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Betty Danko
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born:
19 September 1903 Newark, New Jersey, United States of America |
died:
03 February 1979 Los Angeles, California, United States of America (age 75) |
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American actress, stuntwoman, and stand-in, who was active in films and later television primarily during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. At the Hal Roach Studios, she was a regular stunt double and stand-in for ZaSu Pitts and Patsy Kelly. Betty was born to Czechoslovakian immigrants John L. Danko (1866-1930), a blacksmith, and Mary Katherine (Drahos) Danko (1872-1960). Her birth record gives a different first name ("Bozhye?"); by mid-1905, she was being referred to as Bertha. Betty had two older siblings: Joseph Peter Danko (1893-1990) and Irene Rosalia (Danko) Van Rossem (1898-1996). John, Mary, and Joseph immigrated to the United States in 1896, settling in Newark, New Jersey. Around 1921, the Danko family relocated to California, making their home at 6522 La Mirada Avenue, which would remain the Danko home (later, just Betty and Mary) for over five decades. Throughout the 1920s, and during the early years of her film career, Betty's primary occupation was as a stenographer for a dentist's office. Betty first showed a predilection for her future occupation at the age of 3, when she tumbled down a flight of stairs without suffering any injury. In school, Betty participated in athletics, playing right forward in basketball and earning medals in the high jump. This experience would help prove key to her reluctant entrance into the motion picture business. Despite her initial lack of interest in being in the movies, she accompanied an acquaintance to a Western film set, whereupon she was noticed by a man (a director or producer, presumably) who managed to get the reluctant Betty to partake in several collegiate two-reelers as part of a girls' basketball team. This led to a suggestion that she go to the Roach Studios, where she gradually became something of a semi-regular presence as a stunt double, stand-in, bit player, and extra. In films as early as 1928, Betty's specialty as a stuntwoman was taking falls, although she performed many other kinds of stunts as well, her work allowing her to support herself and her widowed mother Mary. In addition to ZaSu and Patsy, Betty also doubled for Thelma Todd, Joan Crawford, Irene Dunne, Jean Arthur, Jean Harlow, Elissa Landi, Madge Evans, Maureen O'Sullivan, Myrna Loy, Binnie Barnes, Marie Prevost, Blanche Yurka, Movita Castaneda, and numerous other actresses. She was also Corinne Griffith's stand-in on "The Divine Lady" (1928). Like all stunt people, Betty faced her share of hazards: while doubling for Patsy Kelly on a Roach film (likely Hill-Tillies), Betty's left leg was clamped down upon by the teeth of a mountain lion; the injury required 13 stitches and left a permanent scar. Unfortunately, it would not be the only leg injury and scarring Betty would endure. Easily Betty's most famous assignment, to be forever repeated in bathroom trivia books for years to come, was serving as the stand-in and stunt double for Margaret Hamilton as "The Wicked Witch of the West" in "The Wizard of Oz" (1939). Lots has been written and re-written over the years about the infamously fraught production of this classic, and in particular Betty's painful accident on the Witch's broomstick: the apparatus exploded, burning and bruising her legs and leaving more permanent scars. She was laid up in the hospital for eleven days; fellow stuntwoman Aline Goodwin completed the stunt in Betty's stead. Despite this, Betty continued to do stunt work over the next two decades. She also composed music and poetry on the side, and also dabbled in writing including a television script, "The Secrets of Hannah Bell, or: The House of Handicraft," that was copyrighted in 1965. Betty's stunt career ended for good in the late 1950s when she was struck by a curb-jumping automobile while waiting for a bus. She did, however, continue to work as a stand-in, for Vera Miles and once more for ZaSu Pitts at the Hal Roach Studios on the TV sitcom "The Gale Storm Show." |
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Real name: Bertha Danko |
Films listed on this page: complete Hal Roach filmography; plus 1 film with Laurel & Hardy. |
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