Nancy Olson
American actress (born 1928)
title: "Nancy Olson" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1928-births", "living-people", "american-film-actresses", "american-people-of-swedish-descent", "american-stage-actresses", "actresses-from-milwaukee", "20th-century-american-actresses", "paramount-pictures-contract-players", "california-democrats", "wisconsin-democrats", "21st-century-american-women"] description: "American actress (born 1928)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Olson" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American actress (born 1928) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Nancy Olson |
| image | Nancy Olson in Battle Cry.JPG |
| caption | Olson in 1955 |
| birth_name | Nancy Ann Olson |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| other_names | Nancy Livingston |
| occupation | Actress |
| years_active | 1948–1984, 1997, 2014 |
| spouse | {{plainlist |
| * {{marriage | Alan Jay Lerner |
| * {{marriage | Alan W. Livingston |
| children | 3 |
| :: |
| name = Nancy Olson | image = Nancy Olson in Battle Cry.JPG | caption = Olson in 1955 | birth_name = Nancy Ann Olson | birth_date = | birth_place = Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. | other_names = Nancy Livingston | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1948–1984, 1997, 2014 | spouse = {{plainlist|
| children = 3
Nancy Ann Olson (born July 14, 1928) is an American retired actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Sunset Boulevard (1950). She co-starred with William Holden in four films, and later appeared in The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and its sequel, Son of Flubber (1963), as well as the disaster film Airport 1975 (1974). Olson retired from acting in the mid-1980s, although she has made a few rare returns, most recently in 2014.
Early life
Olson was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 14, 1928, and raised there, along with her brother, David.
Her parents were Evelyn Bertha (née Bergstrom), who was of Swedish descent, and Henry John Olson, a physician. See also:
- Livingston, Nancy Olson (2022). A Front Row Seat: An Intimate Look at Broadway, Hollywood, and the Age of Glamour. Lexington, KE: The University of Kentucky Press. p. 185. . "The Bergstrom family. [...]. Top row, left to right: Nancy's mother, Evelyn Bergstrom; Edith Bergstrom; and Ethel Bergstrom."
- "United States Census, 1940", database with images, FamilySearch (ark:/61903/1:1:K72M-65Y : Wed Jul 12 17:13:05 UTC 2023), Entry for Henry John Olson and Evelyn Olson, 1940.
- "California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VP6Q-J72 : 26 November 2014), Evelyn Bertha Olson, 25 Feb 1979; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Nancy_Olson_in_Union_Station_trailer.JPG" caption="''Union Station'' (1950)"] ::
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Nancy_Olson_Everett_Sloane_High_Tor_1956_(cropped).jpg" caption="Olson in a 1956 ''Ford Star Jubilee TV'' special"] ::
Career
Olson was signed to a film contract by Paramount Pictures in 1948, and, after a few supporting roles, producers began to consider her for more prominent parts. She was up for the role of Delilah in Cecil B. DeMille's film Samson and Delilah (1949), for which Olson later said she was not suited. She was passed over in favor of Hedy Lamarr.
Her first big role came in Canadian Pacific (also 1949) with Randolph Scott, then Billy Wilder cast her for his upcoming project. In Sunset Boulevard (1950), she played Betty Schaefer, for which she gained an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her pairing with William Holden was considered a success, and she appeared with him in three other films (Union Station, Force of Arms, and Submarine Command, the second and third released the following year), but none repeated their success in Sunset Boulevard.
Olson's success in Sunset Boulevard also led to her being cast in the September 15, 1950, episode of the radio program Dimension X, titled "Hello Tomorrow".
Other film credits include several films for Warner Bros. such as Big Jim McLain (1952), So Big (1953) and Battle Cry (1955).
Olson made several appearances in films for the Walt Disney studio. The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and Son of Flubber (1963) paired her with Fred MacMurray and were popular with movie-goers. She also appeared alongside Hayley Mills in Pollyanna (1960), Glenn Ford in Smith! (1969) and Dean Jones in Snowball Express (1972). Olson then moved to New York City where she appeared on Broadway.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she did guest roles on television. Olson guest-starred on the Television series The Big Valley playing the mother of Ron Howard in the December 1, 1965, episode titled "Night of the Wolf." Olson is the only female guest starring on The Big Valley to ever marry the character Nick Barkley.
Olson has been retired since the mid-1980s, although she made a brief, uncredited appearance in Flubber, the 1997 remake of The Absent-Minded Professor, and Dumbbells (2014).
Personal life
In 1950, Olson became the third wife of lyricist Alan Jay Lerner. They had two daughters, Liza and Jennifer. They divorced in 1957.
In 1962, she married long-time Capitol Records executive Alan W. Livingston, best known for creating Bozo the Clown and for signing The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and others to Capitol. He died in 2009; they had one son, Christopher.
Filmography
Film
::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Canadian Pacific | Cecille Gautier | |
| 1950 | Sunset Boulevard | Betty Schaefer | Nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1950 | Union Station | Joyce Willecombe | |
| 1950 | Mr. Music | Katherine Holbrook | |
| 1951 | Force of Arms | Lieutenant Eleanor MacKay | |
| 1951 | Submarine Command | Carol | |
| 1952 | Big Jim McLain | Nancy Vallon | |
| 1953 | So Big | Dallas O'Mara | |
| 1954 | ** | Katie Brannigan | |
| 1955 | Battle Cry | Mrs. Pat Rogers | |
| 1960 | Pollyanna | Nancy Furman | |
| 1961 | ** | Betsy Carlisle | |
| 1963 | Son of Flubber | Elizabeth "Betsy" Brainard | |
| 1969 | Smith! | Norah Smith | |
| 1972 | Snowball Express | Sue Baxter | |
| 1974 | Airport 1975 | Mrs. Abbott | |
| 1982 | Making Love | Christine | |
| 1987 | Sparky's Magic Piano | voice | Video |
| 1997 | Flubber | Ford Secretary | |
| 2014 | Dumbbells | Bianca Cummings | |
| :: |
Television
::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Ford Theatre | Kitty O'Dare | episode: "For the Love of Kitty" |
| 1954 | Lux Video Theatre | Lisa | episode: "Spent in Silence" |
| 1954 | ** | Gwen Cavendish | episode: "The Royal Family" |
| 1955 | Producers' Showcase | Peggy Day | episode: "The Woman" |
| 1956 | Ford Star Jubilee | Judith | episode: "High Tor" |
| 1958 | ** | Joyce Richmond | episode: "Second Chance" |
| 1958 | General Electric Theater | Judith Gay | episode: "The Last Rodeo" |
| 1959 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Jan Manning | Season 4 Episode 17: "Total Loss" |
| 1960 | Startime | Peggy Thomas | episode: "The Greatest Man Alive" |
| 1961 | Alcoa Premiere | Amber Baring | episode: "Family Outing" |
| 1963 | Channing | Mrs. Landon | episode: "Collision Course" |
| 1965 | ** | Julia Jenkins | episode: "Night of the Wolf" |
| 1971 | ** | Ann Latham | episode: "Beware of the Watchdog" |
| 1972 | Gunsmoke | Henrietta Donavan | episode: "Yankton" |
| 1972 | Police Surgeon | Judge | episode: "Death Holds the Scale" |
| 1973 | Love Story | Mrs. Ross | episode: "Mirabelle's Summer" |
| 1974 | Banacek | Louise Merrick | episode: "Now You See Me, Now You Don't" |
| 1975 | ** | Jeannie Morris | episode: "Web of Lies" |
| 1976 | Kingston: Confidential | Jessica Frazier | TV series |
| 1977 | Barnaby Jones | Thelma Thompson | episode: "Testament of Power" |
| 1984 | Paper Dolls | Marjorie Harper | Main role, 13 episodes |
| 2010 | Big Love | Katherine | episode: "Strange Bedfellows" |
| :: |
References
References
- (2005). "The Musical Worlds of Lerner and Loewe". University of Nebraska Press.
- Weber, Bruce. (March 16, 2009). "Alan W. Livingston, Talent Spotter Who Signed Beatles, Dies at 91". The New York Times.
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