Janet Gaynor

Janet Gaynor (October 6, 1906 – September 14, 1984) was an American actress.

One of the most popular actresses of the silent film era, in 1928 Gaynor became the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in three films: Seventh Heaven (1927), Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) and Street Angel (1928). This was the only occasion on which an actress has won for multiple roles. This rule would be changed three years later by AMPAS. Her career continued with the advent of sound film, and she achieved a notable success in the original version of A Star Is Born (1937).

She worked only sporadically after the late 1930s. Severely injured in a 1982 vehicle collision, the incident contributed to her death two years later.

Early life

Born Laura Augusta Gainor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, her family moved west to San Francisco during her childhood. When she graduated from high school in 1923, Gaynor decided to pursue an acting career. She moved to Los Angeles, where she supported herself working in a shoe store, receiving $18 per week (2009: $230).

She managed to land unbilled small parts in several feature films and comedy shorts for two years. Finally, in 1926, at the age of 20, she was cast in the lead role in The Johnstown Flood (1926), the same year she was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars (withJoan Crawford, Dolores del Río and others). Her outstanding performance won her the attention of producers, who cast her in a series of films.

Rising career

Within a year, Gaynor was one of Hollywood's leading ladies. Her performances in Seventh Heaven (the first of twelve movies she would make with actor Charles Farrell) and both Sunrise, directed by F. W. Murnau, and Street Angel (in 1927, also with Charles Farrell) earned her the first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1928. At the time, the award was awarded for multiple roles: it was given on the basis of the actor's total work over the year, and not just for one particular performance. Gaynor was not only the first, but until 1986 (when Marlee Matlin won her Oscar), she was also the youngest actress to win an Academy Award for Best Actress. At the time of their respective wins, Gaynor was 22 years old and Matlin was 21 years old.

Gaynor was one of only a handful of leading ladies who made a successful transition to sound films. For a number of years, Gaynor was the Fox studios foremost actress and was given the choice of prime roles, starring in such films as Delicious (1931), Merely Mary Ann (also 1931) and Adorable (1933). However, when Darryl F. Zanuck merged his fledgling studio, 20th Century Pictures, with Fox Film Corporation to formTwentieth Century Fox, her status became precarious and even tertiary to that of actresses Loretta Young and Shirley Temple. She managed to terminate her contract with the studio and achieved acclaim in films produced by David O. Selznick in the mid-1930s.

In 1937, she was again nominated for an Academy Award, this time for her role in A Star Is Born. After appearing in The Young in Heart, she left film industry for nearly twenty years, returning one last time in 1957 as Pat Boone's mother in Bernardine.

In 1939, she played Baroness Mary Vetsera in the Lux Radio Theater episode of January 1, 1939 - Mayerling.

Later life and death

Gaynor's gravestone

Gaynor was married to producer Paul Gregory from December 24, 1964 to her death on September 14, 1984. Previous marriages were to Jesse Lydell Peck from September 11, 1929 to April 7, 1933, and to MGM costume designer Adrian from August 14, 1939 to his death on September 13, 1959. Gaynor had one son with Adrian, Robin Gaynor Adrian, born in 1940.

Gaynor was close friends with actress Mary Martin, with whom she frequently travelled. A Brazilianpress report noted that Gaynor and Martin briefly lived with their respective husbands in the state of Goiás in the 1950s and 1960s.

She died on September 14, 1984, at the age of 77, due largely to the aftermath of a traffic accident in San Francisco two years earlier; specifically, her death resulted from complications following several operations. In the accident, a driver named Robert Cato ran a red light at the corner of California Street and Franklin and crashed into her Luxor taxicab. The crash killed Mary Martin's manager Ben Washer and injured the other passengers, including Gaynor's husband Paul Gregory, as well as her close, long-time friend, Mary Martin. Gaynor was in serious condition with eleven broken ribs, a fractured collarbone, pelvic fractures, an injured bladder and a damaged kidney. The drunk driver of the van, Robert Cato, was sentenced to a three-year prison term for drunken driving and vehicle manslaughter in the accident.

She was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California next to her second husband Adrian, but her stone reads "Janet Gaynor Gregory" in tribute to her third husband, producer and director Paul Gregory. Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame can be found at 6284 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

Features

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1924	Cupid's Rustler		uncredited
	Young Ideas		uncredited
1925	Dangerous Innocence	uncredited
	The Burning Trail		uncredited
	The Teaser		uncredited
	The Plastic Age		uncredited
1926	A Punch in the Nose	Bathing Beauty	uncredited
	The Beautiful Cheat		uncredited
	The Johnstown Flood	Anna Burger
	Oh What a Nurse!		uncredited
	Skinner's Dress Suit		uncredited
	The Shamrock Handicap	Lady Sheila O'Hara
	The Galloping Cowboy		uncredited
	The Man in the Saddle		uncredited
	The Blue Eagle	Rose Kelly
	The Midnight Kiss	Mildred Hastings
	The Return of Peter Grimm	Catherine
	Lazy Lightning		uncredited
	The Stolen Ranch		uncredited
1927	Two Girls Wanted	Marianna Wright
	Seventh Heaven	Diane	Academy Award for Best Actress
	Sunrise	The Wife - Indre	Academy Award for Best Actress
1928	Street Angel	Angela	Academy Award for Best Actress
	4 Devils	Marion	lost film
1929	Lucky Star	Mary Tucker
	Happy Days	Herself
	Christina	Christina
	Sunny Side Up	Mary Carr
1930	High Society Blues	Eleanor Divine
1931	The Man Who Came Back	Angie Randolph
	Daddy Long Legs	Judy Abbott
	Merely Mary Ann	Mary Ann
	Delicious	Heather Gordon
1932	The First Year	Grace Livingston
	Tess of the Storm Country	Tess Howland
1933	State Fair	Margy Frake
	Adorable	Princess Marie Christine, aka Mitzi
	Paddy the Next Best Thing	Paddy Adair
1934	Carolina	Joanna Tate
	The Cardboard City	Herself	Cameo
	Change of Heart	Catherine Furness
	Servants' Entrance	Hedda Nilsson aka Helga Brand
1935	One More Spring	Elizabeth Cheney
	The Farmer Takes a Wife	Molly Larkins
1936	Small Town Girl	Katherine 'Kay' Brannan
	Ladies in Love	Martha Kerenye
1937	A Star Is Born	Esther Victoria Blodgett, aka Vicki Lester	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress
1938	Three Loves Has Nancy	Nancy Briggs
	The Young in Heart	George-Anne Carleton
1957	Bernardine	Mrs. Ruth Wilson

Short Subjects

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1924	All Wet		uncredited
1925	The Haunted Honeymoon		uncredited
	The Crook Buster		uncredited
1926	WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1926	Herself
	Ridin' for Love		uncredited
	Fade Away Foster		uncredited
	The Fire Barrier		uncredited
	Don't Shoot		uncredited
	Pep of the Lazy J	June Adams	uncredited
	Martin of the Mounted		uncredited
	45 Minutes from Hollywood		uncredited
1927	The Horse Trader		uncredited
1941	Meet the Stars #2: Baby Stars	Herself

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