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 Adairsville is a city in Bartow County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 4,878. Adairsville is approximately halfway between Atlanta and Chattanooga on Interstate 75. It is south of Calhoun, northe ...

. As a child, she decided to learn the hand alphabet that is used by deaf people because she was curious. She attended

Wesleyan College Wesleyan College is a Private university, private, Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's Colleges in the Southern United States, women's college in Macon, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1836, Wesleyan was the fi ...

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Situated near the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is southeast of Atlanta and near the ...

, 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 Co. (A&F) is an American lifestyle store, lifestyle retailer, founded in 1892 which focuses on contemporary clothing targeting customers in their early 20's to mid 40's. Headquartered in New Albany, Ohio, the company operate ...

. 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, 2 ...

'', '' 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 protagonist and narrator is a French literature professor who moves to New England and writes under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert. He details his obsession ...

''. 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 ...

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

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

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 } ''The Indianapolis Star'' (also known as ''IndyStar'') is a morning daily newspaper that began publishing on June 6, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It has been the only major daily paper in the city since 1999, whe ...

'' wrote, "Bella Jarrett's theater credits could rival the length of any

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

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

, the largest and oldest

high IQ society A high-IQ society or genius society is an organization that limits its membership to people who have attained a specified score on an IQ test, usually in the top two percent of the population (98th percentile) or above. The largest and oldest suc ...

in the world. She died on October 19, 2007, at her home in

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

References

External links

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