5 Things You Need to Know About Jane Wyman
She was so much more than Mrs. Ronald Reagan.
For a lot of people, the name “Jane Wyman” will always be associated with two things: Ronald Reagan and Falcon Crest. The classic punch-line in Back to the Future cements this first:
“Ok, Future Boy. Who’s the president of the United States in 1985?”
“Ronald Reagan.”
“Ronald Reagan? The ACTOR? Then who’s Vice-President, Jerry Lewis? I suppose Jane Wyman is the First Lady!”
And the fact that Falcon Crest is currently one of Warner Archive’s most popular streaming titles cements the latter. Her successful run on the primetime 80s soap as the cold, domineering matriarch Angela Channing is larger than life and tends to overshadow Wyman’s solid body of work. In addition to the first two seasons of Falcon Crest, Warner Archive has a handful of other Wyman films in our library: the mystical love story Miracle in the Rain, the Wartime crowd-pleaser Hollywood Canteen, and the film that won Wyman her Oscar: Johnny Belinda.
Like all the great movie stars, she was a self-made career woman who set out with a goal and never stopped until she reached it. And reach it she did, becoming Warner Bros’ most important leading lady during the late ’40s and early ’50s.
Here are 5 things you need to know about Jane Wyman.
#5. She Was a Foster Kid.
Born Sarah Jane Mayfield, Jane Wyman did not have a happy childhood. Her father died when she was just 4 years old, and her mother left her to be raised by foster parents.
“I was raised with such strict discipline that it was years before I could reason myself out of the bitterness I brought from my childhood.” — Jane Wyman
She briefly lived in Southern California before her foster family moved to Missouri where she dropped out of high school at 15. The teenage Jane Wyman moved to Hollywood, where she lied about her age so she could work odd jobs to support herself (waitressing, etc.,) while she looked for work in the movies.
#4. Age Did Not Hurt Her Career — it Helped.
Being pretty, talented, disciplined, and determined wasn’t enough to make Jane Wyman an overnight success. She started off her career as an extra in bit parts throughout the late 1930s before gradually (emphasis on gradually) working her way up to minor supporting roles in B movies. Then came leading roles … in B movies. And yet in a town where the older an actress gets the less attractive she is to casting directors (because Hollywood sucks) the opposite proved to be the true with Wyman.
At age 31, after having worked in Hollywood for more than 15 years, she finally got her big break in Billy Wilder’s critically-acclaimed drama The Lost Weekend. Wyman had been struggling along in movies with titles like Make Your Own Bed and Tugboat Annie Sails Again, and was always a fun highlight, even in ensemble movies like Hollywood Canteen, now streaming here at Warner Archive. But she was hardly on par with fellow Warner Bros actresses like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.
The Lost Weekend proved her leading lady potential, and earned her a Academy Award nomination, establishing her as a serious actress.
#3. She Won an Oscar for Playing a Rape Victim
Hot on the heels of the success for The Lost Weekend came Johnny Belinda: new to Warner Archive and available for streaming now.
Based on a hit Broadway play of the same name, Johnny Belinda is pretty daring stuff for Studio-Era Hollywood, when censorship ruled the industry. A deaf-mute farm girl named Belinda (Wyman) meets a handsome doctor (Lew Ayres), who takes an interest in her and teaches her sign language. The two spend a lot of time together and develop a bond that begins to flirt with romance — that is until Belinda’s world is turned upside down when one of the local villagers (and a family friend) brutally attacks and rapes her. Belinda gives birth 9 months later to a boy whom she names ‘Johnny’, and believe it or not, that’s just the start of the emotional roller coaster.
Now, Wyman was serious about her work, and she dissected the role of Belinda, constantly challenging herself. But during shooting, she became convinced that something about her performance wasn’t authentic. And then it hit her: even though she’d spent months studying sign language, she could still hear…and the camera knew it. So, Wyman had a doctor make special ear plugs to block out as much sound as possible. Her dedication to the role paid off, earning her the only Oscar of her career.
#2. Her Oscar Speech is One of the Best Ever.
Johnny Belinda received a whopping 12 nominations, including all the big ones: Best Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress. Wyman was the favorite to win the Oscar, against such heavyweights as Barbara Stanwyck (who never won a competitive Oscar, by the way), Ingrid Bergman, and Olivia de Havilland.
When she won the award on March 24th, 1949, her acceptance speech went down in Oscar history as one of the most memorable. Like everything Wyman did in life, it was straight and to the point: “I accept this award very gratefully — for keeping my mouth shut. I think I’ll do it again!”
#1. She Never Once Discussed The Fact She Could Have Been FLOTUS.
Johnny Belinda was also life-changing in another way for Jane Wyman. During filming, Wyman and her co-star Lew Ayres were having a not-so-secret affair. Wyman had been married to fellow actor Ronald Reagan for eight years, but their marriage was on the rocks. In fact, Wyman would be married a total of 5 times in her life.
Some women just aren’t the marrying kind — or anyway, not the permanent marrying kind, and I’m one of them. — Jane Wyman
Wyman was becoming increasingly restless with Reagan’s growing involvement in politics. He was, in fact, at the time the president. Of the Screen Actors Guild, that is. And even though Wyman’s relationship with Ayres would quickly fizzle, she still filed for divorce from Reagan.
Over the years, Wyman rarely discussed her marriage to Reagan. When her career experienced a revitalization in the early 1980s with the popular primetime soap Falcon Crest (read more about it here), it just so happened to coincide with her ex-husband becoming the 40th President of the United States. Wyman had long been asked about her thoughts on her ex-husband’s politics, as he’d been the Governor of California, and the questions certainly didn’t go away after he ascended to the Presidency. But Wyman summed it up in one, short, perfect response: “It’s bad taste to talk about ex-husbands and ex-wives. Also, I don’t know a damn thing about politics.”
That’s called class, and Jane Wyman had it in spades.
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