Sarah Jane Mayfield also known as Jane Wyman was an actress and philanthropist, who, for Disney, played Polly Harrington in the 1960 film Pollyanna and Kate Willard in the 1962 film Bon Voyage.
Born in 1917, Wyman was placed in foster care at young age. She dropped out of school at age 15 and worked as a manicurist and a switchboard operator in Hollywood while struggling to find work as an actress. She found small roles in films, such as The Kid from Spain, Gold Diggers of 1933, All the King's Horses, Stolen Harmony, King of Burlesque, Anything Goes, and My Man Godfrey before signing a contract with Warner Brothers in 1936.
She continued with supporting roles the films You're in the Army Now, The Lost Weekend, One More Tomorrow, and Night and Day before getting her first lead in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's The Yearling, gaining her first Academy Award nomination. Her success continued with films, such as A Kiss in the Dark, The Story of Will Rogers, Stage Fright, The Blue Veil, Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, and Johnny Belinda, where won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
While initially dismissive of television roles in the beginning, Wyman eventually credited it as a career boost for her. She took over hosting and producing Fireside Theatre, rebranding it The Jane Wyman Show from 1955 to 1958. She would appear in guest spots on Wagon Train, Insight, Wagon Train, The Red Skelton Show, My Three Sons, The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, The Love Boat, Charlie's Angels, and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Her most iconic role on television came in the form of the villainous Angela Channing on the CBS primetime soap opera Falcon Crest from 1981 to 1990, winning a Golden Globe in 1983.
Wyman fully retired from acting in 1993, and she spent her retirement painting and entertaining friends while living much of her life in privacy. She died in her sleep of natural causes at the age of 90 at her home in Rancho Mirage on September 10, 2007.
Roles[]
(Pollyanna)
(Bon Voyage)
