Oscar Winner And Falcon Crest Star Jane Wyman Dies In California

She first became known as a movie actress, and then as the original Mrs. Ronald Reagan. She would later go on to win an Academy Award and star for nine years as the chief matriarch on the nighttime soap drama “Falcon Crest.” Jane Wyman, who wore as many hats as she did roles, died in Palm Springs, California Monday.

Wyman first hit the screen in 1937, but she came to international prominence with roles in classics like “The Yearling” and “The Glass Menagerie”. But it was her remarkable performance in 1948’s “Johnny Belinda” that finally made her Oscar worthy. She played the title role, a young deaf mute woman who is raped and becomes pregnant – a somewhat scandalous story for the time. It earned her the Best Actress nod. Her brief acceptance speech has become almost as legendary as the film itself. “I accept this award very gratefully for keeping my mouth shut once,” she said. “I think I’ll do it again.”

That moment in the spotlight came exactly eight years after she married Ronald Reagan, then one of the screen’s biggest male stars. But the fabled union that at the time was billed as Hollywood royalty didn’t last and the duo parted the year “Belinda” was released.

Wyman, whose real name was Sarah Jane Fulks, would go on to other TV and film roles, even as the man who would one day be president took up with his second wife, Nancy Davis. She never talked about their relationship, proving she was a class act both on and off screen. “It’s not because I’m bitter or because I don’t agree with him politically,” she explained. “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.” She eulogized her ex-husband after Reagan died by saying, “America has lost a great president and a great, kind and gentle man.”

A 1950s TV program called “The Jane Wyman Show” had her hosting some dramas. But just when it seemed like her screen time was over, she came back, this time in the role that would introduce her to a new generation of fans. It was as backstabbing, power mad Angela Channing that many younger viewers would see her for the first time on the nighttime series ‘Falcon Crest.’ “She goes straight through everything like a Mack truck,” she laughed about the role.

After the series went off the air in 1983, she went into private retirement and was rarely seen again, except by close friends. But her work – including the movie role where she never uttered a word – speaks for her.

Jane Wyman was 93.

Photo credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images