Nancy Ann Olson (born July 14, 1928) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress.
Olson was signed to a film contract by Paramount Pictures in 1948 and, after a few supporting roles, producers began to consider her for more prominent parts. She was up for the role of Delilah in Cecil B. De Mille's 1949 film Samson and Delilah, for which Olson later said she was not suited, and when she was passed over in favor of Hedy Lamarr, Billy Wilder signed her for his upcoming project. In Sunset Boulevard she played Betty Schaefer, a down-to-earth character who contrasted with the other eccentric and cynical ones, and she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her pairing with William Holden was considered a success and she appeared opposite him in other 1950s films, but none repeated their earlier success.
Olson's attempts to further her career were unsuccessful, though she did make several memorable appearances in films at The Walt Disney Company. The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber paired her with Fred MacMurray and were popular with movie-goers. She also appeared alongside Hayley Mills in Pollyanna and Dean Jones in Snowball Express. Olson then moved to New York City where she appeared on Broadway.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she did guest roles on television, and has been retired since the mid 1980s, although she made a brief, uncredited appearance in the 1997 remake of The Absent-Minded Professor titled Flubber.
Olson was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the daughter of Evelyn (née Bergstrom) and Henry J. Olson, who was a physician. Olson married the lyricist Alan Jay Lerner in 1950, had two daughters, and did not seriously follow her acting career. They divorced in 1957. In 1962 she married longtime Capitol Records executive Alan W. Livingston, best known for creating "Bozo the Clown" and for signing Frank Sinatra and The Beatles, among other legends, with Capitol. Together they have one son.
