Thursday, July 7, 2011

Jane Wyman's Biography!







Sarah Jane Mayfield; known professionally as: Jane Wyman (January 5, 1917 – September 10, 2007) was an Academy Award-winning, Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated American prolific character actress of stage, film and television whose career spanned several decades. Her most prolific appearances in film came in the 1940s and 1950s, and included her best known film roles in Johnny Belinda, for which she won her Oscar, and Magnificent Obsession opposite Rock Hudson. Wyman became known to new generations in the 1980s, not only for her leading role as the malevolent matriarch Angela Gioberti Channing on the hit prime-time soap opera Falcon Crest, but also because of her prior marriage to former actor Ronald Reagan, who was then President of the United States.


Early life and career

Wyman was born Sarah Jane Mayfield in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Although her birthdate has been widely reported for many years as January 4, 1914, research by biographers and genealogists indicates that she was born January 5, 1917.[3][4][5][6][7] The most likely reason for the 1914 date is that she added to her age when beginning her career as a minor in order to work legally.[8] She may have changed her January 5 birthdate to January 4 to coincide with that of her daughter Maureen Reagan. After Wyman's death, a release posted on her official website confirmed these details.[1]

Her parents were Manning Jeffries Mayfield (1895–1922), a meal-company laborer, and (Gladdys) Hope Christian (1895–1960), a doctor's stenographer and office assistant.[9] In October 1921, her mother filed for divorce, and her father died unexpectedly the following year at age 27. After her father's death, her mother moved to Cleveland, Ohio, leaving her to be raised by foster parents, Emma (1866–1951)[10] and Richard D. Fulks (1862–1928), the chief of detectives of Saint Joseph,[11] and she took their surname unofficially, including in her school records.[12]

Her unsettled family life resulted in few pleasurable memories. Wyman later recalled: "I was raised with such strict discipline that it was years before I could reason myself out of the bitterness I brought from my childhood."[13]

In 1928, around age 11, she moved to southern California with her foster mother, but it is not known for certain if she attempted a career in motion pictures at this time, or if the relocation was due to the fact that some of Fulks' children lived in the area. In 1930, the two moved back to Missouri, where Sarah Jane attended Lafayette High School in Saint Joseph. That same year she began a radio singing career, calling herself Jane Durrell, dropping her first name, Sarah, and adding years to her birthdate to work legally since she would have been under age.

By 1932, after she dropped out of Lafayette, at aged 15 (her freshman year), she took on jobs as a manicurist, a waitress at a coffee shop, and a switchboard operator, and at the same time arrived in Hollywood, as well, obtaining small parts in The Kid from Spain (as a "Goldwyn Girl") (1932), My Man Godfrey (1936) and Cain and Mabel (1936). After legally changing her last name from Durrell to Wyman, she began her career as a contract player with Warner Brothers in 1936. Her big break came the following year, when she received her first big role in Public Wedding (1937), and her movie career took off.

In 1939, she received her first starring role, in Torchy Plays With Dynamite.

[edit]


Acclaim in Hollywood


Wyman finally gained critical notice in the film noir The Lost Weekend (1945). She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 for The Yearling (1946), and won an Academy Award in 1948 for her role as the deaf-mute rape victim in Johnny Belinda (1948). She was the first Oscar winner to earn the award without speaking a line of dialogue in the sound era. In an amusing acceptance speech, perhaps poking fun at some of her long-winded counterparts, Wyman took her statue and said, "I won this by keeping my mouth shut, and that's what I'm going to do now."

The Oscar win gave her the ability to choose higher profile roles, although she still showed a liking for musical comedy. She worked with such directors as Alfred Hitchcock on Stage Fright (1950), with Frank Capra on Here Comes the Groom (1951) and with Michael Curtiz on The Story of Will Rogers (1952). She starred in The Glass Menagerie (1950), Just for You (1952), Let's Do It Again (1953), The Blue Veil (1951) (another Oscar nomination), the remake of Edna Ferber's So Big (1953), Magnificent Obsession (1954) (Oscar nomination), Lucy Gallant (1955), All That Heaven Allows (1955), and Miracle in the Rain (1956).

She came back to the big screen after her anthology series to replace the ailing Gene Tierney in Holiday for Lovers (1959), Pollyanna (1960), Bon Voyage! (1962), and her final big screen movie How to Commit Marriage (1969). She also starred in two unsold pilots of the 1960s and 1970s, and went into semi-retirement that same decade.



Legendary character actress
Wyman was also one of Hollywood's most sought-after and top-notched character actors of all time, which began in 1955. Her first guest-starring role was on an episode of: General Electric Theatre. This one shot appearance led to other roles such as: Summer Playhouse, Lux Playhouse, Washington Desilu Playhouse, Checkmate, The Investigators, 2 guest appearances on Wagon Train, she served as hostess of The Bell Telephone Hour, Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre, The Sixth Sense, Insight, among many others. In the late 1970s, she appeared in an episode of Charlie's Angels, playing a psychic, and in an episode of The Love Boat she played a nun.


Television work


Early television work

In the 1950s, she hosted a television anthology series, Jane Wyman Theater, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1957.

She was also cast in two unsold pilots during the 1960s and 1970s. After those pilots were not picked up, Wyman went into semi-retirement and remained there for most of the 1970s.

Falcon Crest: Angela Channing


Wyman gained a new generation of fans in the 1980s when she starred as the diabolical California vintner and matriarch, Angela Gioberti Channing, in the night-time soap opera Falcon Crest (1981-1990), based on The Vintage Years TV pilot and script that was created by Earl Hamner. It was her ex-husband's encouragement for Jane to take the role, after Barbara Stanwyck had turned down the role. In its first season, Falcon Crest was a ratings winner, behind Dallas and Knots Landing, but initially ahead of Dynasty. Also starring on the show was an already established character actress, Susan Sullivan as Angela's niece- and daughter-in-law, Maggie Gioberti Channing, and relatively unknown actor, fast food counter clerk, parking lot attendant, martial artist, family friend, future action hero of the 1990s and reality show participant, who's of Mediterranean and Norweigan descent, Lorenzo Lamas, in the role of Angela's playboy grandson and henchman, Lance Cumson. The on and off-screen chemistry of both Wyman & Lamas was an immediate success story of 1980s television, spitting fire against each other. Lamas was the only star to appear in all the episodes of the series throughout its nine-season-run on CBS.

During the fall of 1982, Wyman met two separate characters: Richard Channing (played by a familiar actor and a fan of Wyman's David Selby), who would become her on-screen bastardized and compassionate son, that only he enjoyed working with and without Wyman until the series' cancelation, and Melissa Agretti (played by an struggling actress Ana Alicia), who would become her on-screen archnemesis. Despite of the fact Alicia got along great with Wyman, she was fired from the show at the beginning of the eighth season.

For her role as Angela Channing, Wyman was nominated for a Soap Opera Digest Award five times (for Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role and for Outstanding Villainess: Prime Time Serial), and was also nominated for a Golden Globe award in 1983 and 1984. That same year, she won the Golden Globe for "Best Performance By an Actress in a TV Series". Unfortunately, it was also during this time that Jane was called by TV Guide one of "the ten most boring people on television." In 1986, the actress had abdominal surgery which caused her to miss two episodes (her character, Angela, disappeared from the show after being arrested).

In 1988, Jane Wyman renegotiated her contract from the production company, thus became the highest-paid actress on the show for the 8th season. That same year, she missed one episode and was told by her doctor to end her acting career. However, she wanted to keep working in order to remain popular. She also came back in one episode where the writers told her to be seated, due to the seizure she suffered, earlier. She completed almost all the episodes of the 1988-1989 season, while her health was still deterioriating.

In 1989, while Falcon Crest had low ratings, at the same time, Wyman collapsed on the set and was also hospitalized with diabetes and liver ailment. The doctors told Wyman that she should avoid work. Hence, Wyman's absence for most of the 9th and final season in 1989-1990. Wyman's character (Angela) lay comatose in a hospital bed while her family was fighting over who would control the winery who happened to be her daughter Emma (played by Margaret Ladd) instead of grandson Lance.

Wyman was on Falcon Crest throughout its entire run, even when health problems plagued her. In the end, she appeared in 208 of the 227 episodes (that’s almost every episode of the series, except in the ninth and final season), and she wrote a great siloloquy for the series finale, after she returned for the show's final three episodes, after she thought she was recovered (though her doctors disagreed) and came back against her doctor's advice, in 1990.

Jane Wyman’s friendship with Lorenzo Lamas’s family began in the late 1950s, when his father, Fernando Lamas, guest-starred on Wyman's anthology series, at the time Lorenzo was only 3 mos. old. A little over two decades later, Fernando’s own son persistently audition for a co-starring role opposite her, and won, after Lorenzo’s fourth shot, which made his father feel very proud of him. In 1983, Jane and actress Abby Dalton were invited to Lamas’s & Kathleen’s wedding, and were very proud of him. Lorenzo Lamas said in a 2010 interview at the Paley Center in Los Angeles, during a Falcon Crest Reunion, about Jane Wyman, where she encouraged everybody to show up for work, on-time, when to be on-time was, “With Jane, she expected you to know your lines, but she played poker with the crew at lunch. She was just a great gal; and I think that set the tone for the rest of us. She wasn't a 'spoiled diva,' and believe me, if anybody had a right to be a 'spoiled diva,' it was Jane because she has done so much, Oscar Award-winner, incredible actress, and she was just like clockwork, right there on time, always knew her lines, always ready to rehearse and she had this great affable quality. You just never talked about Ronald Reagan, that was one thing we never did, everything else was opened.” Lorenzo also responded if he ever got a chance to spend time at Jane's house, just before her death, "I regret I didn't take more time to visit her." He also said in a 2006 interview from a Norweigan Television Team in Norway about the Oscar-winning actress playing “a second grandmother,” to him on-camera, when she was really a friend off-camera, “Jane Wyman was really, very maternal to me. I was a young actor, learning, struggling with pages of dialogue, trying to make an impact and she told me one day, she said, ‘You’re really making too much out of it.  It’s just words on a page. Just know the words and say them.’ She made a lot of impact in me.” When he wore tattooes, he told reporters Jane was very displeased with his behavior, while working on Falcon Crest, “This was a big no-no. Remember now, back in the day, the only people who had tattooes in her world, were sailors and ex-cons. And in her mind, an actor wasn’t a party to that, and she said, ‘Lorenzo, look, what did you do to yourself?’ I said, ‘I got a tattoo.’ She said, ‘You are an actor, son. You’re NOT A BIKER OR A BUM. How dare you mark up your body like that!’” Lamas said of his on- and off-screen chemistry with Wyman, during the show’s first season in a 1982 issue of TVGuide, "She never actually pressured changes, but people on the set felt compelled to listen." Then 22 years later in another interview on Soap Opera Digest back in 2004, Lorenzo also said as to how working with Jane had changed his life, long after his family heard of her, “That was a decade of television for me!  It was most of my 20s. Working with Jane Wyman is something that I will never forget. She is a consummate professional. She set the tone for every other actor who did that show. After nine seasons, she never made a fuss about a bigger trailer. She stayed in the same little 16 x 16 room that we all did and never complained. Jane was such a professional and such a class act. She was like a grandmother to me.” The last thing that Lamas was asked after he'd been scolded or had been afraid of his on-screen grandmother on the set, he said, “I remember the first time I came on the set with a new tattoo, It was like 1982 or 1983. We had come back from the hiatus and we were shooting up in Napa. She saw this tattoo at a distance and yelled, 'Lorenzo Lamas, you get over here!' I walked over there and she said, 'What the hell have you done to yourself?' I said, 'I got a tattoo.' She looked at me, shook her finger at my nose and said, 'You are an actor, young man. You are not a person who goes and gets tattoos. You better learn from that!' Back in the day, nobody had tattoos [on shows] but ex-cons and pirates. I didn't learn much from that lesson because I went out and got more and more. Now they have to cover them up [on B&B].” The shocking 1982 death of Lorenzo's father, Fernando, continued to grow the relationship stronger as Wyman was one of the people to hear about this, while they were working, real hard on the second season of Falcon Crest. Outside of work, she even sent Lamas her condolences throughout his difficult time. Seven years later in 1989, Lamas was even more shocked when his longtime friend was hospitalized with liver ailment and diabetes at a Los Angeles hospital, and even paid a visit to see her, while the ninth and final season was airing. For years after the cancelation of Falcon Crest, Lamas hasn't been keeping in contact with Wyman at all, but have been praying and thinking that working with Jane had been the highlights of his early career. Both deaths, which included Maureen's (Jane’s real-life daughter) in 2001 and Ronald's (Jane’s real-life ex-husband), three years later, drew Wyman & Lamas real closer, as he was breaking down weeping and crying, before he cried even more of Jane's own death.

After Falcon Crest, Wyman only acted once more, playing Jane Seymour's screen mother in a 1993 episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Following this, Wyman retired from acting permanently. Wyman had starred in 83 movies, two successful TV series, and was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning once.


 


Personal life

Marriages and children

It has been rumored that on April 8, 1933, Wyman (then Sarah Jane Mayfield) married Ernest Eugene Wyman (or Weymann). According to American geneaologist William Addams Reitwiesner, however, it appears more likely that Jane Wyman adopted her professional surname from her German-born foster mother, Emma (Reise) Fulks, who was previously married to Dr. M. F. Weyman, a St. Louis, Missouri opthamologist by whom she had several children who lived with Jane Wyman in her youth.

She married Myron Futterman on June 29, 1937, and they divorced on November 1, 1938.

In 1938, Wyman co-starred with Ronald Reagan in Brother Rat (1938), and its sequel Brother Rat and a Baby (1940). The two were married (her second or third marriage, and his first) on January 26, 1940, and divorced on June 28, 1948. She and Reagan had three children; Maureen Elizabeth Reagan (1941 - 2001), Michael Reagan (adopted, born March 18, 1945), and Christine Reagan (born prematurely June 26, 1947 and died the following day).

Following her divorce from Reagan, Wyman married bandleader Frederick M. Karger (1916-1979) on November 1, 1952, and they divorced in December 1955. They later remarried on March 11, 1961, and divorced a second time in 1965. By these marriages, she had a stepdaughter, Terrence (Karger) Melton, by Karger's first marriage to Patti Sacks, an actress.

Wyman never remarried, and after her conversion to Roman Catholicism, both she and her best friend Loretta Young obtained special indults from their bishop to receive communion despite being divorced. 


Hobbies
Jane had nine hobbies throughout the prime of her life, including those of: reading, listening to music, philanthropy, collecting CD's, playing piano, dancing, golfing and singing. She took up landscape painting in her later years.

 

Later activities


In 1991, she received the Golda Meir Award from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.

A devout Catholic convert, Jane Wyman had lived in seclusion for a number of years because of declining health (she suffered from arthritis and diabetes), and apparently tended to be seen in public only at funerals, such as for her daughter, Maureen Reagan, and her best friend, Loretta Young.

During her retirement, she purchased a house in Rancho Mirage, California, in 1997, so that she could continue living a quiet life and attend honorable charity events. Reportedly, on April 16, 2003, she moved to a retirement home in Palm Springs, California, but after her death it was reported that she died at her own home at the Rancho Mirage Country Club.


Death
Jane Wyman died at the age of 90, at her Palm Springs, California home on Monday, September 10, 2007, having long suffered from arthritis and diabetes. Wyman's son, Michael Reagan, released a statement saying, "I have lost a loving mother, my children Cameron and Ashley have lost a loving grandmother, my wife Colleen has lost a loving friend she called Mom and Hollywood has lost the classiest lady to ever grace the silver screen."

It was reported that Wyman died in her sleep of natural causes at the Rancho Mirage Country Club. Since she was a member of the Dominican order of the Catholic church, she was buried in a nun's habit.


Personal Quotes:
Jane: “The opportunity for brotherhood presents itself everytime you meet a human being.” (Source: us.imdb.com)

Jane: “I guess I just don't have a talent for it, some women just aren't the marrying kind - or anyway, not the permanent marrying kind, and I'm one of them.” (Source: A Tribute to Falcon Crest).

Jane on winning the 1949 Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role of Johnny Belinda: “I won this award for keeping my mouth shut, so I think I'll do it again now.” (Source: A Tribute to Falcon Crest).

Jane on her ex-husband's, Ronald Reagan's death: “America has lost a great president and a great, kind gentleman.” (Source: USAtoday.com).

Jane on her dismissal in the last season of Falcon Crest: “I wanted to tie up the show, mention everyone who was gone - the grandfather, Melissa, Cole and Maggie, so that the loyal audience we had wouldn't feel cheated that they had been taken in a different direction by the producers that they didn't understand (and frankly, I didn't either). It was a wonderful experience, but I wasn't sorry to see it end because of the way it was going. The first six years of the show were marvelous, then they started tampering with it. I get so much mail from people saying they can't understand what happened.” (Source: A Tribute to Falcon Crest).

Jane on the cancellation of Falcon Crest: “It’s a funny feeling, because you wake up and say, ‘I’m not going to see my friends again, you know!’ Because I never done anything this long.” (Source: ETOnline.com)

Jane: “We were just two rows behind Irene Dunne. There was something about the line of her neck that convinced me she was going to get the prize. I was slumped low in my seat, sort of trying to hide so that I could sneak out. I was so sure I wouldn't win that when I heard my name called out, I didn't recognize it. I didn't get up. But Jerry Wald poked me, and my handbag dropped to my lap. My lipstick and everything went rolling onto the floor. I must have been quite a sight trying to pick up things and get to the stage at the same time. I was the most surprised girl in the world.” (Source: Yahoo!.com)

Jane on commenting her newspaper interview in 1968 about politics, after she kept quiet about her ex-husband’s second marriage: “It's not because I'm bitter or because I don't agree with him politically. I've always been a registered Republican. But it's bad taste to talk about ex-husbands and ex-wives, that's all. Also, I don't know a damn thing about politics.” (Source: ABCNews.com)

Jane on commenting her newspaper interview in 1981 about her almost 50 year career in films: “I've been through four different cycles in pictures: the brassy blonde, then came the musicals, the high dramas, then the inauguration of television.” (Source: Yahoo.com)

Jane who said in 1964 about growing up in an unhappy, humorless household: “Shyness is not a small problem; it can cripple the whole personality. It crippled mine for many years. As a child, my only solution to the problem of shyness was to hide, to make myself as small and insignificant as possible. All through grade school I was a well-mannered little shadow who never spoke above a whisper.” (Source: Geocities.com/WymanTribute)

Jane on The Lost Weekend (1945): “It was my biggest chance yet, and I was determined to make the most of it. I was determined to act from the inside out, to disregard all surface effects, and delve into the character of a sturdy woman who endured hardship stoically and who concealed a deeply emotional nature under a frosty, pragmatic exterior. I meditated on the role at great length; I wanted to get to the bottom of this woman's psyche. And in doing so I dredged up all the early hardships and disappointments in my own life, looking constantly for some points of reference that would link our respective inner schemes.” (Source: Geocities.com/WymanTribute)

Jane who said in 1989: “Remember, I've been in this business fifty-four years. I made eighty-six pictures and 350 television shows. I have not been idle.” (Source: Geocities.com/WymanTribute)

Jane who said in 1981: “The movies were changing, and the kinds of things that they were offering me I wouldn't look at, much less do. They were sordid. I have spent too many years in my craft, in my own little niche, my own little way, and it didn't matter to me. I didn't want to work anyway.” (Source: LakelandLedger.com)

Jane: “It was all Donald O'Connor's idea. He suggested that I join his nightclub act when he plays at Harrah's at Lake Tahoe this month. I couldn't think of a good reason why I shouldn't.” (Source: Daytona Beach Morning Journal.com)

Jane: “I don't know why I'd have to cooperate because he knows everything I know. I'm just going to live my life and have fun.” (Source: The Toledo Blade.com)

Jane on her popularity while playing the sixty-something Angela Channing on Falcon Crest: “It's not that she's vicious, it's that she wants her own way. She's demanding. But she's old enough - I'm playing her in her 60s - that she can demand the respect. People cross her once in a while, and she doesn't fight them as much as she asks 'how can I get around this?' It's a different role for me. I like it. I think the closest I ever came to this kind of character before was Aunt Polly in Pollyanna. Aunt Polly was a matriarch of sorts and always held the family together. And that's what Angie does. She's a multi-faceted character who treats everybody differently.” (Source: St. Petersburg Times.com)

Jane who said in 1985 about accepting the role of Angela Channing, 4 years earlier: “I really like her, she's a head's up lady. You can't miss on a thing like this, you really can't. If you do, you're dumb.” (Source: Lawrence-Journal World.com)

Jane as to how "Falcon Crest" (1981) differentiated those of: "Dallas" (1978), "Knots Landing" (1979) and "Dynasty" (1981): “Our shows begin and end each week. They're not continuous like the others. That makes our program unique. Another thing that makes it special is that sex isn't necessary on our series. Maybe just enough to get by. It's really an intrigue story about a dynasty family.” (Source: MontrealGazette.com)

Jane: “People are used to me in the softer roles - but I think they get used to Angie.” (Source: Lakeland Ledger.com)

Jane who said in 1984: “Women are like tea bags. You never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.” (Source: Sarasota-Herald Tribune.com)

Jane upon her return to "Falcon Crest" (1981)'s final year, after almost a year's medical leave: “I'm back and I'm feelin' fine and I'm really gonna raise hell.” (Source: Dayton Daily News.com)

Filmography

Features:
Short Subjects:
  • The Sunday Round-Up (1936)
  • Little Pioneer (1937)
  • Screen Snapshots: Sports in Hollywood (1940)
  • Alice in Movieland (1940)
  • Breakdowns of 1941 (1941)
  • Sports Parade: Shoot Yourself Some Golf (1942)
  • The Screen Director (1951)
  • Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Awards (1951)
  • Three Lives (1953)
  • Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Mothers and Fathers (1955)

Television Work

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

Emmy Awards

  • Nominated: Best Lead Actress - Drama Series, Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre (1957)
  • Nominated: Best Lead Actress - Drama Series, Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre (1959)

Golden Globe Awards

Wyman has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; one for motion pictures at 6607 Hollywood Boulevard and one for television at 1620 Vine Street.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Loretta Young
for The Farmer's Daughter
Academy Award for Best Actress
1948
for Johnny Belinda
Succeeded by
Olivia de Havilland
for The Heiress
Preceded by
Rosalind Russell
for Mourning Becomes Electra
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
1949
for Johnny Belinda
Succeeded by
Olivia de Havilland
for The Heiress
Preceded by
Gloria Swanson
for Sunset Boulevard
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
1952
for The Blue Veil
Succeeded by
Shirley Booth
for Come Back, Little Sheba
Preceded by
Joan Collins
for Dynasty
Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Drama
1984
for Falcon Crest
Succeeded by
Angela Lansbury
for Murder, She Wrote


Jane Wyman Biography (Yahoo.com)
An Academy Award winner for “Johnny Belinda” (1948), Jane Wyman overcame a difficult childhood to become one of the most respected dramatic actresses of the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. She later received two Emmy nominations for her own television anthology series in the late Fifties, but went into semi-retirement until the early 1980s, when she was top-billed as the vicious matriarch Angela Channing in the popular primetime soap “Falcon Crest” (CBS, 1981-1990), which earned her a Golden Globe. Wyman was also noted for her marriage to future U.S. President Ronald Reagan from 1940-48 and during their time together as husband and wife, they were one of the most popular couples in Hollywood, with young fans soaking up all the information on their seemingly happy marriage in all the major movie magazines of the day. To her credit, even after he ex-husband and father of two of her children became first a California governor and then the leader of the free world, she opted to not speak publicly about Reagan for her own personal reasons, taking any details of their long-ago love story to her grave.

The details of Wyman’s birth were under contention for years; she developed an interest in a performing career at a young age, so she may have listed her birth date as Jan. 4, 1914 in order to be eligible for work. But state records from Missouri showed the actual birth date of Sarah Jane Mayfield as Jan. 5, 1917. Whatever the case, she was born in St. Joseph to Manning Jeffries Mayfield and Gladdys Hope Christian, who divorced in 1921. Her father died in 1927, causing her mother to relocate to Cleveland, OH to seek employment. Wyman was left in the care of the family’s neighbors, Richard and Emma Fulks, whose surname she unofficially adopted. Richard Fulks was the chief of detectives in St. Joseph, and by all reports a remote and strict individual, so Wyman’s upbringing was a largely joyless one.

She did, however, manage to develop an interest in singing and dancing after attending a local musical production, and convinced her stepmother to enroll her in dance lessons. Richard Fulks died in 1928, and Wyman relocated to Hollywood, CA with Emma Fulks, who had grown children from a previous marriage there. According to some sources, Wyman attempted to find work in show business while in the Tinseltown, but returned to Missouri without a contract or job offer in 1930. She did not remain there long; she dropped out of Lafayette High School in 1932 and returned to Hollywood, where she worked odd jobs while pursuing a singing and acting career under the stage name of Jane Durrell.

During this period, Wyman reportedly married salesman Ernest Eugene Wyman (or Weymann). Biographers noted that she may have taken her stage name from this marriage, but others suggested that Wyman was a derivation of her step-siblings’ surname, Weymann, bestowed upon her by her agent, actor William Demarest (“My Three Sons,” ABC/CBS, 1960-1972). She also went through another brief marriage in 1937, this time to salesman Myron Futterman. The union dissolved after three months due to Wyman’s reluctance to have children; they were divorced in 1938.

A break came in the form of Leroy Prinz, a choreographer for feature films and the son of her dance teacher in Missouri. A natural brunette, she dyed her hair platinum blonde, which was the look of the day, a la Jean Harlow, and appeared as a chorus girl and bit player in countless musicals and comedies, including “Anything Goes” (1936) and the classic screwball comedy, “My Man Godfrey” (1936). That same year, she signed a $60-a-week contract with Warner Bros.; the studio put Wyman in a series of lightweight features which cast her as a flighty blonde – which was diametrically opposed to her intelligent off-screen persona. Eventually, she worked her way up to leading lady in the 1937 feature “Public Wedding,” though the quality of her pictures continued to tread water in B-movie territory (i.e. 1941’s “You’re In the Army Now,” which was notable solely for Wyman’s record-making three-minute kiss with co-star Regis Toomey).

Gossip columnist Louella Parsons took note of Wyman’s abilities and included her in a nine-week vaudeville tour that showcased up-and-coming Hollywood stars. Among her fellow performers on this junket was Ronald Reagan, with whom Wyman would appear in two films: the college comedy “Brother Rat” (1938) and its 1940 sequel, “Brother Rat and a Baby.” The two would soon become an off-screen item as well, and were married in 1940 at Forest Lawn in Los Angeles. A daughter, Maureen, was born in 1941, and the couple adopted a son, Michael in 1945. A second daughter, Christine, was born in 1947, but died prematurely. The couple split in 1948 – reportedly due to an affair between Wyman and her “Johnny Belinda” co-star Lew Ayers, as well as Reagan’s campaign duties for Harry Truman, which later made Reagan the only divorced President in U.S. history up until his time in office. The other story making the rounds of why America’s seemingly perfect union fell apart; Wyman’s career began eclipsing that of her husbands. In fact when Wyman her Oscar for “Johnny Belinda,” Reagan joked that he should have named the fictional Belinda as correspondent in his divorce.

Ironically, as she grew older in an unforgiving town – especially for women over a certain age – Wyman’s fortunes changed in the mid-1940s with a string of solid roles in quality features, starting in 1945 with Billy Wilder’s “The Lost Weekend,” in which she played alcoholic Ray Milland’s patient girlfriend. A year later, she received an Academy Award nomination as the downtrodden Ma Baxter, who is forced to shoot her son’s beloved pet deer in “The Yearling” (1946). Two years later, Wyman would claim the Oscar for her own with “Johnny Belinda” (1948). She had seen the play on which the film was based while on tour with Louella Parsons’ troupe in 1940, and persuaded her friend, producer Jerry Wald, to pitch a film version to her bosses at Warner Bros. Jack Warner needed little convincing to let Wyman play the plain deaf girl, Belinda, who is raped by the town bully (Stephen McNally), after Warner had seen her success as the unglamorous Ma Baxter. For the role, Wyman studied sign language and stuffed her own ears with wax. Her “method” efforts paid off with not only the Oscar and a Golden Globe, but bonafide star status. In a 1954 poll of box office stars, Wyman placed ninth in the Top Ten.

For the next decade or so, Wyman starred in a string of popular films for top directors, all of whom clamored to work with the now respected dramatic actress. Among her pictures from this period was “Stage Fright” (1950) for Alfred Hitchcock, “All That Heaven Allows” (1956) for Douglas Sirk, and film versions of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie (1950) and Edna Ferber’s “So Big” (1953) for Robert Wise. Wyman also maintained her interest in musical comedy with roles in “Let’s Do It Again” (1953) and Frank Capra’s “Here Comes the Groom” (1951), for which she sung a duet with her teenage crush, Bing Crosby, on the Oscar-nominated tune “In the Cool Cool Cool of the Evening.” Wyman herself netted two Oscar nods for the dramas “The Blue Veil” (1951), for which she won the Golden Globe) and Sirk’s “Magnificent Obsession” (1954). Wyman also married her third (and final) husband during this period, wedding composer Fred Karger in 1951. But like all others before – based no doubt on being raised sans loving parents – the couple divorced in 1955. They would remarry in 1961, but according to Karger, she left him in 1965.

Wyman was also a regular guest star on episodic television during this period, as well as hosting and producing her own anthology series, “Fireside Theater” (NBC, 1949-1963). Wyman was the last of three host-performers for the series, and she brought a touch of Hollywood glamour to the proceedings – so much so that its producers retitled it “Jane Wyman Presents – as well as two Emmy nods in 1957 and 1959. Television would eventually become Wyman’s primary showcase as the 1950s, like many older actresses formerly best known for their film work. Winding down into the ‘60s, she starred in two Disney productions, 1960’s “Pollyanna” (as Aunt Polly) and “Bon Voyage” (1962) with Fred MacMurray. Her final movie appearance was the dreadful Bob Hope-Jackie Gleason comedy “How to Commit Marriage” (1969) – a sad cinematic send-off for a career chock-full of quality performances in classic films. Meanwhile, she continued to guest on television series and the occasional TV movie, including “The Failing of Raymond” (1971), in which she starred as a teacher targeted by an insane ex-student, until the mid 1970s, after which she essentially retired from acting and devoted much of her time to charity work for arthritis research and the Catholic Church.

In 1981, Wyman returned to network television as the scheming Angela Channing, ruthless head of a vineyard dynasty in the prime time soap “Falcon Crest.” Wyman was reportedly encouraged to take the role to ward off the attention she was garnering in the wake of Ronald Reagan’s appointment to the Presidency. For her work, she earned a Golden Globe in 1984 for her performance as well as numerous Soap Opera Digest Award nominations – not to mention, an impressive in those days $3 million per year salary – 10 times that of her ex-husband who was now President.. Her tenure on the show was marked by serious bouts of ill health; she underwent abdominal surgery in 1986, and a collapse on the set in 1989 revealed that she was suffering from diabetes. Doctors encouraged her to retire from acting, so she sat out much of the final season of “Falcon Crest” in 1988-89, save for a three-episode appearance at its conclusion (for which she also wrote a portion of the dialogue). Following “Falcon Crest,” she returned to television only once more to portray Jane Seymour’s mother on “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” (CBS, 1993-98) in 1993.

Poor health kept her out of the spotlight during her remaining years, so she devoted much of her time to painting and charity work. Even when her ex-husband passed away in June of 2004 and all those close to him spoke out in his memory, she stayed quiet and away from the internationally televised funeral. In fact, she only appeared publicly at the funerals of her close friend, Loretta Young, in 2000, and daughter Maureen in 2001, who died tragically young of melanoma. Wyman herself succumbed to complications from arthritis and diabetes in September of 2007. She was fondly remembered by the old guard of Hollywood – most of whom she had outlived by decades – as well as by her son Michael, who had become a popular conservative radio talk show host.

Also Credited As:
Jane Durrell, Sarah Jane Fulks

Born:
January 5, 1917 in St Joseph, Missouri, USA

Died:
September 10, 2007.

Job Titles:
Actor, Singer, Chorus girl, Radio vocalist, Manicurist, Switchboard operator

Family
Daughter: Maureen Reagan. died on August 8, 2001 at age 60 of skin cancer
Son: Michael Reagan. adopted

Education
University of Missouri
Lafayette High School, St. Joseph, Missouri (dropped out at 15)

Milestones
1935 First film appearance (as a chorus dancer) in King of Burlesque
1936 Film acting debut in Gold Diggers of 1937
1936 Signed contract with Warner Bros.
1945 Notable career break, The Lost Weekend
1946 Received first Oscar nomination as Best Actress with her role in The Yearling opposite Gregory Peck and Claude Jarman Jr.
1948 Confirmed full-fledged star status with Johnny Belinda ; earned Best Actress Academy Award
1951 Starred opposite Bing Crosby in two musical comedy-dramas, Here Comes the Groom (in which the pair introduced the Oscar-winning song, In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening ) and Just for You
1954 Made the annual exhibitors poll of the top ten box office stars, primarily on the strength of the reception of the soap opera, Magnificent Obsession , which was directed by Douglas Sirk and made Rock Hudson a star; Wyman placed 9th in the top ten lineup
1962 Last feature film for seven years, Bon Voyage!
1969 Made one-shot return to films for How to Commit Marriage
Began career as radio singer
Had hip replacement surgery in the early 1990s
Hosted and sometimes performed on TV s Fireside Theater , eventually renamed The Jane Wyman Theatre/The Jane Wyman Show
Played Angela Channing on the CBS primetime soap opera Falcon Crest
Worked as a dancer

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