Betty Hutton (born Elizabeth June Thornburg; February 26, 1921 – March 12, 2007)[a] was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedian, dancer, and singer.

She rose to fame in the 1940s as a contract player for Paramount Pictures, appearing primarily in musicals and became one of the studio's most valuable stars.

While performing in local nightclubs, she was discovered by orchestra leader Vincent Lopez, who hired her as a singer in his band.

In 1940, Hutton was cast in the Broadway productions Two for the Show and Panama Hattie, and attracted notice for her raucous and animated live performances.

She continued to perform in stage productions, though her career faltered following a series of personal struggles, including chronic depression, alcoholism, and prescription drug addiction.

Hutton largely abandoned her performing career by the 1970s, and found employment in a Rhode Island rectory after becoming nearly destitute.

She returned to the stage temporarily replacing Alice Ghostley in the original Broadway production of Annie in 1980.

After working as an acting instructor at Emerson College, Hutton returned to California in 1999 and resided in Palm Springs, where she died in 2007, aged 86.

[4] In 1938, Hutton was discovered by orchestra leader Vincent Lopez while she was performing as a singer in local Detroit nightclubs.

Among her later victims: Bob Hope, whose teeth caps she sent scattering over a soundstage floor during a bit of jujitsu; Cinemactor Frank Faylen, whom she knocked out with a right to the jaw when the director demanded realism; Eddie Bracken, who, in a saloon scene, caught a Hutton slap on the back that looped him over the bar and into a heap on the other side.

[7] It starred Ethel Merman; despite rumors through the years that Merman demanded from envy that Hutton's musical numbers be reduced from the show, more careful reports demonstrate that producer DeSylva chose to cut just one song of three, "They Ain't Done Right by Our Nell", due to Hutton's "always in overdrive" performance style.

[8] When DeSylva became a producer at Paramount Pictures, he offered Hutton a contract with the studio, and she relocated to Los Angeles.

[10] Meanwhile, Paramount did not immediately promote her to major stardom, but gave the second lead in a Mary Martin film musical, Happy Go Lucky (1943).

[11] In 1942, writer-director Preston Sturges cast Hutton in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek as a dopey but endearing small-town girl who gives local troops a happy send-off and wakes up married and pregnant, but with no memory of who her husband is.

DeSylva, one of Capitol's founders, also co-produced her next hit, the musical Incendiary Blonde (1945), where she played Texas Guinan.

It was directed by veteran comedy director George Marshall and Hutton had replaced Lamour as Paramount's top female box-office attraction.

Hutton was one of many Paramount stars in Duffy's Tavern (1945), and was top billed in The Stork Club (1945) with Barry Fitzgerald, produced by DeSylva.

She did however enjoy the popular The Perils of Pauline (1947), directed by Marshall, where she sang a Frank Loesser song that was nominated for an Oscar: "I Wish I Didn't Love You So".

Hutton was one of several stars in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), an epic drama directed by Cecil B. DeMille about performers in a circus which won two Academy Awards: Best Picture and Best Story.

[16] Hutton portrayed a trapeze artist in the film, and trained extensively for the role for six months, allowing her to perform many of her own stunts.

[15] Hutton transitioned to radio work, and appeared in Las Vegas, where she had a great success performing in live theater productions.

It was Fielding's first network job since losing his post as musical director of Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life in 1953 after hostile questioning by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee.

[27] In 1967, she was signed to make a comeback starring in two low-budget Westerns for Paramount, but was fired shortly after the projects began.

Hutton converted to Catholicism, and took a job as a cook and housekeeper[28] at a rectory in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Speaking on her conversion to Catholicism, Hutton stated that she had been fascinated by the religion since childhood, though she was raised irreligious by her mother, who was an atheist.

[citation needed] In 1980, she took over the role of Miss Hannigan during the original Broadway production of Annie while Alice Ghostley was on vacation.

Ghostley replaced the original Miss Hannigan actress, Dorothy Loudon (who won a Tony Award for the role).

Hutton's Broadway comeback was also included in a profile on CBS News Sunday Morning about her life, her struggle with pills, and her recovery.

[32] A ninth-grade drop-out, Hutton went back to school and earned a master's degree in psychology from Salve Regina University in 1986.

[35] After completing her master's degree, Hutton worked as a drama instructor at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.