Jane Wyatt

Actress

"You have to give an awful lot to be actor. You have to be awfully strong physically, really, it's a tough grind. Because these hours are terribly long. And also the disappointments are so huge. You might be on the top of the heap and then all of the sudden, boom, you don't get another job. It's very hard to take, truly it is."

About This Interview

In her two hour Archive interview, Jane Wyatt (1910-2006) describes her lengthy career in film, stage, and television. She talks about her feature film debut in 1934 in James Whale's One More River and her subsequent film roles in such classics as Frank Capra's Lost Horizon and Elia Kazan's Gentleman's Agreement. She discusses the McCarthy era, in which she found herself on an industry blacklist, unable to work in film. She recalls her television debut on Robert Montgomery Presents in the title role of "Kitty Foyle" (1950) and talks of working in "live" television. Wyatt then details her most memorable and enduring work for television -- on Father Knows Best (1954-63), in which she played the role of wife and mother "Margaret Anderson," a part that won her three consecutive Emmy Awards. She talks of her later television work on Bell Telephone Hour and Hollywood Television Theatre, and recounts her appearance as Mr. Spock's human mother on the series Star Trek (a role she repeated in the feature film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home). Wyatt also describes her memorable recurring role as "Katherine Auschlander" on the medical drama St. Elsewhere. Gary Rutkowski conducted the interview on November 16, 1999 in Los Angeles, CA.

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Submitted by Gilbert Paul Siegmund on Wed, 2013-01-09 20:59.

Please see the comment right before this one--starting with "I really loved the "Father Knows Best" programs. I neglected to enter my name as the author so it went in as anonymous. Gilbert Paul Siegmund 1:00 P.M., PST, 1/9/2013.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2013-01-09 20:50.

I really loved the "Father Knows Best" programs. The writers did an outstanding job, as did all of the players. Jane Wyatt is one of the most beautiful ladies I have ever seen, and I am not referring only to her physical appearance. From what I do know about her, she seems to have been as a precious jewel who was a blessing to all of us who watched her on "Father Knows Best." I must disagree with Billy Gray who appears, in retrospect, to have taken a dim view of the show--calling it a type of "hoax." At least, that is what I read on the internet. I personally think "Father Knows Best" presented a sample of the best of families in the United States of America at that time. I think we can all agree that since the production of "Father Knows Best," fatherhood in the United States of America has taken a nose dive and is still heading for a crash landing. I am not including all fathers, but at the same time all too many. Additionally, I am not setting the blame for this nosedive on just the fathers involved. Given our all too easy divorce laws, our lack of proper appreciation for families, parents, and children together with the degeneration of our morality, coupled with all too many efforts to eradicate the male and female identities (to unisex), is it any wonder that all too many men and women would not be mistaken for the Robert Young role and the Jane Wyatt role of what a father and mother should and could be--yes I realize the show was a Hollywood production and displayed an ideal. Yet, just what ideals are those of today in relation to staying together as a loving couple and having children who have a strong moral foundation and seek to grow up and make a decent contribution to our society and to the world. One is reminded here of Father Patrick Peyton's words, "The family that prays together stays together." Those factors, such as a lot of our technology, were not made to be in charge of our beliefs and behavior, unless we let that happen. We are to master technology and use it in ways that make us a better society and also better individuals. Right now, it seems to be going the other way with respect to family love and unity.

Submitted by murraymae on Sun, 2011-06-05 21:21.

Harsh smarsh. Wonderful career, loved and respected by friends and collegues, Belief in God, died at nearl 100 years old, surrounded by family in Bel Air,, who could ask for more from a life. you go girl.

Submitted by TerryComo2010 on Fri, 2011-01-21 06:39.

@Nationsnotregimes Who is naive! McCarthy was the scum of the earth Same as Hannity, Limbaugh, Cheney!
You are the idiot! She is and was a lovely person. True to herself, not a grandstander like the others.

Submitted by Nationsnotregimes on Sun, 2010-10-31 06:17.

Joseph P. McCarthy

Was a country boy who never understood he was up against a 100% cohisive acient tribe of gangsters.

Jane is extremely naive.

About the World it was her elite bretheren in the East that helpd the enemy aliens destroy US IMO.

She after all is the weaker sex.

She never had to suffer the results what she and her ilk brought forth that is all around US today.

Submitted by moose3400 on Sun, 2010-08-29 19:37.

@mattleemattlee123 what a great observation you make about her smile, and it is so true about the years melting away. Her spirit was bright.

Submitted by mattleemattlee123 on Mon, 2010-08-23 03:33.

What a classy lady. I've been in love with her since seeing her in Lost Horizon. Amazingly, when she smiles the years drop away and that beautiful, youthful face still lights up as it did 7 decades earlier.

They absolutely do not make them like her anymore.

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