Jane Wyman

Lore & Background

Jane Wyman began her career as an uncredited chorus girl in The Kid from Spain (1932). She signed her first studio contract with Warner Bros. in 1936 and spent two decades there, progressing from bit roles to supporting parts. By 1945, she emerged as a prominent A-list actress with films including The Lost Weekend (1945), The Yearling (1946), Johnny Belinda (1948), Stage Fright (1950), The Blue Veil (1951), So Big (1953), Magnificent Obsession (1954), and All That Heaven Allows (1955). She received four Academy Award nominations for Best Actress between 1946 and 1954, winning for Johnny Belinda (1948).

Reader's Guide

Jane Wyman's significance lies in her versatile career spanning over six decades, from Hollywood's Golden Age to television. She was one of the few actresses to successfully transition from film to television, producing and starring in the rebranded Fireside Theatre in the 1950s. Her later role as the villainous matriarch Angela Channing on the primetime soap opera Falcon Crest (1981–1990) revived her career and introduced her to a new generation. Wyman received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for both motion pictures and television in 1960. Her legacy includes her Academy Award-winning performance in Johnny Belinda, where she played a deaf-mute woman, and her status as the first wife of Ronald Reagan. She was a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic.

Did You Know?

• Wyman lied about her age on her marriage certificate to salesman Ernest Wyman, claiming she was 19 when she was 16.
• She and Regis Toomey had the longest screen kiss in cinema history: 3 minutes and 5 seconds, in You're in the Army Now (1941).
• Wyman was descended from the American colonial Robert Coe.
• She was fired from a job at a Manning's coffee shop for being too clumsy.