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person_profile-Jan Sterling

Jan Sterling Died at age: 82

Actor | Producer

Fullname:

Jan Sterling

Date of Birth:

Apr 03, 1921

Country of birth:

USA

Died:

Mar 26, 2004

Biography of

Jan Sterling

    Most active in films during the 1950s, Jan Sterling received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The High and the Mighty (1954), and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same performance. Her career declined during the 1960s, however she continued to play occasional roles for television and theatre.

    Sterling was born Jane Sterling Adriance in New York City, into a well-to-do family. She was educated in private schools before heading to Europe with her family. She was schooled by private tutors in London and Paris, and was enrolled in Fay Compton's dramatic school in London.

    As a teenager she returned to Manhattan, and using variations of her given name, such as Jane Adriance and Jane Sterling, began her career by making a Broadway appearance in Bachelor Born, and went on to appear in such major stage works as Panama Hattie, Over 21, and Present Laughter. In 1947, she made her film debut in Tycoon, billed as Jane Darian. Ruth Gordon reportedly insisted she change her stage name and they agreed upon Jan Sterling.

    She played a prominent supporting role in Johnny Belinda (1948). Alternating between films and television, Sterling appeared in several television anthology series during the 1950s, and played film roles in Caged (1950), Mystery Street (1950), The Mating Season (1951), Ace in the Hole (1951), Flesh and Fury (1952), The Human Jungle (1954), and Female on the Beach (1955).

    Often cast as hard and determined characters, she played a more sympathetic character in Sky Full of Moon (1952). In 1950, she was cast as Ruth in the ABC western series The Marshal of Gunsight Pass. The series was telecast live from a primitive studio lot at the Iverson Ranch at Chatsworth, California.

    In 1954 Sterling was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The High and the Mighty. Later that year, she travelled to England to play the role of Julia in the first film version of George Orwell's 1984, despite being several months pregnant at the time. During the following years, she appeared regularly in films such as Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Kathy O, and The Female Animal.

    In late 1968, she began portraying the role of conniving Miss Foss in the long-running CBS soap opera The Guiding Light. She retired from films in favor of the stage in 1969 and returned to television in 1979 to portray Lou Henry Hoover in the miniseries Backstairs at the White House.

    Sterling's marriage to John Merivale ended in divorce, and her career began to decline after the death of her second husband, the actor Paul Douglas, in 1959. In the 1970s, she entered into a long-lasting personal relationship with Sam Wanamaker.

    Jan Sterling died in 2004 in Los Angeles, California, aged 82.

Photos of

Jan Sterling

Photos ( 7 Photos

Filmography of

Jan Sterling

Found 37 Movies in total

Dangerous Company

Ray's Mother ( Actor )

... 1982

First Monday in October

Christine Snow ( Actor )

... 1981

My Kidnapper, My Love

Letty Fairlain ( Actor )

... 1980

Having Babies

Mrs. Fontreil ( Actor )

... 1976

The Minx

Louise Baxter ( Actor )

... 1969

The Angry Breed

Gloria Patton ( Actor )

... 1968

The Incident

Muriel Purvis ( Actor )

... 1967

Love in a Goldfish Bowl

Sandra Slide ( Actor )

... 1961

Kathy O'

Celeste Saunders ( Actor )

... 1958

High School Confidential!

Arlene Williams ( Actor )

... 1958

The Female Animal

Lily Frayne ( Actor )

... 1958

Slaughter on 10th Avenue

Madge Pitts ( Actor )

... 1957

The Harder They Fall

Beth Willis ( Actor )

... 1956

1984

Julia of the Outer Party ( Actor )

... 1956

Man with the Gun

Nelly Bain ( Actor )

... 1955

Female on the Beach

Amy Rawlinson ( Actor )

... 1955

Women's Prison

Brenda Martin ( Actor )

... 1955

The Human Jungle

Mary Abbott ( Actor )

... 1954

Return from the Sea

Frieda ( Actor )

... 1954

The High and the Mighty

Sally McKee ( Actor )

... 1954

Alaska Seas

Nicky Jackson ( Actor )

... 1954

Pony Express

Denny Russell ( Actor )

... 1953

The Vanquished

Rose Slater ( Actor )

... 1953

Split Second

Dorothy 'Dottie' Vale ( Actor )

... 1953

Sky Full of Moon

Dixie Delmar ( Actor )

... 1952

Flesh and Fury

Sonya Bartow ( Actor )

... 1952

Rhubarb

Polly Sickles ( Actor )

... 1951

Ace in the Hole

Lorraine Minosa ( Actor )

... 1951

The Mating Season

Betsy ( Actor )

... 1951

Union Station

Marge Wrighter ( Actor )

... 1950

Gunfire

Flo ( Actor )

... 1950

The Skipper Surprised His Wife

Rita Rossini ( Actor )

... 1950

Mystery Street

Vivian Heldon ( Actor )

... 1950

Caged

Jeta "Smoochie" Kovsky ( Actor )

... 1950

... 1950

Johnny Belinda

Stella McCormick ( Actor )

... 1948

Tycoon

Dancer at Fiesta (uncredited) ( Actor )

... 1947