Jane Wyman was an American actress who was born Sarah Jane Mayfield on January 5, 1917 and died on September 10, 2007. She won an Academy Award, three Golden Globes, and was nominated for two Primetime Emmys. Wyman’s professional career began in 1933, at the age of 16, when she signed with Warner Bros. She was a popular contract player who frequently played the leading lady in films like Public Wedding, Brother Rat, Stage Fright, So Big, Magnificent Obsession, and All That Heaven Allows. She had four Academy Award nominations for Best Actress, winning for Johnny Belinda (1948). As the evil matriarch Angela Channing, she played a regular role in the soap opera Falcon Crest from 1981 through 1990.
Awards and nominations
Wyman gained notoriety in the noir movie The Lost Weekend (1945), which was directed by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett and was influenced by Wyman’s portrayal as Princess O’Rourke. Ray Milland was the lead, therefore it was a supporting role, but it was also the most crucial. She called it a “small miracle.” In the 1946 films One More Tomorrow and Night and Day, Wyman continued to play supporting roles. She was nonetheless employed by MGM to play the female lead in The Yearling (1946), and that year, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She portrayed the title character in the 1947 films Cheyenne by Dennis Morgan and Magic Town by James Stewart.
Johnny Belinda and “A” film stardom
Johnny Belinda (1948) was her breakthrough role, in which she played a deaf-mute rape victim. Wyman trained for six months for the film, which was a major success and garnered her an Oscar for Best Actress. She was the first person to win an Oscar for acting without saying a single word during the sound era. Wyman accepted her statue and said just, “I accept this, very gratefully, for keeping my mouth shut once.” It was a humorous acceptance speech, perhaps mocking some of her long-winded colleagues. “I believe I’ll do it again.”
Wyman was now a major star. She appeared in two comedies, A Kiss in the Dark (1948) and The Lady Takes a Sailor (1949), before directing a thriller for Alfred Hitchcock in England, Stage Fright (1950). She starred as Laura in The Glass Menagerie (1950) before moving on to MGM for the famous comedy Three Guys Named Mike (1951). At Paramount, she played Bing Crosby’s leading woman in Here Comes the Groom (1951). She also played the lead in RKO’s The Blue Veil (1951), a melodrama that was a box-office hit and earned her an Oscar nomination.
She was one of many stars in Warner Bros.’ 1951 film Starlift. She played the female lead in The Story of Will Rogers (1952), and she and Crosby reunited in Just for You (1952). The actress stated a goal of playing no more “weepy” roles around this period.
Universal melodramas and television
When producer Ross Hunter put her alongside Rock Hudson in Magnificent Obsession (1954), she had a big success. It garnered her yet another Academy Award nomination. Wyman and Hudson reunited on All That Heaven Allows (1955). She was cast in Lucy Gallant (1955) alongside Charlton Heston by Pine-Thomas Productions. She appeared in Van Johnson’s Miracle in the Rain (1956). She was supposed to follow this up with Annabella, but it does not appear to have happened. Her theatre was known as Fireside Theatre during its inaugural season before being renamed Jane Wyman Theatre. Wyman hosted every episode, acted in half of them, and produced the rest.
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