Betsy was born and raised in San Diego, California, USA. This girl lived in La Jolla until her parents divorced when she was 11. Betsy moved to Pacific Beach and attended Mission Bay High School. After graduating from high school early she headed to Los Angeles to audition for acting roles. She started out modeling and waiting tables.
San Diego native Betsy Russell acted in school projects in high school and successfully auditioned for a Pepsi commercial that was taped locally. Betsy Russell's big acting role came when she won the part of Jordan Leigh-Jensen, Phoebe Cates' rival in the film "Private School" (1983). Girl's other film credits include "Out of Control" (1985), "Tomboy" (1985), "Avenging Angel" (1985) and "Cheerleader Camp" (1988). Betsy Russell's televison guest appearances include "Family Ties" (1982), "The A-Team" (1983) and "Murder, She Wrote" (1984).
This actress is the first in her family to become famous as an actress but she hails from a family of famous intellects. Her father is the iconic economist Richard Russell who has written a news letter about the stock market for over 50 years called "Dow Theory Letters" and her grandfather, Max Lerner, was an author and syndicated columnist, said to be one of the great minds of our time. Betsy Russell landed a Pepsi commercial in her hometown of San Diego when she was 16 and was featured on a horse drinking Pepsi. The next time she rode a horse was in her first starring role in the infamous 80s teen flick Private School (1983) where she rivaled her co-star Phoebe Cates and exploded onto the Hollywood scene because of her ability to play a sexy bitch with innocence.
Her scene riding a horse topless in slow motion changed the lives of young boys forever and is touted as one of the sexiest scenes in movie history. Throughout the 1980s, she continued to work steadily in television and movies such as "Avenging Angel" (1985), "Tomboy" (1985) and many others. She met her husband, Vincent Van Patten, actor and tennis star at the Playboy Mansion where she frequented, visiting her grandfather, who was a close friend of Hugh M. Hefner's. Betsy and Vince were together for 13 years, producing two sons before divorcing in 2001. Betsy took a self-imposed hiatus to raise her boys but was lured back to Hollywood to play the ex-wife of "Jigsaw", the killer in the legendary "Saw" franchise. Betsy's interests are in writing and Spiritual psychology (she completed a master's program from the University of Santa Monica and was certified), she is a certified hypnotherapist and has her real-estate license.