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Member Number: 13209
Jane Wyman (January 5, 1917 – September 10, 2007) was an Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated American actress. 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 an Oscar, and Magnificent Obsession opposite Rock Hudson. The actress 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 because of her prior marriage to Ronald Reagan, a former actor who became President of the United States.
Early life
Wyman was born Sarah Jane Mayfield. 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. 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. 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.
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. In 1921, her parents divorced, and her father died unexpectedly the following year at age 27. After her father's death, her mother moved to Cleveland, leaving her to be raised by foster parents, Emma and Richard D. Fulks (1862-1928), the chief of detectives of Saint Joseph, and she took their surname unofficially, though it appeared on her school records as her actual surname.
Her unsettling family life resulted in few pleasurable memories during her youth. 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."
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" and adding years to her birthdate to work legally since she would have been under age.
Career
Early career
After Jane dropped out of Lafayette in 1932, at age 15, she returned to Hollywood, taking on odd jobs as a manicurist and a switchboard operator, before obtaining small parts in films The Kid from Spain (as a "Goldwyn Girl") (1932), My Man Godfrey (1936) and Cain and Mabel (1936). After changing her surname from Durrell to Wyman, she began her career as a contract player with Warner Bros. in 1936. Her big break came the following year, when she received her first starring role in Public Wedding, but it would be nine long years before her movie career finally took off.
Recognition and acclaim
In 1939, Wyman was cast in another starring role, in Torchy Plays With Dynamite. In 1941, she appeared in You're in the Army Now, in which she and Regis Toomey had the longest screen kiss in cinema history - 3 minutes and 5 seconds.
Wyman finally gained critical notice in the film noir The Lost Weekend (1945). She was nominated for the 1946 Academy Award for Best Actress for The Yearling (1946), and won two years later for her role as a deaf-mute rape victim in Johnny Belinda (1948). She was the first person in the sound era to win an acting Oscar without speaking a line of dialogue.
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), Frank Capra on Here Comes the Groom (1951) and 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 replaced the ailing Gene Tierney in Holiday for Lovers (1959), and next appeared in Pollyanna (1960), Bon Voyage! (1962), and her final big screen movie, How to Commit Marriage (1969). Wyman was also a well-regarded character actress.
Television
Her first guest-starring television role was on a 1955 episode of General Electric Theatre. This appearance led to roles on Summer Playhouse, Lux Playhouse, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Checkmate, The Investigators, and Wagon Train. She also served as hostess of The Bell Telephone Hour and Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre. She had telling roles in both The Sixth Sense and Insight, among other programs.
Wyman also hosted an anthology television series, Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theater, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1957. During her tenure as host, however, ratings steadily declined, and the show ended after three seasons.
She was later 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, though she made guest appearances on series such as Charlie's Angels and The Love Boat.
Falcon Crest
Wyman's career enjoyed a resurgence when she was cast as the scheming Californian vintner and matriarch Angela Channing in the primetime soap opera Falcon Crest, which ran from 1981 to 1990. The series was created by Earl Hamner, who had created the hit series The Waltons a decade earlier. Ex-husband Ronald Reagan apparently encouraged Wyman to take the role, after actress Barbara Stanwyck had turned it down. In its first season, Falcon Crest was a ratings hit, behind Dallas but initially ahead of rival soap 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. Later in the show's run, Wyman suffered several health problems. In 1986, she had abdominal surgery which caused her to miss two episodes while her character simply "went missing" under mysterious circumstances. In 1988, she missed another episode due to ill-health and was told by her doctors to avoid work. However, she wanted to continue working and she completed the rest of the 1988-1989 season while her health was still deteriorating. Months later in 1989, Wyman collapsed on the set and was hospitalized with diabetes and a liver ailment. Her doctors told her that she should end her acting career. Wyman was absent for most of the ninth and final season of Falcon Crest in 1989-1990 (her character was written out of the series by being comatose in a hospital bed). Going against her doctor's advice, she returned for the final three episodes in 1990, even writing a soliloquy for the series finale. Wyman ultimately appeared in 208 of the show's 227 episodes.
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), a salesman; the marriage was mentioned in Dutch, a biography of Ronald Reagan. In the absence of any marriage certificate or other proof of this union, American geneaologist William Addams Reitwiesner suggests 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 ophthalmologist by whom she had several children who lived with Jane Wyman in her youth.
Wyman married Myron Martin Futterman (1900–1965), a manufacturer of children's clothes, in New Orleans, Louisiana on June 29, 1937. 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). Reportedly engaged to Reagan only after Wyman attempted suicide over the actor's indecision regarding marriage, the two were married on January 26, 1940, at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather at Forest Lawn in Los Angeles; they divorced on June 28, 1948. She and Reagan had three children; Maureen Elizabeth Reagan (1941–2001), Michael Edward Reagan (born March 18, 1945 and adopted shortly after), and Christine Reagan (born prematurely June 26, 1947 and died the following day). Since Reagan is the only U.S. president to have been divorced, Jane Wyman has the unique distinction of having been the only ex-wife of an American President.
Following her divorce from Reagan, Wyman married bandleader Frederick M. Karger (1916–1979) on November 1, 1952 at El Montecito Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara, California. They separated on November 7, 1954 and were granted an interlocutory divorce decree on December 7, 1954; the divorce was finalized on December 30, 1955. They remarried on March 11, 1961, and Karger divorced her again on March 9, 1965; according to The New York Times report of the divorce, the bandleader charged that the actress "had walked out on him." Wyman 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.
Recent activities
Jane Wyman lived in seclusion for a number of years because of declining health. She was rarely seen in public, with the exception of attending the funerals of her daughter, Maureen Reagan, and her close friend Loretta Young. She also attended Ronald Reagan's funeral in 2004.
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 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. Since she was a member of the Dominican order of the Catholic church, she was buried in a nun's habit.
Awards and nominations
Academy Awards
- Nominated: Best Actress, The Yearling (1946)
- Won: Best Actress, Johnny Belinda (1948)
- Nominated: Best Actress, The Blue Veil (1951)
- Nominated: Best Actress, Magnificent Obsession (1954)
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
- Won: Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama, Johnny Belinda (1949)
- Won: Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama, The Blue Veil (1952)
- Nominated: Best Actress - Drama Series, Falcon Crest (1983)
- Won: Best Actress - Drama Series, Falcon Crest (1984)
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 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Filmography
|
|
Television
- 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)
- Official website
- Jane Wyman at the Internet Movie Database
- Jane Wyman at the TCM Movie Database
- Jane Wyman's biographic sketch at Find A Grave
- The Times obituary September 11, 2007
- "Jane Wyman, Dead at 90" - Monsters & Critics September 11, 2007
- Obituary and Tribute
- Tough Love Reminisces by Michael Reagan
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Sarah McLeod and Clare Bowditch Head To Popkomm Undercover Music News, Australia - Along with McLeod and Bowditch, the acts on show this year will be Ian Miller Band, BugGirl, Kitchen Knife Wife, Lawless Breed, Mayfield, Lamplight, ... |
 Boston Globe | Back on the block Boston Globe, United States - "There's always the possibility that someone who has had that lightning success will capture interest with a reunion," says Geoff Mayfield, ... |
Imperials have too much consistency Murray Valley Standard, Australia - Tailem have worked hard this season and Jaimie Zadow, Sarah Richmond, Robyn Mayfield and Mel Hill are all consistent players who have the potential to get ... |
WRA girls harriers finish 8th in Burton Hudson Hub-Times, Ohio - The Mayfield duo of Marie Lorentz (20:10.6) and Deanna Gidby (20:41.71) took the top two spots. A total of 215 runners competed. Rounding out the top seven ... |
Olympic rower Sylvester speaks of experience in Beijing Caledon Citizen, Canada - The Mayfield Secondary School graduate was also accompanied to Beijing by his parents David and Anne, sister Sarah and brothers DJ and Andrew. ... |
Nation briefs: Police take Michigan baby from parents Kansas City Star, MO - About 15000 residents in the eastern suburbs of Beachwood, Pepper Pike and Mayfield Heights were in the dark Thursday morning. Crews were called out about 9 ... |
 Jamaica Gleaner | US investor sues tourism agencies Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica - Gregory Naldrett, operator of River Walk Limited - parent company of Mayfield Falls - said he was suing the government-run entities after all attempts by ... |
Husband denies murder Crewe Chronicle, UK - Edward Richardson, aged 41, of Mayfield Road, Biddulph, was charged with her murder. He pleaded not guilty at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on Monday. ... |
Grand Valley State University 2008 winter dean's list The Saginaw News - MLive.com, MI - Harrison: Katelyn S. Haskin, Brian J. Mayfield, Sarah A. Murray and Kara K. Noseda. Hemlock: Sara M. Baker, Tyler J. Harrington, Nicole E. Husen, ... |
Murder charge man in court Crewe Chronicle, UK - Edward Richardson, aged 41, of Mayfield Road, Biddulph, has been charged with her murder. He was today due to appear at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court. |
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