Biography
Born Laura Gainor on 6 October 1906 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and passing away on 14 September 1984 in Palm Springs, California, USA, Janet Gaynor set her sights early on a screen career. She began as an extra in Hollywood, appeared in several Hal Roach comedies, and secured a contract with Fox in 1926. Named a WAMPAS Baby Star that same year by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, she completed a string of pictures between 1926 and 1929, among them the silent features Seventh Heaven and Sunrise, both released in 1927, and the part-talkie Street Angel in 1928. These three productions together earned her the first Academy Award presented for Best Actress. Her popularity surged rapidly, establishing her as Hollywood’s top box-office attraction of the period. After departing Fox she sustained that success, starring for David O. Selznick in the restrained, non-musical 1937 adaptation A Star Is Born, which brought another Academy Award nomination, and in the equally well-received The Young In Heart the following year. In 1939 she entered her second marriage and withdrew from motion pictures. During the late 1950s she made sporadic radio and television appearances and returned briefly to the screen in Bernadine, the 1957 release headlined by Pat Boone. Painting occupied much of her later time, culminating in a 1976 exhibition of her work in New York. She served as a presenter at the Academy Awards in the early 1950s and again in the 1970s, and in 1978 received a special Academy Award of her own. On Broadway in 1980 she and Keith McDermott portrayed the central couple in Harold And Maude; following twenty-one previews in January and early February the production opened on 7 February yet shuttered after only four performances two days later. She accepted a guest role in a 1981 episode of the television series The Love Boat but otherwise remained out of the public eye. Her death resulted from injuries received in a traffic accident two years before.