Bella Jarrett (February 9, 1926 – October 19, 2007) was an American stage, television, and film actress as well as a novelist. Her acting credits include Broadway,

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

, television series, and films.

Early life

Bella Jarrett was born on February 9, 1926 in Adairsville, Georgia. As a child, she decided to learn the hand alphabet that is used by deaf people because she was curious. She attended Wesleyan College in

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of Geo ...

, earning a B.A in 1947 and M.F.A. in 1948. After graduating, she acted in community theater and had an advertising job in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1951 she married M. O. Thornburg, an employee of Atlanta's WAGA radio station. In 1958, Jarrett moved to New York City to start an acting career. Upon moving, she first worked in store advertising and later became the public relations director for

Abercrombie & Fitch Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) is an American lifestyle retailer that focuses on casual wear. Its headquarters are in New Albany, Ohio. The company operates three other offshoot brands: Abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co., and Gilly Hicks. As of Februar ...

. She quit her public relations job after a year and rented a flat so that she would be available for any auditions.

Career

Jarrett began acting in the 1950s with local theater groups in Atlanta, Houston, Boston, and Washington D.C. She had roles in the television series ''

All My Children ''All My Children'' (often shortened to ''AMC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 20 ...

'', '' The Doctors'', and '' Another World''. Her Broadway debut was in the 1970s. She was in multiple Broadway productions which include '' Once in a Lifetime'' and ''

Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Humber ...

''. Jarrett also was in the Off-Broadway productions ''The Good Natur’d Man'', ''Phaedra'', and ''

The Waltz of the Toreadors ''The Waltz of the Toreadors'' (''La Valse des toréadors'') is a 1951 play by Jean Anouilh. Plot This bitter farce is set in 1910 France and focuses on General Léon Saint-Pé and his infatuation with Ghislaine, a woman with whom he danced at a g ...

''. The films that she had a role in are '' The Cotton Club'', ''

The Lonely Guy ''The Lonely Guy'' is a 1984 American romantic comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller and starring Steve Martin. The screenplay is credited to Ed. Weinberger and Stan Daniels (of ''Taxi'') as well as Neil Simon (for "adaptation"), and is based on t ...

'', and '' Hellfighters''. Jarrett wrote four romance novels, two under the pen name Belle Thorne. Her first romance novel was published by

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

which was the second publisher that she contacted. In a review of the controversial Catholic comedic play '' Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You'', Rita Rose of '' The Indianapolis Star'' wrote, "Bella Jarrett's theater credits could rival the length of any

catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...

handbook". Jarrett was part of the Bedside Network in which she read and performed for people who were chronically ill. She was also a member of Call for Action and

Mensa International Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organisation open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test. Mensa formally compr ...

, the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world. She died on October 19, 2007 at her home in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jarrett, Bella 1926 births 2007 deaths People from Adairsville, Georgia People from Greenwich Village Wesleyan College alumni Actresses from Georgia (U.S. state) Writers from Manhattan Writers from Georgia (U.S. state) 20th-century American actresses American stage actresses 20th-century American novelists Mensans 21st-century American women