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Nancy Ann Olson is an American actress, who is known for the role of Betsy Carlisle, the love interest and later wife of Professor Brainard in Disney's The Absent-Minded Professor and its sequel. She would make an uncredited cameo appearance in the 1997 remake with Robin Williams as another character.

Getting her start with Paramount Pictures in 1948, Olson landed supporting roles before landing her first major role as Betty Schaefer in the 1950 film noir classic, Sunset Boulevard, which gained her an Academy Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actress." She also married lyricist Alan Jay Lerner (Gigi, My Fair Lady, Camelot) around this time, although the couple would divorce in 1957. She continued to act with films, like Union Station, Forces of Arms, Mr. Music, Submarine Command, Big Jim McLain, So Big, and Airport 1975.

By the 1960s, Olson had appeared in on Broadway as well as television shows, like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Big Valley, Gunsmoke, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, Paper Dolls, and Big Love. She remarried in 1962, this time to Capitol Records executive Alan W. Livingston with she would be with until his death in 2009.

Olson noted in a later interview on how different her time at the Walt Disney Studios were from the other Hollywood studios when she went to audition for her role in Pollyanna. She said that there was a sense of family and a friendly atmosphere and that she and Walt Disney understood each other completely based on their own respective Midwestern upbringings.

She has been officially retired since the mid-1980s, but would appear from time to time in film and television.

Disney filmography[]

Year Film Character
1960 Pollyanna Nancy Furman
1961 The Absent-Minded Professor Betsy Carlisle
1963 Son of Flubber Betsy Brainard
1969 Smith! Norah Smith
1972 Snowball Express Sue Baxter
1997 Flubber Ford Secretary

Disney Roles[]

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