Jane Wyman(1917-2007)
- Actress
- Autor
- Producer
Jane Wyman was born Sarah Jane Mayfield on January 5, 1917, in St.
Joseph, Missouri (she was also known later as Sarah Jane Fulks). When
she was only eight years old, and after her parents filed for divorce,
she lost her father prematurely. After graduating high school she
attempted, with the help of her mother, to break into films, but to no
avail. In 1935, after attending the University of Missouri, she began a
career as a radio singer, which led to her first name change to Jane
Durrell. In 1936 she signed a contract with Warner Bros. Pictures and
that led to another name change, the more familiar one of Jane Wyman.
Under that name she appeared in "A" and "B" pictures at Warners,
including two with her future husband,
Ronald Reagan:
Brother Rat (1938) and its sequel,
Brother Rat and a Baby (1940).
In the early 1940s she moved into comedies and melodramas and gained
attention for her role as Ray Milland's
long-suffering girlfriend in
The Lost Weekend (1945). The
following year she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role
as Ma Baxter in The Yearling (1946),
and won the coveted prize in 1949 as deaf-mute rape victim Belinda
MacDonald in
Johnny Belinda (1948). She
followed that with a number of appearances in more prestigious films,
such as Alfred Hitchcock's
Stage Fright (1950),
Frank Capra's
Here Comes the Groom (1951),
Michael Curtiz's
The Story of Will Rogers (1952)
and the first movie version of
The Glass Menagerie (1950).
She starred opposite Bing Crosby in the
musical Just for You (1952). She was
Oscar-nominated for her performances in
The Blue Veil (1951) and
Magnificent Obsession (1954).
She also starred in the immensely popular
So Big (1953),
Lucy Gallant (1955),
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
and
Miracle in the Rain (1956).
In addition to her extensive film career, she hosted TV's
Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre (1955)
and starred in most of the episodes of the show, which ran for three
seasons. She came back to the big screen in
Holiday for Lovers (1959),
Pollyanna (1960) and her final film,
How to Commit Marriage (1969).
Although off the big screen, she became a presence on the small screen
and starred in two made-for-TV movies, including
The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel (1979).
In early 1981, in the 49th year of her career, she won the role of
conniving matriarch Angela Channing Erikson Stavros Agretti in the
movie "The Vintage Years", which was the unaired pilot for the
prime-time soap opera
Falcon Crest (1981), later in
the year. For nine seasons she played that character in a way that
virtually no other actress could have done, and became the moral center
of the show. The show was a ratings winner from its debut in 1981, and
made stars out of her fellow cast members
Robert Foxworth,
Lorenzo Lamas,
Abby Dalton and
Susan Sullivan. At the end of the
first season the story line had her being informed that her evil son,
played by David Selby, had inherited 50% of
a California newspaper company, and the conflicts inherent in that
situation led to even bigger ratings over the next five years. Wyman
was nominated six times for a Soap Opera Digest Award, and in 1984 she
won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series
Drama. By the show's eighth season, however, she was emotionally
drained and the strain of constantly working to keep up the quality of
a hit show took its toll on her. In addition, there was friction on the
set among cast members. All of these events culminated in her departure
from the show after the first two episodes of the ninth season (her
character was hospitalized and slipped into a coma) for health reasons.
After a period of recuperation, she believed that she had recovered
enough to guest-star in the last three episodes of the season (her
doctor disagreed, but she did it anyway). She then guest-starred as
Jane Seymour's mother on
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993)
and three years later appeared in
Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick (1995).
In the late 1990s she purchased a home in Rancho Mirage, California,
where she lived in retirement. Her daughter,
Maureen Reagan (who died in August 2001),
was a writer who also involved herself in political issues and
organized a powerful foundation. Also, she placed her 3200-sq.-ft.
Rancho Mirage condominium on the market. Jane Wyman died at the age of
90, at her Palm Springs, California home, on September 10, 2007, having
long suffered from arthritis and diabetes. It was reported that Wyman
died in her sleep of natural causes at the Rancho Mirage Country Club.