Trivia of Jane Wyman

 Trivia of Jane Wyman (5 January 1917 - 10 September 2007)

*When she was age 15, Wyman landed a job as dancer in the chorus of Busby Berkeley's The Kid from Spain (1932) at MGM. Other dancers and unfamiliar actresses on the lot included Lucille Ball, Betty Grable and Paulette Goddard.

*While she did manage to get some work in film, her first 20 appearances on screen went completely uncredited.Her first credited role was Dixie in film Smart Blonde (1937).

*Jack Benny gave Jane her nickname of Minnie Mouse because he believed that she resembled what the Disney character would look life if human.

*While being under contract at Warner Bros, she first met Ronald Reagan, on the set of Brother Rat (1938), in 1938. Wyman was 21, whilst Reagan was 27. The two had been married from 1940, until their divorce in 1949.She gave birth to their daughter, Maureen, in 1941. They later adopted their son, Michael. In 1947, a year before their divorce, they had a daughter, Christine who was born premature and lived only 9 hours.She would never talk about Ronald Reagan in an interview, but voted for him three times and attended his funeral.

*Her breakthrough role was playing a deaf-mute rape victim in Johnny Belinda (1948). Wyman spent over six months preparing for the film which was an enormous hit and won Wyman an Oscar as Best Actress in a Leading Role.She was the first person in the sound era to earn the award without speaking a line of dialogue. In an amusing acceptance speech, perhaps poking fun at some of her long-winded counterparts, Wyman took her statue and said only, "I accept this, very gratefully, for keeping my mouth shut once. I think I'll do it again."

*Wyman earned her another Oscar nomination for her perform in film Magnificent Obsession (1954).This film was an early starring role for Rock Hudson, and, according to Jane Wyman, he was very nervous. Some of his scenes had to be reshot thirty or forty times, but Wyman never said a word. Reportedly, years later at a party, Hudson ran into Wyman and said, "You were nice to me when you didn't have to be, and I want you to know that I thank you and love you for it."

*In 1955-1958, she hosted an anthology series that a format very popular in television's first decade and the equivalent of today's television movies.Most were hosted by men, and Jane Wyman was only the three woman to host an anthology series. The first was Letter to Loretta (1953) (The Loretta Young Show) hosted by Loretta Young and The DuPont Show with June Allyson (1959).