Janet Gaynor

Janet Gaynor was born Laura Augusta Gainor on October 6, 1906, in Philadelphia, and died on September 14, 1984. She started out as an extra in silent shorts and features. After joining Fox Film (which became 20th Century-Fox) in 1926, she became a major star and one of the era’s top box-office draws. In 1929, she won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in three films: *7th Heaven* and *Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans* (both 1927) and *Street Angel* (1928). This remains the only time an actress won a single Oscar for multiple performances. She kept her success going in the sound era, earning a second Best Actress nomination for *A Star Is Born* (1937).

Gaynor retired from acting in 1939 and married film costume designer Adrian, with whom she had a son. She made a brief return to film and television in the 1950s and later took up oil painting. In 1980, she made her Broadway debut in the stage version of *Harold and Maude* and also appeared in a touring production of *On Golden Pond*. She died in 1984 from complications of injuries suffered in a car accident two years earlier.

Growing up, Gaynor was called “Lolly” and was the younger of two daughters. Her father, a theatrical painter and paperhanger, taught her to sing, dance, and do acrobatics when she was a toddler. She acted in school plays in Philadelphia. After her parents divorced in 1914, she, her sister, and her mother moved to Chicago, where her mother married electrician Harry C. Jones. The family later relocated to San Francisco.

After graduating from San Francisco Polytechnic High School in 1923, Gaynor spent the winter in Melbourne, Florida, doing stage work. Back in San Francisco, she and her family moved to Los Angeles so she could pursue acting. Initially hesitant, she enrolled in secretarial school and worked in a shoe store and as a theater usher. Encouraged by her mother and stepfather, she began visiting studios with her stepfather to find film work.

Her first professional acting job came on December 26, 1924, as an extra in a Hal Roach comedy short. This led to more extra roles at Film Booking Offices and Universal, which hired her as a stock player for $50 a week. Six weeks later, a Fox executive offered her a screen test for a supporting role in *The Johnstown Flood* (1926). Her performance impressed Fox, which signed her to a five-year contract and began casting her in leads. That same year, she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star alongside Joan Crawford, Dolores del Río, and Mary Astor.

By 1927, Gaynor was a leading lady known for playing sweet, wholesome characters with depth and sensitivity. Her roles in *7th Heaven* (the first of twelve films with Charles Farrell), *Sunrise*, and *Street Angel* won her the first Best Actress Oscar in 1929. At 22, she was the youngest winner until Marlee Matlin, 21, won in 1986. The Academy later changed its rules to prohibit awarding an Oscar for multiple roles.

Gaynor was one of the few established silent-film actresses to successfully transition to sound. In 1929, she reunited with Charles Farrell—dubbed “America’s favorite love birds”—for the musical *Sunny Side Up*. Through the early 1930s, she was one of Fox’s most popular stars and a top box-office draw. She tied with Marie Dressler for number one in 1931 and 1932, and held the top spot alone after Dressler’s death in 1934. Often seen as a successor to Mary Pickford, she starred in remakes of two Pickford films, *Daddy Long Legs* (1931) and *Tess of the Storm Country* (1932), but refused a remake of *Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm*, calling it “too juvenile.”

She continued to get top billing in films like *State Fair* (1933) with Will Rogers and *The Farmer Takes a Wife* (1935), which introduced Henry Fonda as her leading man. But after Darryl F. Zanuck merged Twentieth Century Pictures with Fox to form 20th Century-Fox, her status became less secure, falling behind rising stars Loretta Young and Shirley Temple. Press reports said Gaynor held out for a raise from $1,000 to $3,000 a week, but the studio denied this. She quietly signed a new contract with undisclosed terms.

Gaynor received top billing over Constance Bennett, Loretta Young, and Tyrone Power in *Ladies in Love* (1937), but her box-office appeal was fading. Once ranked number one, she saw her popularity decline as the 1930s progressed.