Bette Ford (born Harriet Elizabeth Dingeldein; June 24, 1927) is a retired American actress and model turned professional bullfighter.
She later married John Meston (July 30, 1914 – March 24, 1979) an American radio and television writer best known for co-creating (with Norman Macdonnell), the long-running radio/TV series, Gunsmoke.
After graduating from high school in 1945, she began her career as a model and actress in New York, where her modelling credits included stints as The Jantzen Bathing Suit Girl, The Camay Bride and The Parliament Cigarette Girl, and her acting credits included appearances as a regular on The Jackie Gleason Show and The Jimmy Durante Show.
[3] While on a modeling photo shoot in Bogotá, Colombia, Ford was introduced to the renowned matador Luis Miguel Dominguín and watched him fight in the ring.
The studio MGM, which had offered her an acting contract before she left New York to become a bullfighter, planned a full-length feature film based on her life story, and sent several writers, among them John Meston, the co-creator of Gunsmoke, to meet with Ford and discuss a screenplay.