Elizabeth "Beth" Belsito, who just celebrated her 100th birthday on Oct. 23, grew up in Southern California, the oldest of six children born to Julia and Joseph Kosik, immigrants from Hungary. Joseph Kosik was a bricklayer by trade, but became a prominent contractor in Los Angeles.

Belsito refers to herself as a businesswoman who manages money well.

"I'm not cheap, I'm thrifty," she says. She says she picked up English quickly and easily in school, and since her parents did not speak the language, she often acted as their translator and the voice of their business, helping her parents manage their money.

In the mid 1920s, Belsito and her sister Margaret fell into the world of acting.

"Motion picture people were common [in Los Angeles]," she explains. "The studios were all around where we lived; we were in the right neighborhood." The two sisters appeared in several silent films and in various stage productions in L.A. Two of Beth's most memorable films were Right of the Strongest and Covered Wagon. She became known as the "Hungarian Mary Pickford," invoking the likeness and talent of one of the silent film industry's brightest stars.

In the early 1930s Belsito retired from acting and worked as the secretary for another well-known film star of the era, Norma Shearer, who was under contract with MGM Studios. This was how she met her husband, Joseph Belsito, who was an electrical engineer at the studios.

"He fell for me, and I fell for him," remembers Belsito. "We made a good match. He needed a wife like me, and I needed a man like him."

The two were married on Feb. 10, 1935.

Later, when World War II broke out, Joseph joined the Navy. His career in the military was very successful, and he was even part of the Allied contingent that met with Mussolini in Italy before his execution in 1945. He eventually retired as a lieutenant commander.

Belsito went on to have a successful career of her own in real estate development. In the 1950s, the couple moved to Phoenix, where they continued working together in real estate, and Joseph was a contractor for many custom homes in the Scottsdale area. In the 1960s, they moved to Saratoga. They bought two lots on what is now El Camino Grande, off of Highway 9. Joseph built their house.

"This here was the sticks. It was all ranches. We liked this location," Belsito remembers. "It was a good place to live. We loved the climate, the view, the closeness to the ocean."

Her husband died in 1980. Belsito continued her education by taking classes at West Valley College while in her 70s, which impressed many, and continued to dabble in business well into her 90s.

Today, at the age of 100, Belsito enjoys good health and still lives happily in her home on El Camino Grande in Saratoga. Caregivers from Lifespan stay with her a few days a week. She spends her Fridays at the Saratoga Senior Center, where Lifespan threw her a festive 100th birthday party recently—even Saratoga Mayor Ann Waltonsmith stopped by to wish her well.