Biog: Actress; British star of silent film.

Betty Balfour was without doubt the most popular and most adorable film star that this country has ever produced, or ever will produce.' In the 1920s, though other stars like Alma Taylor, Chrissie White or Stewart Rome had strong local followings, only Betty Balfour and Ivor Novello ranked in the international popularity polls along with the stars of Hollywood. She was known as the 'British Mary Pickford' or as 'Britain's Queen of Happiness', her popularity based on her comic charm and common touch rather than on her sexual allure. Prefiguring Gracie Fields, her most popular creation, Squibs, was based on a music-hall sketch featuring her as a pert, Cockney flower girl.

Under contract till 1925 to the Welsh-Pearson company and directed by George Pearson, Balfour made no attempt to break into Hollywood but like Novello she was able to export her talents to mainland Europe, working with Louis Mercanton on La Petite bonne du palace (1926) and Croquette (1927), and with Marcel L'Herbier on Le Diable au coeur (1926). Her popularity waned with the coming of sound, though she played a supporting role to Jessie Matthews in Evergreen (1934) and appeared with John Mills in Forever England (1935). (http://www.britmovie.co.uk/actors/b/001.html)

Filmography

1920 Nothing Else Matters 1921 Mary-Find-the-Gold 1921 Squibs 1922 Mord Em'ly 1922 Squibs Wins the Calcutta Sweep 1922 Wee MacGregor's Sweetheart 1923 Love Life and Laughter 1923 Squibs M.P. 1923 Squibs' Honeymoon 1924 Réveille 1925 Satan's Sister 1926 Le Diable au coeur 1926 The Sea Urchin 1927 Die Sieben Töchter der Frau Gyurkovics 1927 Croquette

1928 Champagne 1928 A Little Bit of Fluff 1928 Paradise 1929 Champagner 1929 Die Regimentstochter 1930 The Nipper 1930 Raise the Roof 1930 The Vagabond Queen 1934 Evergreen 1934 My Old Dutch 1935 Brown on Resolution 1935 Squibs 1936 Eliza Comes to Stay 1945 29 Acacia Avenue 1925 Satan's Sister (as producer)

http://www.franklyncards.com/movies/b20.htm

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Date: 20 February 1924.

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Location: The Lafayette studio, 160 New Bond Street, London.

Descr: 3/4 L sitting.

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Photographer: Lafayette Ltd., 179 New Bond Street, London.

Evidence of photographer at work: -

No of poses: 2.

Copyright: V&A