June 10, 2022
Actress Jane Wyman enjoyed a long and illustrious Hollywood career that spanned more than seven decades. An award-winning performer, Wyman is one of the leading ladies of the Golden Age of Hollywood. But she was also noted as being the first former wife of a U.S. president who was still living when that president took the oath of office. That’s a rather confusing distinction, but don’t worry. We will hash it out.
In these colorized photos, we will also take a closer look at the career of Jane Wyman who used her talents to work her way up from bit parts and B movies to achieve stardom. Along the way, she earned an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards.
Jane Wyman’s Early Days
When she was born on January 5, 1917, Wyman’s birth certificate read Sarah Jane Mayfield. Her parents divorced when she was young and she tried to help her mother by working odd jobs. In 1932, when she was just 15, she left home and moved to Hollywood. She worked as a switchboard operator while she tried to break into show business. It didn’t take long. Soon she landed small roles in films like The Kid from Spain, Gold Diggers of 1933, All the King’s Horses, Rumba, and King of Burlesque. By 1936, she was under contract with Warner Bros. During this time, she married and divorce her first husband, Ernest Wyman, but she kept his last name to use as her professional name.
Wyman went on to appear in numerous films for Warner Bros. as well as a string of “B” movies. In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, Wyman transitioned into dramatic roles and took on leading lady status. Her breakout role was in the 1948 film Johnny Belinda. In this movie, she played a deaf-mute rape victim. She won critical acclaim for this performance – as well as an Oscar Award. In fact, she was the first person in Hollywood’s sound era to win an Oscar without uttering a single line.
Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman
While filming Brother Rat in 1938, a “B” movie in which she had the female lead, Wyman met her co-star Ronald Reagan. By this time, Wyman had been twice married and twice divorced. Following her relationship with Ernest Wyman, she married Myron Futterman for a short time. Wyman and Reagan started a relationship that only grew stronger when the pair was cast in the sequel to Brother Rat, the 1940 film, Brother Rat and a Baby. Ronald Reagan proposed to Wyman at the Chicago Theatre and the couple wed on January 26, 1940, in Glendale, California. The couple had a daughter, Maureen, a daughter Christine who died shortly after birth, and an adopted son, Michael.
Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan, and Politics
Jane Wyman was always interested in politics and was a registered Republican her whole adult life. During her marriage to Ronald Reagan, Reagan was a Hollywood Democrat. He campaigned for Harry S. Truman. He served on left-wing committees and spoke out against Republican values. Wyman couldn’t align herself with Reagan’s Democratic beliefs. After nine years of marriage, she filed for divorce. She later married and divorced two more times. Although she cited political differences for the breakup of her marriage to Ronald Reagan, in truth, she later admitted, she simply didn’t like to be married. She enjoyed the romance and companionship, but she didn’t like to feel like a non-entity.
A Divorced President
As we know, Ronald Reagan had a political turn-around and became a staunch Republican. He found that his conservative views were more in line with the Republican Party. His decision to switch sides was also greatly influenced by his new love, Nancy Davis, who was a Republican. Reagan famously explained, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The party left me.”
As Reagan’s interest in politics grew and he became a rising star in the Republican Party, his divorce from Jane Wyman became a bit of an issue. Divorce was still somewhat frowned upon, even into the 1970s. When Ronald Reagan was elected the President of the United States in 1980, he became the first person who had been divorced to take the oath of office. Donald Trump is the only other divorced president.
A Former Wife of a U.S. President
When Reagan took office, Jane Wyman became the first former wife of a U.S. president who was still living when that president took the oath of office. There were several other presidents who were married more than once, but they were all widowers. There were no living former wives of presidents before Jane Wyman.
You have to give Jane Wyman credit for her classy approach to her ex-husband’s presidential campaign. She remained largely silent. When pressed by the media, she explained, “It’s bad taste to talk about former husbands and former wives.” Wyman’s former personal assistant revealed that Wyman voted for Ronald Reagan in both the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections and supported his policies.
Wyman’s Television Career
While her former husband was entrenched in the Oval Office, Jane Wyman continued her stellar career by landing the role of the villainous matriarch on the prime-time television soap opera, Falcon Crest, a role she maintained for nine seasons. For this role, she earned a Golden Globe and was nominated for a Soap Opera Digest Award six times. She continued to make guest appearances in TV shows, including Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, throughout the 1990s before retiring to her home in Rancho Mirage, California. She died in her sleep in 2007 at the age of 90.