Betty Harte on AllMovie

The first leading lady of the pioneering Selig Company's Los Angeles division, and thus one of the first screen luminaries to settle permanently in Southern California, Betty Harte (born Daisy Mae Light) chose her professional name in honor of her favorite author, Bret Harte. Although she appeared with various stock companies in the East, Harte was a secretary with a Los Angeles newspaper when assigned to interview Selig director Francis Boggs, who liked her looks and signed her to an acting contract. Starring opposite the company's great leading man, Hobart Bosworth, from around 1908, Harte performed her own stunts and nearly drowned while filming a 1912 version of The Black Pirate. Although she lied to Boggs about her equestrian abilities, the actress later excelled at playing Western heroines opposite both Tom Mix and Thomas Santschi, co-starring with the latter and Bosworth in The Coming of Columbus, a three-reel melodrama completely tinted by hand in Paris, France, and considered the first all-color feature film. She retired to marry in 1916.