Jane Wyatt

Wyatt was born on August 12, 1910, in Campgaw, a neighborhood in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, and raised in Manhattan.Longo, Rosalie. [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/528885995/ "Actress Invited to Write Memoirs on Her Native Campgaw"], Herald News, July 26, 2001. Accessed March 30, 2021, via Newspapers.com. "Jane Wyatt would be stunned if she returned to her childhood stomping grounds in North Jersey. When she romped through the apple orchards at her familys home years back, the Campgaw native encountered more deer; town, the actress could provide members of the Franklin Lakes Historical Society with a wealth of information about life in the borough years back, particularly when the sparsely populated, countrified community served as an oasis for city dwellers trying to escape the summer heat." Her father, Christopher Billopp Wyatt, was a broker. Her mother was Euphemia Van Rensselaer Waddington, granddaughter of Henry Bell Van Rensselaer. {{Cite web|url=https://famouskin.com/pedigree.php?name=124389+jane+wyatt&ahnum=1|title=Jane Wyatt Pedigree Chart | Jane Waddington Wyatt | Ahnentafel No: 1 (124389)|website=famouskin.com}} Wyatt had two sisters and a brother.{{cite news |date=December 10, 1934 |title=Jane Wyatt, Stage Star, In 'Great Expectations' |page=7 |newspaper=The Mason City Globe-Gazette |location=Mason City, Iowa |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2533402/the_mason_city_globegazette/ |access-date=June 1, 2015 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

While in New York City, Wyatt attended Miss Chapin's School, where she had roles as Joan of Arc and as Shylock. She later attended two years of Barnard College. After leaving Barnard, she joined the apprentice school of the Berkshire Playhouse at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where for six months she played a variety of roles.

File:Jane Wyatt in Gentleman's Agreement trailer cropped.jpg]]

File:The Kansan (1943) 2.jpg in The Kansan in 1943]]

One of her first jobs on Broadway was as understudy to Rose Hobart in a production of Trade Winds—a career move that cost her her listing in the New York Social Register (she later was relisted upon her marriage). Receiving favorable notices on Broadway and celebrated for her understated beauty, Wyatt made the transition from stage to screen and was placed under contract by Universal Pictures.

She made her film debut in 1934 in One More River.{{cite web |url=http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/jane-wyatt|title=Jane Wyatt: About This Interview |publisher=Archive of American Television|access-date=February 10, 2012}} In arguably her most famous film role, she co-starred as Ronald Colman's character's love interest in Frank Capra's Columbia Pictures film Lost Horizon (1937). She reflected on Lost Horizon sixty years later in [https://www.franciscanmedia.org/st-anthony-messenger St. Anthony Messenger] magazine:

During the war, they cut out all the pacifist parts of the film—the High Lama talking about peace in the world. All that was cut because they were trying to inspire those G.I.'s to get out there and go "bang! bang! bang!" which sort of ruined the film.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.americancatholic.org/messenger/jun1997/feature2_sidebar.asp |title=Jane Wyatt: Witness to Family Values | date = June 1997 | magazine = St. Anthony Messenger | via = americancatholic.org | access-date = 2015-07-23 | url-status = dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010309191335/http://americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jun1997/feature2_sidebar.asp |archive-date=2001-03-09 }}

File:Charlie Root, Jane Wyatt and Bill Sweeney 1943.jpg manger Charlie Root, Jane Wyatt and Los Angeles Angels manager Bill Sweeney sit atop a pile of baseball equipment donated to members of the United States Armed Forces at military installations in Southern California in 1943]]

Other film appearances included Gentleman's Agreement with Gregory Peck, None but the Lonely Heart with Cary Grant, Boomerang with Dana Andrews, and Our Very Own with Farley Granger. Wyatt co-starred in the crime dramas Pitfall and House by the River, and with Randolph Scott in a Western, Canadian Pacific. She played the wife of Gary Cooper in the war story Task Force.

Her film career suffered due to her outspoken opposition to Senator Joseph McCarthy, the chief figure in the anti-Communist investigations of that era, and was temporarily derailed for having assisted in hosting a performance by the Bolshoi Ballet during the Second World War, though it was at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.{{cite web |url=https://web.engr.illinois.edu/~coolmedia/actor.php?id=2021 |title=Jane Wyatt | website = web.engr.illinois.edu |access-date=July 23, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150723123356/https://web.engr.illinois.edu/~coolmedia/actor.php?id=2021 |archive-date=July 23, 2015 }} Wyatt returned to her roots on the New York stage for a time and appeared in such plays as Lillian Hellman's The Autumn Garden, opposite Fredric March.

For many people, Wyatt is best remembered as Margaret Anderson on Father Knows Best, which aired from 1954 to 1960. She played opposite Robert Young as the devoted wife and mother of the Anderson family in the small town of Springfield. This role won consecutive Emmy Awards for her in 1958, 1959 and 1960 for best actress in a comedy series.{{cite encyclopedia | last1 = Katz | first1 = Ephraim | year = 1979 | title = The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume | publisher = Perigee Books | ISBN = 0-399-50601-2 | page = 1250}} After Father Knows Best, Wyatt guest-starred in several other series.

File:Father Knows Best cast 1954.jpg (front): Lauren Chapin (back) (L-R): Billy Gray, Jane Wyatt, Robert Young and Elinor Donahue in 1954]]

On June 13, 1962, she was cast as the lead in "The Heather Mahoney Story" on NBC's Wagon Train. In 1963, she portrayed Kitty McMullen in "Don't Forget to Say Goodbye" on the ABC drama Going My Way, with Gene Kelly and Leo G. Carroll, a series about the Catholic priesthood in New York City. In 1964 Wyatt appeared as Mrs. Sarah Brynmar on The Virginian in the episode "The Secret of Brynmar Hall". In 1965, Wyatt was cast as Anne White in "The Monkey's Paw – A Retelling" on CBS's The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

Wyatt portrayed Amanda Grayson, Spock's mother and Ambassador Sarek's (Mark Lenard) wife, in the 1967 episode "Journey to Babel" of the original NBC series Star Trek (credited as Miss Jane Wyatt), and the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.{{cite web|title=Star trek: The original series 2.05b – Journey to Babel|work=Cinematic Intelligence Agency|url=http://thecia.com.au/star-trek/original-series/205b.shtml|access-date=October 26, 2006|archive-date=September 9, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909164749/http://thecia.com.au/star-trek/original-series/205b.shtml|url-status=dead}} Wyatt was once quoted as saying her fan mail for these two appearances in this role exceeded that of Lost Horizon.

In 1969, she made a guest appearance on Here Come the Brides, but did not have any scenes with Mark Lenard, who was starring on the show as sawmill owner Aaron Stemple.{{Citation needed|date=February 2019}} Also in 1969, Wyatt appeared as a concerned mother in the first episode of the ABC comedy anthology series Love, American Style in a segment titled "Love and the Pill."

In 1970, Wyatt guest-starred in the episode "Wedding Day?????" (the five question marks being part of the title) in the second season of the TV sitcom The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, which played on ABC (the first season having played on NBC). She portrayed Emily Williams, the mother of Mrs. Muir.{{Citation needed|date=February 2019}}

In 1976, she guest-starred in an episode of Gibbsville, and she appeared as Anna, mother of the Virgin Mary, in the 1978 television film The Nativity. Late in her career, she appeared in a recurring role in the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere, as Katherine Auschlander, wife of hospital administrator Dr. Daniel Auschlander (Norman Lloyd).{{Citation needed|date=February 2019}}

Wyatt was married to investment broker Edgar Bethune Ward{{cite news|last1=McManus|first1=Margaret|title=Television World|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2527181/the_san_bernardino_county_sun/|newspaper=The San Bernardino County Sun|location=San Bernardino, California|date=October 19, 1958|page=22|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = May 31, 2015}} {{Open access}} from November 9, 1935, until his death on November 8, 2000. The couple met in the late 1920s when both were weekend houseguests of Franklin D. Roosevelt at Hyde Park, New York.{{Citation needed |date=January 2022}} they had three children.

Ward later converted to the Catholic faith of his wife. Wyatt suffered a mild stroke in the 1990s but recovered well. She remained in relatively good health for the rest of her long life.{{cite web|url=http://www.today.com/id/15379626/ns/today-today_entertainment/t/actress-jane-wyatt-dies/|title=Actress Jane Wyatt dies at 96|agency=Associated Press|date=October 26, 2006|work=TODAY|access-date=July 23, 2015|archive-date=October 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004055518/http://www.today.com/id/15379626/ns/today-today_entertainment/t/actress-jane-wyatt-dies/|url-status=dead}}

Wyatt died on October 20, 2006, at her home in Bel-Air, California, aged 96.{{cite news|last1=Bernstein|first1=Adam|title=Jane Wyatt, 96|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2006/10/23/jane-wyatt-96/cdeaf6a8-da81-4c1e-b30c-26feee4bc637/|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=October 23, 2006|access-date=June 20, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818125922/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2006/10/23/jane-wyatt-96/cdeaf6a8-da81-4c1e-b30c-26feee4bc637/ |archive-date=August 18, 2020 }} Wyatt's family included three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061107132143/http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/4302/1/217/ Jane Wyatt: Representative of American Liberalism; article by Norman Markowitz], politicalaffairs.net; accessed February 2, 2014.
• [http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/22/janewyatt.obit/index.html "'Father Knows Best' mother Wyatt dead at 96"], CNN.com; accessed February 2, 2014.
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Category:1910 births

Category:2006 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:Actors from Bergen County, New Jersey

Category:Actresses from Manhattan

Category:Actresses from New Jersey

Category:American film actresses

Category:American stage actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:Barnard College alumni

Category:California Democrats

Category:Catholics from New York (state)

Category:Chapin School (Manhattan) alumni

Jane Waddington

Category:New York (state) Democrats

Category:Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Primetime Emmy Award winners

Category:People from Franklin Lakes, New Jersey

Jane Waddington

Jane Waddington