Obituary: Jane Wyatt, 96; Film Actress Also in 'Father Knows Best'

[Penndems]

By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 23, 2006; Page B04

Jane Wyatt, 96, a onetime socialite who specialized in playing well-bred ingenues on stage and film and is best known as the understanding mother in the television sitcom "Father Knows Best," died Oct. 20 at her home in Bel Air, Calif. The family said she died in her sleep but did not give further details.

Ms. Wyatt was dropped from the New York Social Register after becoming an actress, but she later reacquired her standing through marriage. Meanwhile, she enjoyed an active career on the Broadway stage and then in Hollywood.

She appeared in about 30 films, including Frank Capra's "Lost Horizon" (1937), based on James Hilton's novel about a Himalayan nirvana called Shangri-La, and "None But the Lonely Heart" (1944), in which she was a gentle musician who cared for Cary Grant's cockney ne'er-do-well.

Her name is probably familiar to a generation of television watchers because of "Father Knows Best," which aired from 1954 to 1960, in reruns for three more years and in endless syndication after that.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/22/AR2006102200683.html

[rurallib]

1. Formerly "Mrs. Ronald Reagan"

[Penndems]

3. Nope - that was Jane WYMAN

This is Jane Wyatt, the actress who portrayed Margaret Anderson on "Father Knows Best".

[rurallib]

4. Mea culpa. My error

I shall give myself a proper thrashing and a water-boarding.
Well, if your going to fuck up make it a good one.

[Penndems]

5. No mea culpa necessary

The two actresses get mixed up all the time. :hi:

[Sal Minella]

15. Upton Sinclair Lewis wrote roles for both of them, I believe. eom

[kskiska]

16. Upton Sinclair Lewis?

Aren't those two different guys?

[Sal Minella]

39. It was supposed to be a joke. Conflating Upton Sinclair and

Sinclair Lewis. Like the posters were conflating Wyatt and Wyman. I thought I was being funny. Good thing I never tried a career as a stand-up.

And then posted this answer in the wrong place. Maybe I'll take up crochet.

[kskiska]

40. No sweat

I figured there was an outside chance it was a joke. Sometimes my sarcasm doesn't get through, either. :shrug:

[Sal Minella]

38. It was supposed to be a joke. Conflating Upton Sinclair and

Sinclair Lewis. Like the posters were conflating Wyatt and Wyman. I thought I was being funny. Good thing I never tried a career as a stand-up.

[babylonsister]

2. Oops! nt

[Megahurtz]

35. Hahaha!

Sounds like we're all confused!

[MikeNearMcChord]

6. Didn't she also played the woman who

translated the Jive talk, in the movie Airplane? That was a funny scene.

[greccogirl]

7. No.

That was Barbara Billingsley, the "beave's" Mom.

[Penndems]

11. Both Jane Wyatt and Barbara Billingsley were in that movie, though,

weren't they?

It's been a while since I've seen that flick.

[greccogirl]

30. No, I believe

Only Barbara Billingsley. I don't think Jane Wyatt was in Airplane.

[Penndems]

10. LOL! She sure did - Jeez, I'd completely forgotten about that!

Jane Wyman and Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver). "Excuse me, Stewardess, but I speak jive."

Bwhahahahaha! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Ms. Wyman also played the mother of Mr. Spock in one of the "Star Trek" movies.

[TheDebbieDee]

13. Jane Wyatt played Spock's Mother.....

Jane Wyman played Angela on Falcon Crest..........

Also, neither Jane was in the Airplane movie....

http://imdb.com/title/tt0080339/fullcredits

[Penndems]

26. Ah . . . I should've checked IMDB first

Could've sworn Ms. Wyatt was in "Airplane!"

Mea culpa, too. :(

[greccogirl]

8. Not only that

she was Spock's mama.

[dougkeenan]

9. What a beautiful woman.

Another star joins the heavens.

[greccogirl]

31. She was even beautiful playing

Spock's mother. I will miss her.

[aquart]

12. She spoke out against Joe McCarthy. God bless her.

She was blacklisted out of the movies. I didn't know. CBS just said so.

[Graybeard]

14. Target of the McCarthy "red-scare"...

...she spoke out against the House Un-American Activities
Committee. A devout Catholic she was married to the same man
for 65 years until his death.

Cast as Mr. Spock's mother in the 1967 episode of Star Trek,
"Journey To Babel"
 and again in the movie, Star Trek IV - 1986.

Rest in peace, dear lady. 

[CBHagman]

29. I was unfamiliar with her politics!

Here's a snippet from the WP obit:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/22/AR2006102200683.html

She later said her work dried up in the early 1950s because of her association with a group of politically liberal actors campaigning against the anti-Communist blacklist, including Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart. She said that she was never a Communist and that the worst label that anyone applied to her was "prematurely anti-fascist."

I suppose that technically she was graylisted, much as actor/director Paul Henreid was, due to her liberal politics.

One thing I didn't remember about Ms. Wyatt was that she was part of the cast of Elia Kazan's film Gentleman's Agreement, which took on the issue of anti-Semitism.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039416/

[Lautremont]

17. This thread is a cavalcade of hilarious trivia errors

and sundry misspellings.

A long life, and from the sounds of it well lived.

[REP]

21. Hell, I Confused Her with Ruth Warrick!

Fortunately, I held myself from posting my incorrect trivia (Warrick went to my high school - Wyman did not!)

[Gidney N Cloyd]

25. Which one played the wife in the Magnificent Ambersons?

[Penndems]

28. Agnes Moorehead and Anne Baxter had the two female leads

n/t

[Gidney N Cloyd]

36. I was continuing the trivia errors string (Ruth Warrick was in Citizen Kane)

[SoCalDem]

22. Said like a true admirer of Upton Sinclair Meriweather Lewis

:evilgrin:

[Penndems]

27. Lautremont, we aim to please, ya know?

;)

n/t

[seriousstan]

18. May God bless

[Gidney N Cloyd]

19. RIP Jane Wyatt but "Father Knows Best" was the CREEPIEST sitcom ever.

There was just something... not right... about it.

[SoCalDem]

23. Jim was an odd duck, wasn't he?

:)

[greccogirl]

32. You're kidding me,

right? I loved it. It was very much how things were in many families then.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

37. Not kidding at all.

They were blander than the Donna Reed Show "family," stiffer than "My Three Sons" and whiter than the Nelsons (thanks only to damn Ricky with his rock and roll).

[greccogirl]

41. I loved them

and the show.

[Raine]

20. R-I-P Jane

the heavens are brighter with your added star.

[LostinVA]

24. Loved her in "Father Knows Best"

I had no idea she was quite that old!

[Frank Cannon]

33. She was terrific as Spock's human mother in Star Trek

Sounds like she indeed had "peace and long life". She will be sorely missed.

[LostinVA]

34. I know!