Betty Garrett, Hollywood Actress and Singer, Dies at 91

Betty Garrett, a Hollywood actress and comedian who twice played the love interest of Frank Sinatra as well as the talkative neighbor of All in the Family's Archie Bunker, died Saturday. She was 91.

The Hollywood Historic Trust placed flowers Sunday afternoon at her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6706 Hollywood Blvd.

She appeared recently on the TV shows Becker, Boston Public and Grey's Anatomy. She also had recurring roles in several 1970s sitcoms, including as the five-time divorced Irene Lorenzo on All in the Family and as landlady Edna Babish on Laverne and Shirley. Garrett's career started on Broadway in 1936.

She played Frank Sinatra's movie sweetheart in two MGM musicals.

"I was in on the end of what they called the golden years,'' Garrett told the Los Angeles Times in 1979. "I met [Clark] Gable and [Spencer] Tracy, and of course, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. To grow up with Frank being your idol and then suddenly being his leading lady is an extraordinary fantasy lived out.''

Her path to stardom was shut down, however, when her husband Larry Parks was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee about his earlier membership in the Communist Party.

She also founded a nonprofit theater in Hollywood, Theatre West, and taught an acting class there as late as last week, her family told the Los Angeles Times.

She is survived by two sons, composer Garrett Parks and actor Andrew Parks. Continuing the family tradition, her granddaughter, Madison, sang in a high school opera just hours after her grandmother passed away, the Times reported.