Longtime Laguna Playhouse Actress Betsy Paul Dies

A memorial service will be held Monday for Betsy Paul, a distinguished community actress long regarded with her husband David as “the Lunts of Laguna.” She died of cancer Sunday in Laguna Beach. She was 77.

The affectionate nickname was a reference to Broadway’s most famous acting couple, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. Betsy and David Paul appeared together at the Laguna Playhouse for the first time in 1938 in James M. Barrie’s “Hotel Universe.” She last appeared there in 1990 in Jeffrey Archer’s “Beyond Reasonable Doubt.”

Born in New York, Betsy Paul moved to Laguna Beach in 1935 and continued to live in the coastal city despite the loss of the family home in the Laguna Beach fire of 1993. The Pauls were married in 1947, the same year that Betsy starred in the West Coast premiere of Maxwell Anderson’s “Joan of Lorraine” at the Playhouse.

She had a role on network radio in “Big Town,” which starred Edward G. Robinson and Charles Boyer during the late 1930s, and became a close friend of Bette Davis when the Hollywood star moved to Laguna Beach in the 1940s.

Paul showed her versatility as an actress in many different roles. She was in “The Skin of Our Teeth” (1964), “A Man for All Seasons” (1966), “The Devil’s Advocate” (1970), “Dear Liar” (1972), “The Royal Family” (1977) and “The Gin Game” (1983), among other Playhouse productions.

“Betsy had a commanding presence and an indomitable spirit,” former Playhouse artistic director Douglas Rowe said Tuesday. “Nobody has done more for the company than she did. She had more roles than any actress. She was on the board of directors. She helped with costumes. She raised funds. She did everything.”

Paul is survived by her husband, David, of Laguna Beach; two daughters, Debbie Kermode, of La’ie, Hawaii, and Sena Rose, of Durango, Colo.; a son, Graham, of Asheville, N.C., and five grandchildren.

The memorial service will be at 6 p.m. at Heisler Park in Laguna Beach. The family encourages memorial donations to the Cousteau Society, Save the Whales or the American Red Cross.