Janet Gaynor
Encyclopedia
Janet Gaynor was an American actress and painter.
One of the most popular actresses of the silent film era, in 1928 Gaynor became the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress
for her performances in three films: Seventh Heaven (1927), Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) and Street Angel (1928). This was the only occasion on which an actress has won for multiple roles. This rule would be changed three years later by AMPAS. Her career continued with the advent of sound film, and she achieved a notable success in the original version of A Star Is Born
(1937).
She worked only sporadically after the late 1930s. Severely injured in a 1982 vehicle collision, the incident contributed to her death two years later.
, her family moved west to San Francisco
during her childhood. When she graduated from high school in 1923, Gaynor decided to pursue an acting career. She moved to Los Angeles
, where she supported herself working in a shoe store, receiving $18 per week (2009: $).
She managed to land unbilled small parts in several feature film
s and comedy shorts for two years. Finally, in 1926, at the age of 20, she was cast in the lead role in The Johnstown Flood
(1926), the same year she was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars
(with Joan Crawford
, Dolores del Río
and others). Her outstanding performance won her the attention of producers, who cast her in a series of films.
) and both Sunrise
, directed by F. W. Murnau, and Street Angel (in 1927, also with Charles Farrell) earned her the first Academy Award for Best Actress
in 1928. At the time, the award was awarded for multiple roles: it was given on the basis of the actor's total work over the year, and not just for one particular performance. Gaynor was not only the first, but until 1986 (when Marlee Matlin
won her Oscar), she was also the youngest actress to win an Academy Award for Best Actress. At the time of their respective wins, Gaynor was 22 years old and Matlin was 21 years old.
Gaynor was one of only a handful of leading ladies who made a successful transition to sound films. For a number of years, Gaynor was the Fox studios foremost actress and was given the choice of prime roles, starring in such films as Delicious
(1931), Merely Mary Ann
(also 1931) and Adorable (1933). However, when Darryl F. Zanuck
merged his fledgling studio, 20th Century Pictures, with Fox Film Corporation to form Twentieth Century Fox, her status became precarious and even tertiary to that of actresses Loretta Young
and Shirley Temple
. She managed to terminate her contract with the studio and achieved acclaim in films produced by David O. Selznick
in the mid-1930s.
In 1937, she was again nominated for an Academy Award, this time for her role in A Star Is Born
. After appearing in The Young in Heart
, she left film industry for nearly twenty years, returning one last time in 1957 as Pat Boone
's mother in Bernardine.
In 1939, she played Baroness Mary Vetsera
in the Lux Radio Theater
episode of January 1, 1939 - Mayerling.
from August 14, 1939 to his death on September 13, 1959. Gaynor had one son with Adrian, Robin Gaynor Adrian, born in 1940. In addition to acting, Gaynor was an accomplished visual artist and her oil paintings were featured at the Wally Findlay Galleries show in New York, March 25 to April 7, 1977.
Gaynor was close friends with actress Mary Martin
, with whom she frequently travelled. A Brazil
ian press report noted that Gaynor and Martin briefly lived with their respective husbands in the state of Goiás
in the 1950s and 1960s.
She died on September 14, 1984, at the age of 77, due largely to the aftermath of a traffic accident in San Francisco two years earlier; specifically, her death resulted from complications following several operations. In the accident, a driver named Robert Cato ran a red light at the corner of California Street and Franklin and crashed into her Luxor taxicab. The crash killed Mary Martin's manager Ben Washer and injured the other passengers, including Gaynor's husband Paul Gregory, as well as her close, long-time friend, Mary Martin
. Gaynor was in serious condition with eleven broken ribs, a fractured collarbone, pelvic fractures, an injured bladder and a damaged kidney. The drunk driver of the van, Robert Cato, was sentenced to a three-year prison term for drunken driving and vehicular manslaughter in the accident.
She was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
in Hollywood, California next to her second husband Adrian, but her stone reads "Janet Gaynor Gregory," her legal name after her marriage to her third husband, producer and director Paul Gregory. Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame can be found at 6284 Hollywood Blvd.
One of the most popular actresses of the silent film era, in 1928 Gaynor became the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for her performances in three films: Seventh Heaven (1927), Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) and Street Angel (1928). This was the only occasion on which an actress has won for multiple roles. This rule would be changed three years later by AMPAS. Her career continued with the advent of sound film, and she achieved a notable success in the original version of A Star Is Born
A Star Is Born (1937 film)
A Star Is Born is a 1937 Technicolor romantic drama film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by William A. Wellman, with a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. It stars Janet Gaynor as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and Fredric March as an aging movie star who...
(1937).
She worked only sporadically after the late 1930s. Severely injured in a 1982 vehicle collision, the incident contributed to her death two years later.
Early life
Born Laura Augusta Gainor in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, her family moved west to San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
during her childhood. When she graduated from high school in 1923, Gaynor decided to pursue an acting career. She moved to Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, where she supported herself working in a shoe store, receiving $18 per week (2009: $).
She managed to land unbilled small parts in several feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s and comedy shorts for two years. Finally, in 1926, at the age of 20, she was cast in the lead role in The Johnstown Flood
The Johnstown Flood (1926 film)
The Johnstown Flood is an American silent epic film drama directed by Irving Cummings. The film stars George O'Brien, Florence Gilbert and Janet Gaynor. This is a surviving film with a print held at George Eastman House, Rochester.-Cast:...
(1926), the same year she was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars
WAMPAS Baby Stars
The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual...
(with Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
, Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood...
and others). Her outstanding performance won her the attention of producers, who cast her in a series of films.
Rising career
Within a year, Gaynor was one of Hollywood's leading ladies. Her performances in Seventh Heaven (the first of twelve movies she would make with actor Charles FarrellCharles Farrell
Charles Farrell was an American film actor of the 1920s silent era and into the 1930s, and later a television actor...
) and both Sunrise
Sunrise (film)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, also known as Sunrise, is a 1927 American silent film directed by German film director F. W. Murnau. The story was adapted by Carl Mayer from the short story "Die Reise nach Tilsit" by Hermann Sudermann.Sunrise won an Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Production...
, directed by F. W. Murnau, and Street Angel (in 1927, also with Charles Farrell) earned her the first Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
in 1928. At the time, the award was awarded for multiple roles: it was given on the basis of the actor's total work over the year, and not just for one particular performance. Gaynor was not only the first, but until 1986 (when Marlee Matlin
Marlee Matlin
Marlee Bethany Matlin is an American actress. She is the only deaf actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which she won for Children of a Lesser God. Her work in film and television has resulted in a Golden Globe award, with two additional nominations, and four Emmy...
won her Oscar), she was also the youngest actress to win an Academy Award for Best Actress. At the time of their respective wins, Gaynor was 22 years old and Matlin was 21 years old.
Gaynor was one of only a handful of leading ladies who made a successful transition to sound films. For a number of years, Gaynor was the Fox studios foremost actress and was given the choice of prime roles, starring in such films as Delicious
Delicious (1931 film)
Delicious is a Gershwin musical romantic comedy film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, directed by David Butler, with color sequences in Multicolor . The film featured music by George and Ira Gershwin, including the introduction of "New York Rhapsody" ; an imaginative and elaborate set...
(1931), Merely Mary Ann
Merely Mary Ann
Merely Mary Ann is a romantic comedy drama film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. Gaynor and Farrell made almost a dozen films together, including Frank Borzage's classics Seventh Heaven , Street Angel , and Lucky Star ; Gaynor won the first Academy Award for Best Actress for the first...
(also 1931) and Adorable (1933). However, when Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
merged his fledgling studio, 20th Century Pictures, with Fox Film Corporation to form Twentieth Century Fox, her status became precarious and even tertiary to that of actresses Loretta Young
Loretta Young
Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...
and Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
. She managed to terminate her contract with the studio and achieved acclaim in films produced by David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...
in the mid-1930s.
In 1937, she was again nominated for an Academy Award, this time for her role in A Star Is Born
A Star Is Born (1937 film)
A Star Is Born is a 1937 Technicolor romantic drama film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by William A. Wellman, with a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. It stars Janet Gaynor as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and Fredric March as an aging movie star who...
. After appearing in The Young in Heart
The Young in Heart
The Young in Heart is a film comedy starring Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Paulette Goddard, Roland Young, and Billie Burke....
, she left film industry for nearly twenty years, returning one last time in 1957 as Pat Boone
Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
's mother in Bernardine.
In 1939, she played Baroness Mary Vetsera
Baroness Mary Vetsera
Baroness Marie Alexandrine von Vetsera was a member of Austrian high society nobility and one of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria's mistresses...
in the Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network ; CBS and NBC . Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences...
episode of January 1, 1939 - Mayerling.
Later life and death
Gaynor was married to producer Paul Gregory from December 24, 1964 to her death on September 14, 1984. Previous marriages were to Jesse Lydell Peck from September 11, 1929 to April 7, 1933, and to MGM costume designer AdrianAdrian (costume designer)
Adrian Adolph Greenberg , most widely known as Adrian, was an American costume designer whose most famous costumes were for The Wizard of Oz and other Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films of the 1930s and 1940s. During his career, he designed costumes for over 250 films and his screen credits usually read as...
from August 14, 1939 to his death on September 13, 1959. Gaynor had one son with Adrian, Robin Gaynor Adrian, born in 1940. In addition to acting, Gaynor was an accomplished visual artist and her oil paintings were featured at the Wally Findlay Galleries show in New York, March 25 to April 7, 1977.
Gaynor was close friends with actress Mary Martin
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989...
, with whom she frequently travelled. A Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian press report noted that Gaynor and Martin briefly lived with their respective husbands in the state of Goiás
Goiás
Goiás is a state of Brazil, located in the central part of the country. The name Goiás comes from the name of an indigenous community...
in the 1950s and 1960s.
She died on September 14, 1984, at the age of 77, due largely to the aftermath of a traffic accident in San Francisco two years earlier; specifically, her death resulted from complications following several operations. In the accident, a driver named Robert Cato ran a red light at the corner of California Street and Franklin and crashed into her Luxor taxicab. The crash killed Mary Martin's manager Ben Washer and injured the other passengers, including Gaynor's husband Paul Gregory, as well as her close, long-time friend, Mary Martin
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989...
. Gaynor was in serious condition with eleven broken ribs, a fractured collarbone, pelvic fractures, an injured bladder and a damaged kidney. The drunk driver of the van, Robert Cato, was sentenced to a three-year prison term for drunken driving and vehicular manslaughter in the accident.
She was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles, California. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywood...
in Hollywood, California next to her second husband Adrian, but her stone reads "Janet Gaynor Gregory," her legal name after her marriage to her third husband, producer and director Paul Gregory. Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame can be found at 6284 Hollywood Blvd.
Features
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 | Cupid's Rustler | uncredited | |
| Young Ideas | uncredited | ||
| 1925 | Dangerous Innocence Dangerous Innocence (film) Dangerous Innocence is a 1925 black-and-white silent film comedy/romance/drama film written by Lewis Milestone and James O. Spearing based upon the novel Ann's an Idiot by Pamela Wynne. Directed by William A. Seiter for Universal Pictures, the film stars Laura La Plante and Eugene O'Brien... |
uncredited | |
| The Burning Trail | uncredited | ||
| The Teaser The Teaser (1925 film) The Teaser is a 1925 black-and-white silent film comedy/romance/drama film written by Lewis Milestone, Edward T. Lowe Jr. and Jack Wagner based upon the play of the same name by Adelaide Matthews and Martha M. Stanley. The film was directed by William A. Seiter for Universal Pictures, and stars... |
uncredited | ||
| The Plastic Age The Plastic Age (film) The Plastic Age is a black-and-white silent film starring Clara Bow and Gilbert Roland. The film survives today not only on 16 mm film, but also on video and DVD. The film was based on the best-selling 1924 novel The Plastic Age by Percy Marks... |
uncredited | ||
| 1926 | A Punch in the Nose | Bathing Beauty | uncredited |
| The Beautiful Cheat | uncredited | ||
| The Johnstown Flood The Johnstown Flood (1926 film) The Johnstown Flood is an American silent epic film drama directed by Irving Cummings. The film stars George O'Brien, Florence Gilbert and Janet Gaynor. This is a surviving film with a print held at George Eastman House, Rochester.-Cast:... |
Anna Burger | ||
| Oh What a Nurse! | uncredited | ||
| Skinner's Dress Suit | uncredited | ||
| The Shamrock Handicap The Shamrock Handicap The Shamrock Handicap is a romance film directed by John Ford. A print of the film still exists in the Museum of Modern Art film archive.-Cast:* Janet Gaynor - Lady Sheila O'Hara* Leslie Fenton - Neil Ross* Willard Louis - Orville Finch* J... |
Lady Sheila O'Hara | ||
| The Galloping Cowboy | uncredited | ||
| The Man in the Saddle The Man in the Saddle The Man in the Saddle is a Western film directed by Lynn Reynolds and Clifford Smith, starring Hoot Gibson and featuring Boris Karloff.-Cast:* Hoot Gibson - Jeff Morgan Jr* Charles Hill Mailes - Jeff Morgan Sr... |
uncredited | ||
| The Blue Eagle The Blue Eagle The Blue Eagle is a 1926 action film directed by John Ford. Prints of the film exist in the Library of Congress film archive and in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.-Cast:* George O'Brien - George Darcy* Janet Gaynor - Rose Kelly... |
Rose Kelly | ||
| The Midnight Kiss | Mildred Hastings | ||
| The Return of Peter Grimm | Catherine | ||
| Lazy Lightning | uncredited | ||
| The Stolen Ranch | uncredited | ||
| 1927 | Two Girls Wanted | Marianna Wright | |
| Seventh Heaven | Diane | Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
|
| Sunrise Sunrise (film) Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, also known as Sunrise, is a 1927 American silent film directed by German film director F. W. Murnau. The story was adapted by Carl Mayer from the short story "Die Reise nach Tilsit" by Hermann Sudermann.Sunrise won an Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Production... |
The Wife - Indre | Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
|
| 1928 | Street Angel | Angela | Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
| 4 Devils 4 Devils 4 Devils was a 1928 American silent drama film directed by German film director F. W. Murnau.-Preservation status:... |
Marion | lost film | |
| 1929 | Lucky Star | Mary Tucker | |
| Happy Days Happy Days (1929 film) Happy Days is an 80 minute musical film, notable for being the first feature film shown entirely in widescreen anywhere in the world. Happy Days (1929) is an 80 minute musical film, notable for being the first feature film shown entirely in widescreen anywhere in the world. Happy Days (1929) is an... |
Herself | ||
| Christina | Christina | ||
| Sunny Side Up | Mary Carr | ||
| 1930 | High Society Blues High Society Blues High Society Blues is a film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. The movie was written by Howard J. Green from the story by Dana Burnett and directed by David Butler.... |
Eleanor Divine | |
| 1931 | The Man Who Came Back The Man Who Came Back The Man Who Came Back is a 1931 American drama film directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. The movie was adapted to screen by Edwin J... |
Angie Randolph | |
| Daddy Long Legs Daddy Long Legs (1931 film) Daddy Long Legs is a film about an orphan who is taken under the wing of a wealthy benefactor. The original story, written in 1912 by Jean Webster, took in the social aspects of the wealthy compared with the upbringing optained in an orphanage... |
Judy Abbott | ||
| Merely Mary Ann Merely Mary Ann Merely Mary Ann is a romantic comedy drama film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. Gaynor and Farrell made almost a dozen films together, including Frank Borzage's classics Seventh Heaven , Street Angel , and Lucky Star ; Gaynor won the first Academy Award for Best Actress for the first... |
Mary Ann | ||
| Delicious Delicious (1931 film) Delicious is a Gershwin musical romantic comedy film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, directed by David Butler, with color sequences in Multicolor . The film featured music by George and Ira Gershwin, including the introduction of "New York Rhapsody" ; an imaginative and elaborate set... |
Heather Gordon | ||
| 1932 | The First Year The First Year The First Year is a film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. The movie was written by Lynn Starling from Frank Craven's play and directed by William K. Howard.-Cast:* Janet Gaynor as Grace Livingston* Charles Farrell as Tommy Tucker... |
Grace Livingston | |
| Tess of the Storm Country Tess of the Storm Country (1932 film) Tess of the Storm Country is an English-language remake of the 1922 silent film of the same name. The movie is an energetic film with Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, and Dudley Digges. Gaynor and Farrell made almost a dozen films together, including Frank Borzage's classics Seventh Heaven ,... |
Tess Howland | ||
| 1933 | State Fair | Margy Frake | |
| Adorable | Princess Marie Christine, aka Mitzi | ||
| Paddy the Next Best Thing Paddy the Next Best Thing Paddy the Next Best Thing is a film starring Janet Gaynor and Warner Baxter. The screen comedy was written by Edwin J. Burke and Gertrude Page, and directed by Harry Lachman.... |
Paddy Adair | ||
| 1934 | Carolina Carolina (1934 film) Carolina is a 1934 American romantic comedy film directed by Henry King. The screenplay by Reginald Berkley is based on the play, The House of Connelly by Paul Green... |
Joanna Tate | |
| The Cardboard City | Herself | Cameo | |
| Change of Heart Change of Heart (1934 film) Change of Heart is a 1934 American drama film starring Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, James Dunn, and Ginger Rogers. The movie, about a quartet of college chums who all move to 1934 New York City, was written by James Gleason and Sonya Levien from Kathleen Norris's novel, Manhattan Love Song and... |
Catherine Furness | ||
| Servants' Entrance Servants' Entrance Servants' Entrance is a comedy film starring Janet Gaynor. The movie was written by Samson Raphaelson from the Sigrid Boo novel and directed by Frank Lloyd, with a cartoon sequence by Walt Disney in which an understandably startled Gaynor sings a song while obstreperous animated singing silverware... |
Hedda Nilsson aka Helga Brand | ||
| 1935 | One More Spring One More Spring One More Spring is a 1935 film about three people living together in the maintenance shed at Central Park as an alternative to living on the streets. The film was written by Edwin J... |
Elizabeth Cheney | |
| The Farmer Takes a Wife The Farmer Takes a Wife The Farmer Takes a Wife is a 1934 play by Frank B. Elser and Marc Connelly based on the novel Rome Haul by Walter D. Edmonds. It was well-received upon its opening night on Broadway on October 30, 1934 at the 46th Street Theatre. The production was directed by Marc Connelly and used set designs by... |
Molly Larkins | ||
| 1936 | Small Town Girl Small Town Girl (1936 film) Small Town Girl is a film starring Janet Gaynor, Robert Taylor, and James Stewart. The romantic comedy was directed by William A. Wellman.Based on a novel by Ben Ames Williams, the film went through many changes before it reached the screen... |
Katherine 'Kay' Brannan | |
| Ladies in Love Ladies in Love Ladies in Love is a romantic comedy film directed by Edward H. Griffith. Starring Janet Gaynor, Constance Bennett and Loretta Young the film revolves around three roommates in exotic Budapest and their comical romantic adventures. Gaynor, Bennett, and Young were billed above the title, with... |
Martha Kerenye | ||
| 1937 | A Star Is Born A Star Is Born (1937 film) A Star Is Born is a 1937 Technicolor romantic drama film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by William A. Wellman, with a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. It stars Janet Gaynor as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and Fredric March as an aging movie star who... |
Esther Victoria Blodgett, aka Vicki Lester | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
| 1938 | Three Loves Has Nancy Three Loves Has Nancy Three Loves Has Nancy is a romantic comedy film starring Janet Gaynor, Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone. Set in New York City, it was directed by Richard Thorpe.-Cast:*Janet Gaynor as Nancy Briggs*Robert Montgomery as Mal Niles... |
Nancy Briggs | |
| The Young in Heart The Young in Heart The Young in Heart is a film comedy starring Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Paulette Goddard, Roland Young, and Billie Burke.... |
George-Anne Carleton | ||
| 1957 | Bernardine Bernardine (film) Bernardine is a 1957 film directed by Henry Levin and starring Pat Boone, Terry Moore, Dean Jagger, Dick Sargent, and Janet Gaynor. The 1952 play upon which the movie is based was written by Mary Coyle Chase, the Denver playwright who also wrote the smash hit Broadway play Harvey... |
Mrs. Ruth Wilson | |
Short Subjects
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 | All Wet | uncredited | |
| 1925 | The Haunted Honeymoon | uncredited | |
| The Crook Buster | uncredited | ||
| 1926 | WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1926 | Herself | |
| Ridin' for Love | uncredited | ||
| Fade Away Foster | uncredited | ||
| The Fire Barrier | uncredited | ||
| Don't Shoot | uncredited | ||
| Pep of the Lazy J | June Adams | uncredited | |
| Martin of the Mounted | uncredited | ||
| 45 Minutes from Hollywood 45 Minutes from Hollywood 45 Minutes From Hollywood is an American two-reel silent film released by Pathé Exchange.At the time, it was known as a Glenn Tryon vehicle, but today it is best remembered as the second instance of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appearing in the same film together — although they do not share... |
uncredited | ||
| 1927 | The Horse Trader | uncredited | |
| 1941 | Meet the Stars #2: Baby Stars | Herself |
Further reading
- Baker, Sarah. Lucky Stars: Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. Georgia: Bear Manor Media, 2009. ISBN 1593934688.
- Menefee, David W. The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era. Connecticut: Praeger, 2004. ISBN 0-275-98259-9.
- Martin, Mary. My Heart Belongs. New York: Quill, 1984.