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Jane Wyman

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Jane Wyman
Image:Jane Wyman.JPG
Jane Wyman

<tr><td style="text-align:left;">Birth name</td><td>Sarah Jane Mayfield</td></tr>

Born January 4 1914 (age 95)
Saint Joseph, Missouri

Jane Wyman (born January 4, 1914, though some sources have indicated that she may have been born January 5 1917) is an Academy Award-winning, Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated American actress best known for playing disabled characters such as Belinda MacDonald in Johnny Belinda and Helen Phillips in Magnificent Obsession (opposite Rock Hudson). She was also well-known as the evil California matriarch, Angela Gioberti Channing, on the 1980s prime-time soap opera Falcon Crest. She even hosted her own anthology show in the 1950s.

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[edit] Early life and career

Wyman was born as Sarah Jane Mayfield in Saint Joseph, Missouri, to Manning J. Mayfield, the town's mayor, and to Le Jerne Pichelle, a struggling actress. In 1921, one year after entering first grade at Noyes School, her parents divorced. Her father died unexpectedly the following year. She later took the name Sarah Jane Fulks in honor of the neighbor family who unofficially adopted her after her father died. In 1928, she moved to southern California, where her mother tried to start her own acting career. When that was unsuccessful, she turned to her daughter as an alternative but neither was able to find work. The two moved back to Missouri, where Sarah Jane attended school. In 1930, she began a radio singing career, calling herself Jane Durrell, and possibly (if the 1917 year of birth is accurate) adding years to her birthdate to work legally since she would have been underage.

By 1932, she was in Hollywood, 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] Marriages

She married Myron Futterman on June 29, 1937, and they divorced on November 1, 1938. It was rumored but never confirmed that on April 8, 1933, she married Ernest Eugene Wyman (or Weymann). If this was true, then they divorced sometime before 1937, or she committed bigamy with every marriage therafter. Again, if 1917 is the true year of birth she would have been 16 if she had married Eugene Wyman (or Weymann) in 1933, another reason, perhaps, for her making herself older, which is rare in the entertainment industry.

In 1938, she 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 Reagan (1941 - 2001), Michael Reagan (born March 18, 1945), who was adopted, and Christine Reagan, who died the day she was born: June 26, 1947.

Following her divorce from Reagan, Wyman married bandleader Frederick Karger on November 1, 1952, and they divorced in December 1955. They later remarried on March 11, 1961, and divorced a second time in 1965. Wyman never remarried, and after her conversion to Roman Catholicism, both she and best friend Loretta Young required special indults from their bishop to receive communion because of their divorces.

[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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Falcon Crest

Image:FalconCrestJaneWyman.jpg

Wyman gained a new generation of fans in the 1980s when she starred as the diabolical California vintner and matriarch, Angela Channing, in the night-time soap opera Falcon Crest. Co-starring on the soap was Fernando Lamas's and Arlene Dahl's son, Lorenzo Lamas, as Angela's irresponsible grandson and henchman, Lance Cumson, and the chemistry of both Wyman and Lamas made it a hit, both on the show and in real life. Wyman first met Lorenzo's late father Fernando Lamas on an episode of her own anthology show in the late 1950s (when Lamas was 3 months old), and more than two decades later, she suggested to Lorenzo that he should try out for the part in Falcon Crest. In its first season, Falcon Crest was a ratings winner, behind Dallas and Dynasty. During its second season, as the show became even more soapier, she was even more delighted when she even worked with two new stars. Veteran actor David Selby, whose character (Richard Channing) was Angela's illegimate bastardized and compassionate son, and a young actress Ana Alicia, whose character (Melissa Agretti) was always the biggest schemer in Tuscany Valley.

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". 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, and 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 fall 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 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.

While the 9th and final season was filmed, Lamas had received word from his co-star that he was in a real-life crisis the day he visited Wyman at the hospital that February where he gave her some words of wisdom. Ever since Wyman had been battling health problems over the years, Lamas was one of the several people to know about this and to be more concerned about her issues, everytime. Wyman soon recovered, and in 1990, against her doctor's advice, she returned to the show for the final three episodes and delivered a great soliloquy in the series finale.

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.

Jane Wyman's last guest starring role was as Jane Seymour's mother on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. She retired afterwards.

[edit] Friendship with Eddie Albert

Wyman teamed up with legendary television actor Eddie Albert in 1938, when he was co-starring with her on Brother Rat, and had been friends ever for almost seven decades. In 1940, Wyman also starred with Albert on an An Angel From Texas, after Brother Rat and a Baby. Many years later, being the fan of the hit soap that Albert used to watched, Albert's now deceased son Edward Albert had a recurring role on Falcon Crest, just one year before Albert himself had the recurring role. In 2002, Albert was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and Wyman wasn't very aware of his battle. Albert died in 2005, and Wyman attended his memorial where she read a eulogy to him.

[edit] Private Life

A devout Catholic convert, Jane Wyman has lived in seclusion for a number of years because of declining health (she suffers from arthritis and diabetes), and apparently tends to be seen in public only at funerals, such as for her daughter, Maureen Reagan, and her best friend, Loretta Young. She did not attend President Reagan's funeral in 2004.

During her retirement in 1997, she purchased a house in Rancho Mirage, California, so that she could continue living a quiet life and attending honorable charity events.

On April 16, 2003, she moved to a retirement home in Palm Springs, California. As of 2006, she starred in 83 movies, two successful TV series, and was nominated for Oscars four times and won once.

[edit] Academy Awards and Nominations

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.

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

[edit] Filmography

  • The Kid from Spain (1932)
  • Elmer, the Great (1933)
  • All the King's Horses (1934)
  • College Rhythm (1934)
  • King of Burlesque (1935)
  • Rumba (1935)
  • George White's 1935 Scandals (1935)
  • Stolen Harmony (1935)
  • Anything Goes (1936)
  • The Sunday Round-Up (1936) (short subject)
  • Bengal Tiger (1936) (role unconfirmed)
  • My Man Godfrey (1936)
  • Stage Struck (1936)
  • Cain and Mabel (1936)
  • Here Comes Carter (1936)
  • Polo Joe (1936)
  • Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936)
  • Smart Blonde (1937)
  • Ready, Willing and Able (1937)
  • The King and the Chorus Girl (1937)
  • Slim (1937)
  • The Singing Marine (1937)
  • Public Wedding (1937)
  • Little Pioneer (1937) (short subject)
  • Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (1937)
  • Over the Goal (1937)
  • The Spy Ring (1938)
  • He Couldn't Say No (1938)
  • Fools for Scandal (1938)
  • Wide Open Faces (1938)
  • The Crowd Roars (1938)
  • Brother Rat (1938)
  • Tail Spin (1939)
  • The Kid from Kokomo (1939)
  • Torchy Blane... Playing with Dynamite (1939)
  • Kid Nightingale (1939)
  • Private Detective (1939)
  • Brother Rat and a Baby (1940)
  • An Angel from Texas (1940)
  • Flight Angels (1940)
  • My Love Came Back (1940)
  • Gambling on the High Seas (1940)
  • Tugboat Annie Sails Again (1940)
  • Honeymoon for Three (1941)
  • Bad Men of Missouri (1941)
  • You're in the Army Now (1941)
  • The Body Disappears (1941)
  • Sports Parade: Shoot Yourself Some Golf (1942) (short subject)
  • Larceny, Inc. (1942)
  • My Favorite Spy (1942)
  • Footlight Serenade (1942)
  • Princess O'Rourke (1943)
  • Make Your Own Bed (1944)
  • The Doughgirls (1944)
  • Crime by Night (1944)
  • Hollywood Canteen (1944)
  • The Lost Weekend (1945)
  • One More Tomorrow (1946)
  • Night and Day (1946)
  • The Yearling (1946)
  • Cheyenne (1947)
  • Magic Town (1947)
  • Johnny Belinda (1948)
  • A Kiss in the Dark (1949)
  • It's a Great Feeling (1949) (cameo)
  • The Lady Takes a Sailor (1949)
  • Stage Fright (1950)
  • The Glass Menagerie (1950)
  • Three Guys Named Mike (1951)
  • The Screen Director (1951) (short subject)
  • Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Awards (1951) (short subject)
  • Here Comes the Groom (1951)
  • The Blue Veil (1951)
  • Starlift (1951) (cameo)
  • The Story of Will Rogers (1952)
  • Just for You (1952)
  • Three Lives (1953) (short subject)
  • Let's Do It Again(1953 film) (1953)
  • So Big (1953)
  • Magnificent Obsession (1954)
  • Hollywood Mothers and Fathers (1955) (short subject)
  • Lucy Gallant (1955)
  • All That Heaven Allows (1955)
  • Miracle in the Rain (1956)
  • Holiday for Lovers (1959)
  • Pollyanna (1960)
  • Bon Voyage! (1962)
  • How to Commit Marriage (1969)
  • Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick (1996) (documentary)
  • Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's (1997) (documentary)

[edit] Television Work

  • Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre (1955 - 1958)
  • Summer Playhouse (host in 1957)
  • The Failing of Raymond (1971)
  • Amanda Fallon (1973) (unsold TV pilot)
  • The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel (1979)
  • Falcon Crest (1981 - 1990)

[edit] External links

fr:Jane Wyman it:Jane Wyman ja:ジェーン・ワイマン no:Jane Wyman sv:Jane Wyman

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