Bobette Bentley had an innocence about her that made her ideal as a 'student' or 'sweetheart' in the movies, and while not as glamorous as her colleagues she was determined and didn't let being a wife and mother prevent her from succeeding. She began acting at the age of three in regional theater. She made her onscreen debut at the age of six in The Courageous Dr. Christian (1940) before realizing that acting was secondary to education, and she took a hiatus to focus on her studies and actually experience a childhood that most 'child actors' don't. It wasn't the last filmgoers saw of her though because in 1952 after being crowned Maid of Cotton she got numerous roles in movies like Princess of the Nile (1954) and The Last Hurrah (1958). She wanted to expand her horizons beyond a 'showgirl' so she enrolled at the Anthony Quinn Acting Group to perfect her craft.
It's ironic that Bobette portrayed co-eds and students onscreen because she was a co-ed herself at the University of Southern California where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1954. She once said to her mother that she "can't be satisfied with getting a B when I know I can work for an A." She knew what her priorities were and didn't fool herself about how far she could go as an entertainer. Bobette started doing more television work because it gave her the freedom that the movies didn't to see her daughters more, but she did get cast in Howard Hughes movies' Son of Sinbad (1955) where she's aiming an arrow at Dale Robertson as he enters the hideaway and the aforementioned The French Line (1954). 1962 was when she quit the business, and with a hundred or so movies and television episodes on her resume she had no regrets. She worked as a realtor with Coldwell Banker Realty in Malibu, California until her death.
