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Last August, Olson reflected on her breakthrough role in Sunset Boulevard, offering a rare glimpse behind the curtain of one of Hollywood’s most enduring classics.
At 21, she was still a college student with only a few screen credits when director and co-writer Wilder cast her as Betty Schaefer in the film.
Betty is a Paramount Pictures story editor and aspiring writer who meets William Holden’s Joe Gillis and offers him a potential way back into studio work after his career stalls.
In the film, Betty becomes involved in helping Joe develop a screenplay, unaware of his growing entanglement with faded silent film star Norma Desmond, played by Gloria Swanson.
Olson said Wilder took an unusual approach to the role, leaning less on traditional character-building and instead drawing on her real-life personality to help shape Betty’s on-screen presence.
‘I remember being very impressed that Billy chose me to play Betty Schaefer, and after a certain point, I realized that he wanted me not to be a character; he wanted me to be myself,’ Olson recalled to People.
Indeed, Wilder immersed himself in her real-life background, peppering her with questions about her upbringing and early ambitions as he shaped Betty around her own experiences.
At 21, Nancy Olson was still a college student with only a few screen credits when director and co-writer Billy Wilder cast her as Betty Schaefer in Sunset Boulevard
Betty is a Paramount Pictures story editor and aspiring writer who meets William Holden’s Joe Gillis and offers him a potential way back into studio work after his career stalls
Olson appeared in The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) with Fred MacMurray as Betsy Carlisle
Olson and Van Heflin starred in 1955’s Battle Cry
Olson married lyricist Alan Jay Lerner in 1950 and had two daughters, Liza and Jennifer, before divorcing in 1957, and later married Capitol Records executive Alan W. Livingston in 1962, with whom she had a son, Christopher, remaining together until his death in 2009; Above in 2014
‘He interviewed me on the lot, walking around on the way to the commissary, and he’d asked me a million questions,’ she remembered.
‘What was it like growing up in Milwaukee? What was it like to be in college and work?… He wanted the public to believe that I could possibly be that person.’
‘And you know something?’ she added. ‘I was a little too naive not to be scared to death! I kind of came in and they said he wanted me to wear my own clothes, and I thought, “Okay, I’m going to be Nancy.’ And there I was.”‘
Born in Milwaukee in 1928, she grew up far from the Hollywood spotlight.
After completing her schooling in Wisconsin, she spent a year at the University of Wisconsin before transferring to UCLA, a move that quietly set her on a new path when a campus theatre performance caught the eye of a visiting talent scout.
That chance encounter led to a Paramount Pictures contract in 1948, and within a year she was navigating supporting roles and early screen tests.
Her breakout came quickly, first with Canadian Pacific and then with Sunset Boulevard in 1950.
Alongside her film career, she balanced a steady presence on radio and later television, while also stepping into multiple collaborations with Holden and appearances across Warner Bros. and Disney productions throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Later, she moved to New York and broadened her career onto the Broadway stage.
Her personal life unfolded alongside her professional one. In 1950, she married lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, and the couple had two daughters, Liza and Jennifer, before divorcing in 1957.
She later married Capitol Records executive Alan W. Livingston in 1962, with whom she had a son, Christopher.
That marriage lasted until Livingston’s death in 2009.