Carl Betz

About

Carl Lawrence Betz (March 9, 1921 – January 18, 1978) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He appeared in a variety of television series, including the CBS soap opera Love of Life; he is best remembered for playing Donna Reed’s television husband, Dr. Alex Stone, from 1958 to 1966 in the ABC sitcom The Donna Reed Show. Then between 1967 and 1969, Betz played defense attorney Clinton Judd in ABC’s courtroom drama Judd, for the Defense, winning an Emmy Award in 1969 for his work on that series.

Betz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1921, the eldest child of Carl W. and Mary Leona Betz. His siblings were Mary Louise, Leona Ruth, and William Harlow. His father was a native of Missouri; and according to the federal census of 1930, was then the chief chemist at a local laboratory and later, by 1940, for Allegheny County.
Growing up in the Pittsburgh suburbs of Crafton and Mt. Lebanon, Betz began his amateur acting career at the age of 10, when he formed a theatrical company with six friends who performed plays in his grandmother’s basement. After graduating from Mt. Lebanon High School in 1939, he won a scholarship to Duquesne University. Beginning…