Actress Jane Wyman had an illustrious career in Hollywood that spanned more than 70 years. An award-winning actor, Wyman was one of the leading ladies of Hollywood's Golden Age.
In these color photos, we also take a closer look at the career of Jane Wyman, who used her talents to slowly develop from a supporting role to a popular star. Along the way, she received an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Award nominations, and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Wyman was born on January 5, 1917, after her parents divorced when she was young, and she tried to help her mother by working odd jobs. In 1932, when she was 15, she left home and moved to Hollywood. Soon she was playing small roles in the films The Kid from Spain, The Gold Digger of 1933, All the King's Horse, Rumba, and The King of Burlesque, and by 1936, She signed a contract with warner bros .
Wyman later appeared in several films for Warner Bros. In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, Wyman transitioned into dramatic roles and achieved leading lady status. Her breakthrough role was in the 1948 film Johnny Belinda. In the film, she played a deaf-mute victim, a performance for which she won critical acclaim and an Academy Award. In fact, she was the first person in the Hollywood sound era to win an Oscar without speaking a line.
While filming Brother Mouse in 1938, Wyman met her co-star Ronald Reagan . This is a movie in which she plays the leading role. By this time, Wyman had been married twice and divorced twice. Wyman's relationship with Regan developed in the sequel to the 1940 film Brother Mouse and a Kid. Ronald Reagan proposed to Wyman at a Chicago theater and the couple married on January 26, 1940 in Glendale, California. They have a daughter and an adopted son.
As we all know, Ronald Reagan made a political transition and became a staunch Republican man. He found his conservative views more aligned with the Republican Party. Reagan famously said: "I did not leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me."
As Reagan's interest in politics increased and he became a rising star in the Republican Party, his divorce from Jane Wyman became a minor issue. Even in the 1970s, divorce was still a bit unpleasant. When Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States in 1980, he became the first divorced person to take the oath of office.
When Reagan took office, Jane Wyman became the first ex-wife of a U.S. president to be still alive when he was sworn in. Jane Wyman has been largely silent about her ex-husband's presidential campaign. When pressed by the media, she explained: "It's in poor taste to talk about ex-husbands and ex-wives." Wyman's former personal assistant revealed that Wyman voted for Ronald Reagan in both the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections. and support his policies.
While her ex-husband was establishing himself in The Office, Jane Wyman continued her illustrious career playing an evil matriarch in the primetime TV soap opera The Falcon Crest, a role in which she It ran for nine seasons. For this role, she won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a Soap Opera Digest Award six times. Throughout the 1990s, she continued to appear in guest roles on television shows, including Dr. Quinn, and retired to her home in California. She died in her sleep in 2007 at the age of 90.
