Belita

Belita Jepson-Turner (21 October 1923 – 18 December 2005), known professionally as Belita, was a British Olympic figure skater, dancer, and film actress.

Belita was born at Nether Wallop, Hampshire, to Major William Jepson-Turner and wife Gladys Olive Lyne-Stivens.

She married Irish actor James Berwick (né James Kenny; 1929–2000) in 1967; they remained married until his death.

Both marriages were childless.

She skated (as Belita Jepson-Turner) for the United Kingdom in the 1936 Winter Olympics, where she was placed 16th in the singles, then her career turned towards Hollywood.

She had classical Russian ballet training which carried over into her skating.

As a young ballerina, she was partner to Anton Dolin, appearing with the Dolin-Markova Ballet.

Belita appeared in films, making several highly profitable productions for Monogram Pictures, including skating in Silver Skates (1943) and Lady, Let's Dance (1944), skating and playing the dramatic lead in and the film noir Suspense (1946), the female lead in The Gangster (1947), and skating again and playing the dramatic lead in The Hunted (1948).

For a brief period, she was Monogram's highest-paid star.

Belita married Joel McGinnis in 1946; they divorced in 1956.

Later she worked with A-list stars Charles Laughton in The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949, and Clark Gable in Never Let Me Go (1953). In 1957 she danced with Fred Astaire in Silk Stockings.

In 1956, she retired from skating, and three years later gave up show business altogether.

She appeared briefly on the ice at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1981 in a short production based on "Solitude" by Duke Ellington.

Belita retired from her second career, as a landscape nursery owner, and later relocated to Montpeyroux, Hérault, France, where she died in 2005, aged 82.