{{Short description|New Zealand actress}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = Dale Austen in 1930.gif | birth_name = Beatrix Dale Austen | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1910|09|12}} | birth_place = Dunedin, New Zealand | death_date = Unknown | years_active = 1927–1933 | known_for = Acting and modeling }}
'''Dale Austen''', born Beatrix Dale Austen (born 12 September 1910, date of death unknown), was a New Zealand actress who had a brief acting career in films in the late 1920s and the 1930s.
She was born in Dunedin, New Zealand on 12 September 1910.<ref>''Otago Daily Times'', 4 February 1927</ref> She was an accomplished athlete in yachting, swimming, tennis, basketball, horse-riding and dancing. Her height, age 17, was five feet and four inches.<ref>''Evening Star'', 15 October 1927</ref>
At the age of 16 she was entered into a beauty contest organized by First National Pictures. On 14 July 1927 she defeated seven other girls to be crowned Miss Otago, garnering 4,447 votes out of a possible 10,664. This earned her a place in the Miss New Zealand contest.<ref>''Evening Star'', 15 October 1927</ref> On 14 October 1927 she was crowned the second-ever winner of the title Miss New Zealand in Auckland.<ref>''Evening Star'', 15 October 1927</ref> The major prize in this event was a trip to Hollywood and the opportunity to feature in films there.
Dale traveled by ship to Los Angeles, arriving in March 1928.<ref>''Evening Star'', 24 March 1928</ref> She signed a contract with MGM Studios and then had screen tests at MGM on 15 March with actor James Murray.<ref>''Evening Star'', 16 March 1928</ref>
She returned to New Zealand on 20 May 1928.<ref>''NZ Herald'', 21 May 1927</ref> She then toured for some weeks, appearing in cinemas to introduce a short documentary film titled ''Miss New Zealand in Movieland''.<ref>''Evening Star'', 14 July 1928</ref> On her return she stated that her first screen appearance had been a minor role in a movie called ''The Actress'', which starred Norma Shearer.<ref>''Evening Star'', 13 July 1928</ref> She also claimed other small parts in films: ''Diamond Handcuffs'' (with Conrad Nagle, Lena Malena and Gwen Lee), ''Loves of Louie'', ''Polly Preferred'' and ''Detectives'' (with Polly Moran and Marceline Day.<ref>''Evening Star'', 14 July 1928</ref> Her only credited role during this time was playing the hero's girlfriend in Chet Withey's ''The Bushranger'', a Hollywood drama set in Australia in the early years of European settlement.<ref>''Otago Daily Times'', 10 July 1928</ref>
She subsequently had dual roles as mother and daughter in a New Zealand silent film called ''The Bush Cinderella'', directed by Rudall Hayward.<ref>''Otago Daily Times'', 22 October 1928</ref>
She subsequently moved to Australia, where she married Auckland-born Robert Ivan Nicholson of Sydney on 18 October 1933.<ref>''Otago Daily Times'', 12 May 1934</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == *{{IMDb name|0042280}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Austen, Dale}} Category:1910 births Category:Year of death missing Category:20th-century New Zealand actresses Category:New Zealand film actresses Category:Actresses from Dunedin