Jane Wyman

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cover image by Jane Wyman from 1953

Jane Wyman (born January 5, 1917 in St. Joseph , Missouri , USA ; † September 10, 2007 in Palm Springs , California , USA ; actually Sarah Jane Mayfield ) was an American actress who also used the stage name at the beginning of her career Sarah Jane Fulks and Jane Durrell took advantage of this. In 1949 she received the Oscar for best leading actress for her appearance in Schweiges Lips . Wyman starred in The Wonderful Power and What Heaven Allowed , directed by Douglas Sirk . In later years she gained popularity through her involvement in the hit television series Falcon Crest .

Life

Jane Wyman's parents divorced when she was four years old. Her father died a few months later and the mother gave her daughter to foster parents. The actress began her career in 1930 under the name Jane Durrell as a singer on the radio. From 1932 she got her first roles in Hollywood , but always only as a dancer or choir singer in the background, without being mentioned in the credits. From 1937 she made the leap to Leading Lady in numerous B-films with Warner Brothers . In 1941 she played in The Horror of the 2nd Company , with which she went down in cinema history with the longest kiss on the screen to date. The kiss lasted three minutes and five seconds.

Her breakthrough came in 1944 with the comedy The Doughgirls , which showed her as an exalted soldier who shoots pigeons from the window of her hotel. The director Billy Wilder liked her portrayal so much that he made test recordings of her for the film The Lost Weekend in 1945 and finally gave her the female lead. A year later, she received her first Oscar nomination in the category Best Actress for The Yearling in which they directed by Clarence Brown , the wife of Gregory Peck in a drama about impoverished people (Engl. White trash played) in the swamps of Florida . Her home studio eventually gave her a good role as the deaf-mute rape victim in the drama Silent Lips . While preparing for the role, Wyman put wax in his ears for days to develop an understanding of her character. For her portrayal, she received the Oscar for best leading actress at the 1949 Academy Awards . In the following years, Wyman was next to Doris Day the biggest female star of the studio, which was also shown by the fact that studio boss Jack L. Warner offered the previous top star Bette Davis to play Wyman's mother in the film adaptation of The Glass Menagerie . In the same year, 1950, she shot on the side of Marlene Dietrich and directed by Alfred Hitchcock Die Rote Lola . The film showed Wyman as the gray mouse next to the glamorous Dietrich, who played a stage star. As Hitchcock reported, Wyman disapproved of her appearance and kept complaining. Contrary to many rumors, Jane Wyman later reported in an interview on the occasion of the DVD release that she and Dietrich got along well.

While the reviews for The Glass Menagerie and The Red Lola were rather mixed, Wyman won another Oscar nomination for best actress of the year for the role as a devoted educator in the melodrama A Mother's Heart in 1951. Over the next several years, Wyman had her best roles in melodramas, including two Douglas Sirk films . In 1953 she made The Wonderful Power and in the following year What Heaven Allowed , each with Rock Hudson as a film partner. The financial success of these films made her one of the top ten box office stars in 1954. Occasionally she has also appeared in comedies, such as her two appearances alongside Bing Crosby in Wedding Parade and Just For You . She then made the romantic comedy I Want You To Love Me , which she presented as the successful fashion designer and lover of Charlton Heston , and Miracle in the Rain in 1956 .

In the years that followed, Wyman occasionally appeared in films, mostly in roles as a more mature society lady. In 1960 and 1961, for example, she was seen in the two Walt Disney productions All love Pollyanna and Champagne in Paris . She worked extensively for television and had her own successful series with Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theater from 1955 to 1958, which earned her two Emmy nominations.

Another career high point reached Wyman in the 1980s as the scheming matriarch "Angela Channing" in the hit series Falcon Crest , thanks to which she became the highest paid television actress of the decade. The severe consequences of her diabetes largely forced Wyman to withdraw from show business in 1990. Her last television appearance was in 1992 at the age of 75 in the series Dr. Quinn - A passionate doctor where she played Elizabeth Quinn, mother of Dr. Michaela Quinn (played by Jane Seymour). Then retired into private life after more than 60 years of stage and television work. On the Hollywood Walk of Fame she was honored with one star each in the categories of film and television .

Private life

After a first marriage that soon failed, Wyman met her later second husband Ronald Reagan , whom she married in 1940, while filming the joint film Brother Rat . Both were the darlings of the gossip press and were visited almost weekly by Hedda Hopper , in particular , to report on conjugal happiness. The marriage produced two daughters: Maureen and Christine, who only lived one day. Son Michael Reagan was adopted by the two. The marriage ended in divorce in 1948. Wyman subsequently entered into two other marriages, both of which ended in divorce.

Wyman was a good friend of Loretta Young , who is said to have been instrumental in her conversion to Catholicism . Furthermore, in 1955 she became a Terziarin in the Dominican Order . Jane Wyman died of natural causes in her Palm Springs home on the morning of September 10, 2007, aged 90. In 2009 Phillip Boa dedicated a song to her.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Oscar / Best Actress

Emmy Awards Nominated:

  • 1956 Best Actress in a Television Series ( Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theater )
  • 1958 Best Actress in a Television Series ( Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theater )

Golden Globe Awards Won:

  • 1948 Best Actress ( Silent Lips )
  • 1950 Henrietta Award (Most Popular Actress)
  • 1951 Best Actress in a Drama ( A Mother's Heart )
  • 1983 Best Actress in a TV Series ( Falcon Crest )

Nominated:

  • 1982 Best Actress in a TV Series ( Falcon Crest )

Web links

Commons : Jane Wyman  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official date of birth on jane-wyman.com
  2. ^ Bernard F. Dick, The President's Ladies: Jane Wyman and Nancy Davis "2014, 146
personal data
SURNAME Wyman, Jane
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mayfield, Sara Jane (maiden name); Fulks, Sarah Jane; Durrell, Jane
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Joseph , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 2007
Place of death Palm Springs , California