Nina Byron
Nina Byron (born Nina Clarice Betts; July 27, 1900 – January 21, 1987) was a New Zealand–American silent film actress and showgirl.
Nina Byron
National Film Corporation of America / Pioneer Film Corporation · Moving Picture World (May 1919) at the Internet Archive · Public domain
- Birth Name
- Nina Clarice Betts
- Born
- 27 July 1900
- Birthplace
- Christchurch, New Zealand
- Died
- January 21, 1987 (aged 86)
- Place of death
- Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S.
- Occupation
- * Actress
- Nationality
- New Zealand
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q7037884 · wikipedia · Nina Byron
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The documentary record
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Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
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Key facts
Key facts
• Birth Name — Nina Clarice Betts • Born — 27 July 1900 • Birthplace — Christchurch, New Zealand • Died — January 21, 1987 (aged 86) • Place of death — Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S. • Occupation — * Actress • dancer • showgirl
Documentary record
Nina Byron (27 July 1900 – 21 January 1987) is described as an actress and dancer in the authority records of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Nina Byron was born on 27 July 1900 in Christchurch and died on 21 January 1987 in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Broadway
Broadway
Byron was a member of the Ziegfeld Follies during 1923 and 1924. She was also featured in the 1924 Broadway musical Paradise Alley.
Personal life
Personal life
Byron met her first husband, Nicholas Dunaew, in New York City. Dunaew, a Russian silent film actor, claimed to have met Byron in 1916 and brought her and her mother to Los Angeles, where the couple married in 1918. According to Dunaew, they separated in 1920 after she left him. Unhappy with Byron's "reprehensible conduct," Dunaew asked for a divorce, stating: "She has treated me even as her mother treated her father. She left him in New Zealand, and when she heard that he had committed suicide, she laughed; Nina also laughed—these women who had practically killed a man with cruelty laughed at his action in putting himself out of his misery." Her second marriage was to cinematographer Harold Rosson in 1924. The two divorced in 1926, and she married set designer Frank Hotaling in 1939, to whom she remained married until his death.
New Zealand film actress and Ziegfeld showgirl, ca. 1917
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Places
Named by the record
Places
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Christchurch.
Birth place
Lynchburg.
Death place
Film actress
Byron was born Nina Clarice Betts in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1900 to George Arthur Betts and his wife, Grace (Goodman) Betts. She traveled to the United States and made her first film with William S. Hart in the 1917 production Truthful Tulliver. As Abby Hope in The Heir of the Ages (1917), Byron was described by a critic as having substantial acting skills. She was the ingenue (stock character) for House Peters. The material she was given to work with, according to the reviewer, did not test her ability. Her character was merely required to laugh like the silent film icon Mary Pickford. Her other film credits are for roles in The Cruise of the Make-Believes (1918), The Source (1918), The Dub (1919), Johnny Get Your Gun (1919), The Boomerang (1919), and her last film, The Broken Butterfly (1919).
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Nina Byron, revision 1306516557 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 September 2026.
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