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Jane Wyman, Falconcrest Star and First Wife of Ronald Reagan, Dead at 93
Jane Wyman, who many will remember for her outstanding Oscar winning movie performance in “Johnny Belinda,” but even more will remember her as the tough matriarch of the “Falconcrest” winery, has passed away. What many won’t know is that Ms. Wyman was the first wife of Ronald Reagan and the mother (by adoption) of Michael and Maureen Reagan. Our condolences to Michael Reagan. Maureen passed away of cancer in 2001. Ms. Wyman was a wonderful actress and a very classy lady. May she go with God.
LOS ANGELES — Jane Wyman, Oscar winner as the deaf rape victim in “Johnny Belinda,” star of the long-running TV series “Falcon Crest” and first wife of Ronald Reagan, has died at her desert home. She was 93.
Wyman died Monday morning at her Palm Springs home, said Richard Adney of Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary in Cathedral City. There were no other details immediately available.
Wyman’s film career began with “Gold Diggers of 1937” and ended in 1969 co-starring with Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason in “How to Commit Marriage.” From 1981 to 1990 she played Angela Channing, a Napa Valley winery owner who maintained her power with a steely will on “Falcon Crest.”
Her marriage in 1940 to fellow Warner Bros. contract player Reagan was celebrated in the fan magazines as one of Hollywood’s ideal unions. While he was in uniform during World War II, her career ascended, signaled by her 1946 Academy Award nomination for “The Yearling.”
The couple divorced in 1948, the year she won the award for “Johnny Belinda.” Reagan reportedly cracked to a friend: “Maybe I should name Johnny Belinda as co-respondent.”
After Reagan became governor of California and then president of the United States, Wyman kept a decorous silence about her ex-husband, who had married actress Nancy Davis. In a 1968 newspaper interview, Wyman explained the reason:
“It’s not because I’m bitter or because I don’t agree with him politically. I’ve always been a registered Republican. But it’s bad taste to talk about ex-husbands and ex-wives, that’s all. Also, I don’t know a damn thing about politics.”
A few days after Reagan died on June 5, 2004, Wyman broke her silence, saying: “America has lost a great president and a great, kind and gentle man.”
Jane Wyman seated, surrounded by the cast of “Falconcrest”
I loved Johnny Belinda
Posted by Terrye
09/10/2007 at 03:21 PM
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