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Monday it was another –
Jane Wyman won an Oscar for her role as a deaf rape victim in the film "Johnny Belinda" and she'll probably be best remembered for her portrayal of a power-mad winery owner in TV's "Falcon Crest." But her greatest distinction may have been refusing to kiss and tell about her love life, most especially her marriage to future president Ronald Reagan. Wyman died early Monday at her Palm Springs home, son Michael Reagan said.
… Her marriage in 1940 to fellow Warner Bros. contract player Ronald 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 Oscar nomination for "The Yearling." She and Reagan divorced in 1948, the year she won an Oscar 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."
There's much more at the link. This is the wreath at her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in front of the souvenir shop with the cheap t-shirts.
There's something about Hollywood and death that just seems right. You can review the death of River Phoenix down at the Viper Room on Sunset, or how John Belushi died at the Chateau Marmont a few years earlier and a few blocks east, or just consult Where the Stars Died if that sort of thing appeals to you. But Hollywood has always been about death and evil and bad things. That's what sells movies.
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