Posted on 09/10/2007 4:54:33 PM PDT by bd476
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jane Wyman, the Oscar-winning actress who was Ronald Reagan's first wife and starred in the popular 1980s television drama "Falcon Crest," died on Monday at age 90, her longtime manager said.
Wyman married fellow actor and future U.S. President Reagan in 1940 but divorced him in 1948. She died at her home in Palm Springs, California, having been in failing health for several years, business manager Michael Mesnick said in a statement.
Known as "one-take Wyman" for her professional work ethic, Wyman appeared in more than 80 films during a career spanning four decades. Her last movie was the 1969 musical comedy "How to Commit Marriage" with Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason.
Starting out as a radio singer, the Missouri-born Wyman broke into the movies in the 1930s as a Goldwyn Girl and signed with Warner Bros. studio in 1936. Her film acting debut came with a bit part in "Gold Diggers of 1937."
Initially typecast as a perky, sometimes flaky or tart-tongued blonde, Wyman toiled for a decade in mostly B-movie fare and supporting roles in bigger films. She gained notice in 1945 for her role as the girlfriend of a chronic alcoholic in Billy Wilder's drama "The Lost Weekend."
Generally appearing as a brunette after that film, Wyman went on to give a string of Oscar-nominated performances as a leading lady, beginning with "The Yearling" opposite Gregory Peck in 1946.
OSCAR TIME AND DIVORCE
She won the Oscar as best actress for her 1948 role -- played when she was 34 -- as a teenage deaf-mute raped in "Johnny Belinda." She and Reagan, once hailed by the Hollywood publicity machine as the ideal couple, saw their marriage collapse.
Wyman's two other Oscar nominations came for the 1951 drama "The Blue Veil," in which she played a self-sacrificing nursemaid, and the 1954 Douglas Sirk-directed romance "Magnificent Obsession," opposite Rock Hudson.
She sang in duet with Bing Crosby on the Oscar-winning song, "In the Cool Cool Cool of the Evening," from Frank Capra's 1951 musical comedy "Here Comes the Groom," and shared the screen with Marlene Dietrich in Alfred Hitchcock's 1950 thriller "Stage Fright."
Wyman began a television career in the 1950s, hosting the drama anthology series "The Jane Wyman Theater." She became best known to a later generation of viewers as the ruthless family matriarch Angela Channing in the CBS melodrama "Falcon Crest."
The show was a 1980s hit during the White House administration of her former second husband, Reagan, with whom Wyman had a daughter, Maureen, who died in 2001, and adopted a son, Michael, who became a conservative radio host.
By then Reagan, whom Wyman had met and began dating during their work together on the 1938 film "Brother Rat," had long been married to another of his onetime co-stars, Nancy Davis.
Despite concerns in Reagan's camp during his first White House bid about winning election as the first divorced president, Wyman remained scrupulously silent about her ex-husband, as she had during her time as California governor.
Michael Reagan wrote years later that his father "wouldn't have been president being married to Jane Wyman. He needed a Nancy, who was willing to give up her career to be there, by his side."
While her birthdate was widely cited as being in January 1914, her manager Mesnick said Wyman was actually born three years later, a fact she had long obscured for professional reasons because she had wanted to be seen as older.
She was herself married a total of four times to three different men, divorcing the last in 1965.
It was my only film. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time in Grass Valley when they were filming the movie.
It was a totally fun experience with great pay. The review and the rating almost put it into a series. We were informed after the filming but before it aired that it was very close to being pulled into a series. Those that participated in the filming were tapped to continue into the series.
Jane played a backwoods medicine women named Granny Arrowroot. Lindsay played the city doctor that decides that she is going to convert the backwoods townfolk to her modern ways.
Michael was adopted, which speaks volumes of the class of RR and Jane Wyman. Truly good folks. God speed, Ms. Wyman.
They married 26 January 1940 (divorced 1948) so the photo is probably misidentified.
Well, NotPoliticallyCoreWrecked, I attended a 2000 post-election demonstration. A lady standing behind the front row of demonstrators occasionally used a funny voice to poke fun at drivers who went by our protest site giving the single digit salute. After a while she sounded vaguely familiar. She turned out to be a voice-over actress for cartoons, and probably very successful given what I heard. She did not want her identity known, hence the scarf and remaining behind the front row of noisey demonstrators.
Glad there are some voices in Hollywood who aren’t lock-step liberal. A visit here shows just how locked the lock step is: http://www.newsmeat.com/washington_political_donations/
Didnt she also play Spock’s mother?
It was my mistake in mislabeling the photos. I'm sorry I goofed!
This photo above was actually the one which was labeled 1947, although I haven't found confirmation that 1947 was the date the photo was actually taken.
AP Images 1940
The Buckhead experience has taught up the MSM will track you down. Fortunately, there are eight folks listed at IMDB who have no other film credits.
I am not listed in the film credits so there is no way to track me.
RIP. Great actress.
Oh my. I just caught her last night on the classics channel.
It was the first time I saw her on screen and the performance really stuck out. I was thinking about it all day and wanted to look up her name today.
Now to hear this, it’s just uncanny.
That’s Jane Wyatt, frequently confused with Jane Wyman. Miss Wyatt died last year.
IIRC, she also played the mother of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman in a few episodes. Another actress also played the mother role.
No, Jane Wyman did not play Spock's mother.
Perhaps you're thinking of Jane Wyatt who played Amanda in "Star Trek IV The Voyage Home (1986)." Jane Wyatt also played the Mother in "Father Knows Best."
Jane Wyatt was 96 years old when she passed away in October 2006.
She seemed like a very gracious lady. I saw her in a movie with Bing Crosby where they sang a charming duet. She had a very nice voice. RIP Miss Wyman.
Some of her noteworthy films:
All That Heaven Allows 1956
Magnificent Obsession 1954
Just for You 1952
Here Comes the Groom 1951
Three Guys Named Mike 1951
Stage Fright 1950
Johnny Belinda 1948
Magic Town 1947
Night and Day 1946
The Yearling 1946
The Lost Weekend 1945
Footlight Serenade 1942
Brother Rat 1938
More can be read about Miss Wyman's acting career on IMDB:
Jane Wyman
Thank God he has his wife and children but...to know your parents are gone and your sister as well...your IMMEDIATE family...has to be a very lonely and sad feeling.
Yes, Michael Reagan seemed like a very lonely, sad person. I’m so glad Ronald Reagan stepped up to the plate. Sort of a preview of things to come in how he helped people and cared about people and our country. I and our family all think Michael is the true Reagan. He is proud of who he is in spite of all he went through. He is truly the son of Ronald Reagan.
Yes, his Dad, Ronald Reagan, did step up to the plate and took great care of him in his youth when he needed him and of course always.
The film was "Here Comes the Groom."
Jane Wyman co-starred with Bing Crosby in the Frank Capra film in 1951. The song they sang "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" won the Academy Award in 1951 for best original song.
"In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening"
Music by Hoagy Carmichael, lyrics by Johnny Mercer.
Here Comes the Groom
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