Jane Wyman

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Jane Wyman
in the trailer for the film Stage Fright (1950)
Birth name	Sarah Jane Fulks
Born	January 5, 1917 (age 90) Saint Joseph, Missouri
Spouse(s)	Myron Futterman (1937-1938) Ronald Reagan (1940-1948) Fred Karger (1952-1954), (1961-1965)
Academy Awards
Best Actress 1948 Johnny Belinda

Jane Wyman (born Sarah Jane Mayfield on January 5, 1917 in Saint Joseph, Missouri)[1] is best as known as being the first wife of president Ronald Reagan and is also an Academy Award-winning, Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated American actress.

Wyman's 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 and Magnificent Obsession (opposite Rock Hudson). Wyman became known to new generations and audiences in the 1980s not only for her role as evil matriarch Angela Gioberti Channing on the 1980s prime-time soap opera Falcon Crest, but because of her prior marriage to, and children with, former actor Ronald Reagan, who was then serving as President of the United States.

[edit] Early life

Wyman was born Sarah Jane Mayfield. Her parents were Manning J. Mayfield, the mayor of Saint Joseph, and Le Jerne Pichelle, a struggling actress. In 1921, her parents divorced. Her father died unexpectedly the following year. She assumed the name Sarah Jane Fulks in honor of her neighbors, who unofficially adopted her after her father died.

In 1928, she moved to southern California, where her mother tried to start an 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 adding years to her birthdate to work legally since she would have been underage.

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

By 1932, aged 18, young Sarah Jane was back in California (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.

[edit] Recognition and acclaim

In 1939, Wyman was cast in her first starring role, in Torchy Plays With Dynamite. 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).

[edit] Television work

[edit] Early television work

In the 1950s, Wyman hosted an anthology television 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.

[edit] Falcon Crest: Angela Channing

Wyman's career enjoyed a resurgence when she was cast as diabolical California vintner and family matriarch Angela Channing in the primetime soap opera Falcon Crest, which ran from 1981 to 1990. Co-starring on a show were a couple of familiar actors, Robert Foxworth as Angela's nephew, and Susan Sullivan was cast in the role as Chase's wife and niece, later daughter-in-law, Maggie Gioberti Channing. In addition, the show casted a seasoned but unrecognizable actor Lorenzo Lamas, in the role of Angela's playboy grandson and henchman, Lance Cumson, and there was an excellent resemblance between Wyman and Lamas, throughout the series run.

In its first season, Falcon Crest was a ratings winner, behind Dallas and Dynasty. 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 1988, Jane Wyman renegotiated her contract from the production company, and thus became the highest-paid actress on the show.

Towards the end of the show's run, Wyman suffered several health challenges. 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, she missed one episode and was told by her doctor to end her acting career. However, she wanted to continue working. She completed almost all the episodes of the 1988-1989 season, while her health was still deteriorating. In 1989, Wyman was also hospitalized with diabetes and liver ailment. The doctors told Wyman that she should avoid work. Wyman was absent 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. After she went against her doctor's advice, she returned for the final three episodes, even writing a soliloquy for the series finale, and ultimately appeared in 208 of the show's 227 episodes.

Her friendship with co-star Lorenzo Lamas's family began in the 1950s when her co-star's father, Fernando Lamas guest-starred on her own anthology series, while Lorenzo was only 3 months old. Then, over two decades later in his life, Wyman suggested that he should try out for the part in Falcon Crest, and he did. Over the years that Wyman battled health problems, Lamas was one of the few people to know about them and showed a deep concern for her.

After Falcon Crest, Wyman's last guest starring role was as Jane Seymour's mother on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

[edit] Personal life

[edit] Marriages and children

She married Myron Futterman on June 29, 1937, and they divorced on November 1, 1938. It has been rumored that on April 8, 1933, she 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 foster mother, Emma Fulks, who was previously married to a Dr. M.F. Weyman and by whom she had several children who lived with Jane Wyman in her youth.

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 and died June 26, 1947).

Jane Wyman, President Ronald Reagan's first wife, walks with Former United States First Lady Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan's second wife, at the memorial service for Maureen Reagan, Wyman and Ronald Reagan's daughter.

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 obtained special indults from their bishop to receive communion because of their divorces.

[edit] Recent activities

A devout Catholic convert, Jane Wyman has lived in seclusion for a number of years because of declining health (she has 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 also attended President Reagan's funeral in 2004. She was noted in the audience wearing a black hat and veil.

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 2007, she had starred in 83 movies, two successful TV series, and was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning once.

[edit] Academy Awards and Nominations

• 1955 - Nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role - Magnificent Obsession
• 1952 - Nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role - The Blue Veil
• 1949 - Won Best Actress in a Leading Role - Johnny Belinda
• 1947 - Nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role - The Yearling

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.

[edit] Filmography

[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] References

[edit] External links

• Jane Wyman at the Internet Movie Database
• Jane Wyman at the TCM Movie Database