Login
Login

Janis Carter

{{Short description|American actress (1913–1994)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Janis Carter

| image = JanisC.jpg

| caption = Carter in 1940s

| birth_name = Janis Elinore Dremann

| birth_date = {{birth date|1913|10|10|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1994|7|30|1913|10|10}}

| death_place = Durham, North Carolina, U.S.

| resting_place =

| years_active = 1937–1956

| spouse = {{plainlist|

  • {{marriage|Carl Prager|1942|1951|end=divorced}}
  • {{marriage|Julius Stulman|1956}}

}}

| alma_mater = Western Reserve University

}}

Janis Carter (born Janis Elinore Dremann, October 10, 1913 – July 30, 1994) was an American stage and film actress who performed throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s. During the mid-1950s, she began working regularly on television, co-hosting with Bud Collyer the NBC daytime game show Feather Your Nest."Janis Carter; Actress Hosted TV Quiz Show", obituary, Los Angeles Times, August 4, 1994, p. A16. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Ann Arbor, Michigan; subscription access through the University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill.

Early years

File:Janis Carter.jpg in 1945]]

Carter was born Janis Elinore Dremann{{cite book |first=Adrian |last=Room |title=Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins |edition=5th |date=2010 |publisher=McFarland & Company |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-0-7864-5763-2 |page=96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eSIhzKnNUf4C&q=%22Janis+Dremann%22&pg=PA96 |access-date=29 June 2017 |url-access=limited |via=Google Books}} in Cleveland, Ohio.{{cite news |first=Tom |last=Vallance |title=Obituary: Janis Carter |date=5 August 1994 |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-janis-carter-1374732.html |access-date=29 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170629044912/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-janis-carter-1374732.html |archive-date=29 June 2017 |url-status=live}} When she started her professional career, Dremann changed her last name to Carter, because people had trouble pronouncing and spelling Dremann, so she chose her grandmother's maiden name as her new last name.{{cite news |title=Sings 'Easter tidings' |work=The Post-Standard |date=April 7, 1946 |page=31 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12022839/the_poststandard/ |access-date=June 29, 2017 |via=Newspapers.com}}

After initial training as a pianist, Carter changed to singing when she was eight years old. Her elementary and secondary education was provided by schools in East Cleveland, Ohio. After that, she attended Cleveland's Flora Stone Mather College{{Cite book |title=Cleveland: The Making of a City |first=William Ganson |last=Rose |date=August 27, 1990 |publisher=Kent State University Press |location=Kent, Ohio |isbn=978-0-8733-8428-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IT1NVT1vEwUC&q=janis+carter+mather+college&pg=PA921 |access-date= |url-access=limited |via=Google Books}} at Western Reserve University, graduating with two degrees{{snd}}bachelor of arts and bachelor of music. She also participated in dramatics in college.

Career

File:I Love Trouble (1948) 1.jpg and Franchot Tone in I Love Trouble (1948)]] After graduating from college, Carter headed to New York in an attempt to start a career in opera. Although that goal was unsuccessful, she then worked on Broadway, where she was spotted on stage by Darryl F. Zanuck, who signed her to a movie deal. Her Broadway credits included Du Barry Was a Lady (1939), Virginia (1937),{{cite web |title=("Janis Carter" search results) |website=Playbill Vault |url=http://www.playbill.com/searchpage/search?shows=on&people=on&theatres=on&q=Janis+Carter&qasset=00000150-ac80-d16d-a550-ecbe6bb40001 |access-date=30 June 2017}} and Panama Hattie (1940).Morehouse, Ward. "Broadway After Dark." New York Sun, 14 February 1941. (Janis Joyce replacing Carter, "who's gone to Hollywood.")

After moving to Hollywood, she appeared in over 30 films beginning in 1941 for 20th Century Fox, MGM, Columbia, and RKO. She appeared in the films Night Editor (1946) and Framed (1947) with Glenn Ford, and Flying Leathernecks (1951) with John Wayne. After leaving Los Angeles, Carter returned to New York and found work in television in comedies and dramas and as hostess for the quiz show Feather Your Nest opposite Bud Collyer.{{cite book |first=Vincent |last=Terrace |title=Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 |date=2011 |publisher=McFarland & Company |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-0-7864-6477-7 |page=338 |edition=2nd}} {{cite web |last=Kenigsberg |first=Ben |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/person/11427/Janis-Carter/biography |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509093144/http://movies.nytimes.com/person/11427/Janis-Carter/biography |url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-05-09 |title=Movies - The New York Times |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |publisher=Baseline & All Movie Guide |date=2008 |access-date=2016-11-02}} Her last role was in a January 1955 episode of The Elgin Hour.

Personal life and death

Carter married Carl Prager, a musician and composer, in 1942, but they divorced nine years later. She retired from acting in early 1955, after meeting New York lumber and shipping tycoon Julius Stulman; the couple married in 1956. Carter died in 1994, at age 80, from a heart attack in Durham, North Carolina.{{cite news |title=Janis Carter, 80, Actress and TV Host |date=1994-08-02 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/02/obituaries/janis-carter-80-actress-and-tv-host.html |access-date=2016-11-02 |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101103060213/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/02/obituaries/janis-carter-80-actress-and-tv-host.html |archive-date=2010-11-03 |url-status=live}}

Partial filmography

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

}}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

{{Commons}}

  • {{IMDb name}}
  • {{IBDB name}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Janis}}

Category:1913 births

Category:1994 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:20th-century American singers

Category:20th-century American women singers

Category:American film actresses

Category:American stage actresses

Category:American television personalities

Category:Actresses from Cleveland

Category:Case Western Reserve University alumni

Category:American Methodists