Janis Wilson | |
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![]() Wilson in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) | |
Born | Janice Mae Wilson February 9, 1930 Santa Barbara, California, U.S. |
Died | November 17, 2003 73) Spokane, Washington, U.S. | (aged
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1942–1948 |
Spouse | Sidney Victor Petertyl (m. 1955) |
Children | 1 |
Janis Mae Wilson (February 9, 1930 – November 17, 2003) was an American child actress of the 1940s. She is probably best known for her roles in Now, Voyager and Watch on the Rhine opposite Bette Davis as well as for the films The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and Snafu .
Born in Santa Barbara, California, twelve-year-old Janis' mother had her dentist put bands on her teeth in order for her to win her first role as Tina Durrance, a little girl rejected and unloved by her mother, in the 1942 Bette Davis drama Now, Voyager . [1] Warner Bros. considered Wilson a “sensational discovery” [2] and due to her fondness for the young actress, Davis persuaded the studio to cast her as her daughter in her next film Watch on the Rhine . [3] Wilson starred in just five more films before retiring at age 18 after appearing in the 1948 horror film The Creeper .
Wilson initially met her future husband Sidney Victor Petertyl on the Warner Bros. lot in 1942 when she was just twelve years old and filming Now, Voyager. [4] They were married in Santa Barbara in 1955 when Janis was 25. The Petertyls had one son and eventually settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan where they lived for 31 years. The family later moved to Spokane, Washington in 1994. In 1996, Wilson stated that she was working on a book about her years as a child actress in Hollywood and her special relationship with Bette Davis. [4] Wilson died of a stroke in Spokane on November 17, 2003.
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical films, suspense horror, and occasional comedies, although her greater successes were in romantic dramas. A recipient of two Academy Awards, she was the first thespian to accrue ten nominations.
Watch on the Rhine is a 1943 American drama film directed by Herman Shumlin and starring Bette Davis and Paul Lukas. The screenplay by Dashiell Hammett is based on the 1941 play Watch on the Rhine by Lillian Hellman. Watch on the Rhine was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and Paul Lukas won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Kurt Muller, a German-born anti-fascist in this film.
Irving Rapper was a British-born American film director.
Now, Voyager is a 1942 American drama film starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains, and directed by Irving Rapper. The screenplay by Casey Robinson is based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Olive Higgins Prouty.
Paul Henreid was an Austrian-British-American actor, director, producer, and writer. He is best remembered for two film roles; Victor Laszlo in Casablanca and Jerry Durrance in Now, Voyager, both released between 1942 and 1943.
George Brent was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor. He is best remembered for the eleven films he made with Bette Davis, which included Jezebel and Dark Victory.
Harold Brent Wallis was an American film producer. He is best known for producing Casablanca (1942), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), and True Grit (1969), along with many other major films for Warner Bros. featuring such film stars as Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Bette Davis, and Errol Flynn. As a producer, he received 19 nominations for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Bonita Gloria Granville Wrather was an American actress and producer.
The Great Lie is a 1941 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding, and starring Bette Davis, George Brent and Mary Astor. The screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee is based on the novel January Heights by Polan Banks.
Beyond the Forest is a 1949 American film noir directed by King Vidor, and featuring Bette Davis, Joseph Cotten, David Brian, and Ruth Roman. The screenplay is written by Lenore J. Coffee based on a novel by Stuart Engstrand.
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is a 1946 American film noir drama directed by Lewis Milestone from a screenplay written by Robert Rossen, based on the short story "Love Lies Bleeding" by playwright John Patrick. Produced by Hal B. Wallis, the film stars Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott and features Kirk Douglas in his film debut.
This is a complete filmography of Bette Davis. Davis began acting in films in 1931, initially as a contract player with Universal Studios, where she made her film debut in Bad Sister. She was initially seen as unappealing by studio executives, and was assigned to a string of B-movies early in her career.
In This Our Life is a 1942 American drama film, the second to be directed by John Huston. The screenplay by Howard Koch is based on the 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Ellen Glasgow. The cast included the established stars Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as sisters and rivals in romance and life. Raoul Walsh also worked as director, taking over when Huston was called away for a war assignment after the United States entered World War II, but he was uncredited. This film was the third of six films that de Havilland and Davis starred in together.
The Old Maid is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding. The screenplay by Casey Robinson is based on the 1935 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by Zoë Akins, which was adapted from the 1924 Edith Wharton novella The Old Maid: the Fifties.
Deception is a 1946 American film noir drama released by Warner Brothers and directed by Irving Rapper. The film is based on the 1927 play Monsieur Lamberthier by Louis Verneuil. The screenplay was written by John Collier and Joseph Than. It stars Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains, who had also appeared together in the highly successful Now, Voyager (1942).
Ernest Jacob Haller, sometimes known as Ernie J. Haller, was an American cinematographer.
Dead Ringer is a 1964 American horror film made by Warner Bros. It was directed by Paul Henreid from a screenplay by Oscar Millard and Albert Beich from the story La Otra by Rian James, previously filmed in a Mexican version starring Dolores del Río. The music score was by André Previn and the cinematography by Ernest Haller. The film stars Bette Davis, Karl Malden and Peter Lawford with Philip Carey, Jean Hagen, George Macready, Estelle Winwood, George Chandler and Cyril Delevanti.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a 1966 American drama film directed by Mike Nichols in his directorial debut. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is an adaptation of Edward Albee's 1962 play of the same name. It stars Elizabeth Taylor as Martha, Richard Burton as George, George Segal as Nick, and Sandy Dennis as Honey. The film depicts a late-night gathering at the home of George, a college history professor, and his wife Martha, the daughter of the university's president. The guests are Nick, a new biology professor at the school, and his wife, Honey.
Of Human Bondage is a 1946 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding. The second screen adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's 1915 novel, this Warner Bros. sanitized version was written by Catherine Turney. The central characters are Philip Carey, a clubfooted medical student, and Mildred Rogers, a low-class waitress with whom he becomes obsessed.
June Bride is a 1948 American comedy film directed by Bretaigne Windust. The screenplay, which was based on the unproduced play Feature for June by Eileen Tighe and Graeme Lorimer, was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Comedy. The film starred Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery. The Warner Bros. release marked the screen debut of Debbie Reynolds, although her appearance was uncredited.