Elizabeth Harrower
Acting • Born 1918-05-28 – Died 2003-12-10
Biography
Betty Louise Foss was born during the final days of World War I in Alameda, California as the country plagued by a flu epidemic. Within six weeks, her mother died, her father had a nervous breakdown, and relatives passed her care around. As babies were thought to draw the deadly flu, Betty was eventually placed in a San Francisco orphanage where she was later adopted by Scottish immigrants William and Jessie Harrower and raised in Berkeley and Los Angeles. During the Great Depression her adoptive father's salary was cut in half and her adoptive mother decided to take Betty out of school and off to Hollywood to begin an acting career. After trying out several alter egos in the hopes of making an impression on someone in the industry, Betty Foss eventually settled on the identity of Elizabeth Harrower. Elizabeth Harrower appeared in "Becky Sharp (1935)", the first feature-length color film in 1935. She would continue to appear in hundreds of radio, television, film and stage productions over the next decades, most notably "True Grit (1969)". In 1942, Harrower married Harry Seabold, an Air Force cadet she had met in fifth grade. Their daughter, actress Susan Seaforth Hayes, was born in 1943. Her husband was called into war even before that and the marriage subsequently did not last. By the 1970s Elizabeth Harrower had met soap opera scribe William J. Bell and she would eventually start her writing career and became head writer of "Days of Our Lives (1965)" from 1979-1980. She went on to write for Bell's "The Young and the Restless (1973)" in the 1980s. Her last writing stint was on the short-lived soap opera "Generations (1989)" in 1991. In 2003, already while taking chemotherapy she had a prominent limited run as Charlotte Ramsey on "The Young and the Restless (1973)". She died shortly thereafter at age 85.
Filmography
61 credits
Marjorie Morningstar
Movie • 1958
Miss Kimble (uncredited)
Teacher's Pet
Movie • 1958
Clara Dibney (uncredited)
A Brand New Life
Movie • 1973
Margaret Kalman
Does Christ Live in Your Home?
Movie • 1951
Shoot Out
Movie • 1971
Housekeeper
Vanishing Point
Movie • 1971
Communications Officer
Zebra in the Kitchen
Movie • 1965
Town Gossip
Cat Ballou
Movie • 1965
Townswoman (uncredited)
Don't Knock the Twist
Movie • 1962
Ruth Emerson
House of Women
Movie • 1962
Mrs. Potter
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Movie • 1962
French Prisoner (uncredited)
Going Steady
Movie • 1958
Mrs. Armstrong
Plymouth Adventure
Movie • 1952
Elizabeth Hopkins
The Adventures of Nick Carter
Movie • 1972
Sister Effie
The FBI Story
Movie • 1959
Clerk (uncredited)
The Sterile Cuckoo
Movie • 1969
Landlady (uncredited)
Thunder Pass
Movie • 1954
Mrs. Hemp
The Wild Westerners
Movie • 1962
Martha Bernard
Batman
Movie • 1966
Picnicking Woman (uncredited)
The Pilgrimage Play
Movie • 1949
Woman of Samaria
True Grit
Movie • 1969
Mrs. Ross
Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Movie • 1971
Reporter at Hotel (uncredited)
I Love You...Good-bye
Movie • 1974
Mrs. Freeman
I Passed for White
Movie • 1960
Woman in Employment Office
The Andy Griffith Show
TV • 1960
Customer
77 Sunset Strip
TV • 1958
Batman
TV • 1966
Miss Prentice
That Girl
TV • 1966
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Mrs. O'Roarke
Surfside 6
TV • 1960
Perry Mason
TV • 1957
Woman Artist
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Woman (uncredited)
The Waltons
TV • 1972
The Immortal
TV • 1970
Dennis the Menace
TV • 1959
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Mrs. Crandall
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
TV • 1955
M Squad
TV • 1957
Walls' Secretary
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
TV • 1951
Shane
TV • 1966
Myra Torrey
Letter to Loretta
TV • 1953
Miss Himbler
The Great Gildersleeve
TV • 1955
M Squad
TV • 1957
Mrs. Michaels
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Mrs. Grant
The Andy Griffith Show
TV • 1960
Mrs. Hutchins
Letter to Loretta
TV • 1953
Mrs. Sims
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Mildred O'Roarke
Mayberry R.F.D.
TV • 1968
Mrs. Meredith
Mayberry R.F.D.
TV • 1968
Mrs. Brandt
Four Star Playhouse
TV • 1952
Nurse
Four Star Playhouse
TV • 1952
Housekeeper
Perry Mason
TV • 1957
Woman Apartment Manager
Perry Mason
TV • 1957
Mrs. Mangan
Perry Mason
TV • 1957
Sadie Noymann
Columbo
TV • 1971
Board Member (uncredited)
Batman
TV • 1966
Drusilla
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
TV • 1962
Mrs. Jones
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
TV • 1962
Mrs. Masters
Hazel
TV • 1961
Edith
Dennis the Menace
TV • 1959
Mrs. Johnson (uncredited)
Dennis the Menace
TV • 1959
Mrs. Johnson