wife and The Student and High Tide at Noon, as well as the two Tarzan films, her last appearance on screen was in 1960’s Horror Hotel.

St. John was married to English actor Peter Grant (Picture: Tony Marshall/ANL/Shutterstock)

St. John was married to English actor Peter Grant from 1952 until his death in 1992.

They had three children.

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