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Janet Gaynor Biography |
Janet Gaynor (October 6, 1906 - September 14, 1984) was an actress who in 1928 was the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Born Laura Gainor in Philadelphia, her family moved west to San Francisco when she was a child. Upon graduating from high school, Gaynor decided to pursue a career in acting. For two years, she supported herself with odd jobs in Los Angeles while taking minor roles in films. Finally, in 1926, she was cast in the lead role in a silent film called The Johnstown Flood, the same year she was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars. Her outstanding performance won her the attention of producers, who cast her in a series of films.
Within one year, Gaynor was one of Hollywood's leading ladies. Her performances in Seventh Heaven (the first of twelve movies she would make with Charles Farrell) and both Sunrise and Street Angel (in 1927, also with Charles Farrell) earned her the first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1928. It was the only time in Oscar history that this prestigious award was given for multiple roles. The award was given on the basis of the actor's total work over the year, and not just for one particular performance.
Gaynor was one of only a handful of leading ladies who made a successful transition to sound movies over the next decade. In 1937, she was again nominated for an Academy Award, this time for her role in A Star Is Born. Soon after, she left film for almost twenty years, returning one last time in 1957 in Bernardine.
She died in 1984 and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood, California.
Filmography
1926 The Blue Eagle
1926 The Johnstown Flood
1926 The Midnight Kiss
1926 The Return of Peter Grimm
1926 The Shamrock Handicap
1927 Seventh Heaven (Academy Award for Best Actress)
1927 Sunrise (Academy Award for Best Actress)
1927 Two Girls Wanted
1928 Four Devils
1928 Street Angel
1929 Christina
1929 Happy Days
1929 Lucky Star
1929 Sunny Side Up
1930 High Society Blues
1931 Daddy Long Legs
1931 Delicious
1931 The Man Who Came Back
1931 Merely Mary Ann
1932 The First Year
1932 Tess of the Storm Country
1933 Adorable
1933 Paddy the Next Best Thing
1933 State Fair
1934 Carolina
1934 Change of Heart
1934 La Ciudad de Carton
1934 Servant's Entrance
1935 The Farmer Takes a Wife
1935 One More Spring
1936 Ladies in Love
1936 Small Town Girl/One Horse Town
1937 A Star Is Born
1938 Three Loves Has Nancy
1938 The Young in Heart
1957 Bernardine |
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