Lois Wheeler Snow
{{Short description|American actress (1920–2018)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lois Wheeler Snow
| image = Lois Wheeler Snow_resize.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|7|12|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Stockton, California, United States
| death_date = {{death date and age|2018|4|3|1920|7|12|df=yes}}
| death_place = Nyon, Switzerland
| spouse = Edgar Snow
| occupation = Actress
| othername =
| years active = 1943–1959
}}
Lois Wheeler Snow (July 12, 1920 – April 3, 2018) was an American actress who became known for her criticism of abuse of human rights.
Early years
The daughter of Raymond Joseph Wheeler and Katherine Kurtz Wheeler, Snow was born Lois Wheeler on July 12, 1920, in Stockton, California.{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/obituaries/lois-wheeler-snow-dies.html |title=Lois Wheeler Snow, Critic of Human Rights Abuses in China, Dies at 97 |last=Qin |first=Amy |date=2018-04-11 |website=The New York Times |language=en-US |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180415032204/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/obituaries/lois-wheeler-snow-dies.html |archive-date=15 April 2018 |access-date=2019-03-06 |url-status=live }} Her father was Stockton's mayor, and her mother was a homemaker. She remained in Stockton to study drama at the College of the Pacific. While there, she acted with the college's Little Theater troupe{{cite news |title='Our Town' to Be Presented |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26366906/oakland_tribune/ |accessdate=20 December 2018 |work=Oakland Tribune |date=September 17, 1939 |location=California, Oakland |page=22|via = Newspapers.com}} and was "a principal ingenue" for two years.{{cite news |title='Romeo and Juliet' Next for College of Pacific Thespians With 50 Students in Cast |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26367889/oakland_tribune/ |accessdate=20 December 2018 |work=Oakland Tribune |date=January 26, 1941 |location=California, Oakland |page=27|via = Newspapers.com}} She also won the F. Melvyn Lawson Award as the person who "contributed the most to the Little Theater season."{{cite news |last1=Soanes |first1=Wood |title=Critics Differ as to Merits of 'Innocent Voyage,' Setting for Broadway Debut of Stockton Girl |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26368099/oakland_tribune/ |accessdate=20 December 2018 |work=Oakland Tribune |date=December 19, 1943 |location=California, Oakland |page=24|via = Newspapers.com}} Her performance in a college play led to her receiving a scholarship to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City—much to her parents' disappointment.{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Marjory |title=Lois Wheeler's Role in 'Dear Ruth' Won Without Misrepresenting Her Age |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26365930/lois_wheeler/ |accessdate=20 December 2018 |work=The Boston Globe |date=September 22, 1946 |location=Massachusetts, Boston |page=24 A|via = Newspapers.com}} She was also one of the Actors Studio's founding members.
Acting
Snow used her acting talent to obtain her first professional role. Although she had graduated from college, she removed her makeup, wore clothing typical of a teenager, and convinced officials at the Theatre Guild that she was a 15-year-old girl from out of town who wanted to act. The result was the desired role in The Innocent Voyage (1943). Her other Broadway credits include The Fifth Season (1953), Dinosaur Wharf (1951), The Young and Fair (1948), All My Sons (1947), Trio (1944), and Pick-up Girl (1944).{{cite web |title=Lois Wheeler |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/lois-wheeler-64668 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |accessdate=19 December 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219025311/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/lois-wheeler-64668 |archivedate=19 December 2018}} She acted in the touring company of Dear Ruth as well as in its Broadway production.{{cite news |title=County Residents Have Share in New Play |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26367718/the_journal_news/ |accessdate=20 December 2018 |work=The Journal News |date=January 30, 1958 |location=New York, White Plains |page=4|via = Newspapers.com}}
She appeared on film in My Foolish Heart (1949). On television, she portrayed nurse Janet Jackson on The Guiding Light from 1954 to 1958.{{cite news |last1=Fitzgerald |first1=Michael |title=Fitzgerald: The woman who knew Chairman Mao |url=https://www.recordnet.com/news/20180414/fitzgerald-woman-who-knew-chairman-mao |accessdate=19 December 2018 |work=Recordnet.com |date=April 14, 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219033336/https://www.recordnet.com/news/20180414/fitzgerald-woman-who-knew-chairman-mao |archivedate=19 December 2018}}
Relations with China
In 2011, Snow began an essay with the statement, "China became part of my life when I met and married Edgar Snow."{{cite web |last1=Snow |first1=Lois |title=Let the Devil Take the Hindmost |url=http://www.chinafile.com/let-devil-take-hindmost |website=ChinaFile |date=14 May 2011 |publisher=Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society |accessdate=19 December 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180419132745/http://www.chinafile.com/let-devil-take-hindmost |archivedate=19 April 2018}} She first visited China in 1970 with her husband. The couple received a welcome fit for royalty, appearing publicly with Chairman Mao and meeting First Premier Zhou. That meeting was seen by some people as "a back-channel invitation to President Richard Nixon to visit." Mao and Zhou later sent a medical team to the Snows' home in Switzerland after Edgar Snow's health failed. Following his death, she frequently visited China and stayed friendly with the country's leaders.
A turning point in the Snow-China relationship occurred after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Snow told a reporter that the Communist Party's treatment of protesters "just woke me up." She said that she would never return to the country, and she attempted to leverage her late husband's status in China as she wrote to leaders about the effects of their policies on families. After Snow found out that money she had sent to families of victims of oppression had been confiscated, she broke her vow.{{cite news |last1=Turner |first1=Mia |title='Tiananmen Just Woke Me Up' |url=http://edition.cnn.com/ASIANOW/time/features/interviews/int.snow.html |accessdate=19 December 2018 |work=TIME asia |date=2000 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219035303/http://edition.cnn.com/ASIANOW/time/features/interviews/int.snow.html |archivedate=19 December 2018}} In 2000 she went with her son to China, finding a reception much different from her earlier experience. Surveillance followed them, and a group of police officers prevented them from meeting with an activist whose son had been killed during the protests in Tiananmen.
Blacklisting
Allegations of Communist leanings after they were questioned by the FBI led to the Snows' being blacklisted and unable to obtain work in the United States. In 1959, they moved to Switzerland, settling in the Lake Geneva region.{{cite news |title=China critic Lois Wheeler Snow dies in Swiss home |url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/broadway-actress_china-critic-lois-wheeler-snow-dies-in-swiss-home/44041706 |accessdate=19 December 2018 |work=SWI swissinfo.ch |publisher=Swiss Broadcasting Corporation |date=April 12, 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219032258/https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/broadway-actress_china-critic-lois-wheeler-snow-dies-in-swiss-home/44041706 |archivedate=19 December 2018}}
Personal life
She married writer Edgar Snow in May 1949 in Sneeden's Landing, New York.{{cite news |title=Actress Lois Wheeler Wed to Author Snow |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26367535/lois_wheeler_edgar_snow/ |accessdate=20 December 2018 |work=The Miami News |agency=Associated Press |date=June 3, 1949 |location=Florida, Miami |page=6|via = Newspapers.com}}
Death
On April 3, 2018, Snow died at a hospital in Nyon, Switzerland, at age 97.
References
{{Portal|Biography|California|Film|Television|Theater}}
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Category:American film actresses
Category:American stage actresses
Category:American television actresses
Category:Actresses from California