Beth Chapman Biography

Beth Chapman was born Alice Elizabeth Smith on October 29, 1967, in Denver, Colorado, United States of America. Her father, Garry Smith, was a baseball player, who played for ‘Kansas City Athletics,’ in the ‘Professional Baseball League.’ After completing her education, Beth pursued her dream of becoming a professional bail bondsman. She eventually realized her dream at the age of twenty-nine, becoming the youngest licensed bail bondsman in Colorado history. Her decision to become a professional bail bondsman was largely influenced by Duane Chapman, whom she met at the age of nineteen.

Beth met Duane in 1986, and had an on-and-off romantic relationship with him for the next ten years. In 1995, Beth and Duane decided to move in together. After a courtship of almost twenty years, the couple decided to tie the knot on May 20, 2006, at Waikoloa Village in Hawaii. Beth and Duane were blessed with two children - Bonnie Joanne Chapman and Garry Chapman. Duane adopted Cecily, Beth’s daughter from her previous marriage. Before marrying Beth, Duane was married four times.

After meeting Duane, Beth decided to join hands with him in his business ventures. After becoming a licensed bail bondsman, Beth started working alongside her then boyfriend. She was eventually featured in the popular television series, ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter,’ which follows the adventures of Chapman. The series was adopted from a 2003 ‘A&E’ series, ‘Take This Job,’ which documented people with unusual occupations. Beth gradually became an important cast member of ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter,’ which increased her popularity.

Thereafter, she appeared in the 2013 series, ‘Dog and Beth: On the Hunt.’ In the show, Beth and Duane were shown helping other bail bond agencies to maintain a sustained bounty hunter business. The show also marked Beth’s debut as an executive producer, as she worked as an executive producer for thirteen episodes of the series. Apart from these two shows, Beth also made guest appearances in series like ‘Corner Gas’ and ‘Hawaii Five-0.’ After a long hiatus, Beth returned to television in 2017, when her husband decided to share her story of fighting cancer through a TV series titled ‘Dog and Beth: Fight of Their Lives.’

Beth became a mother at the age of seventeen, when she gave birth to Dominic Davis Smith in 1985. Dominic was born from Beth’s relationship with her ex-boyfriend. Since Beth was too young to take care of Dominic, he was taken into state custody. She then married Keith A. Barmore, with whom she had a daughter named Cecily in 1993. She later divorced Keith before marrying Duane. After her wedding with Duane, she managed to locate Dominic, and he rejoined the family as an adult.

Beth was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2017. She had to undergo a surgery to get rid of the tumor. Both the surgery and its aftermath were documented in the ‘A&E Special’ series. After being cancer-free for two years, Beth was once again diagnosed with cancer in 2018, which led to an emergency surgery on November 27, 2018. The surgery took place at ‘Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’ in Los Angeles. 

Beth Chapman died on June 26, 2019, at The Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu. She was 51.