AKA Jane Waddington Wyatt

Born: 12-Aug-1910
Birthplace: Campgaw, NJ
Died: 20-Oct-2006
Location of death: Bel Air, CA
Cause of death: unspecified

Gender: Female
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Father Knows Best

Jane Wyatt was raised in an upper-crust New York family and educated in private schools, so her parents were not pleased about her decision to become an actress. Pretty and petite, Wyatt had only six months of dramatic training when she made her Broadway debut at the age of 20. She had been listed in the New York Social Register until then, but when she became a working actress she was promptly de-listed. She soon became a prominent film actress, with credits including the utopian original Lost Horizon, the courtroom drama Boomerang, and the stirring statement against prejudice Gentleman's Agreement.

Wyatt is primarily remembered for playing Margaret Anderson, family matriarch on the long-running situation comedy Father Knows Best. In each week's episode, someone in the family faced an overblown problem, and within half an hour Father (Robert Young) somehow made everything OK, sometimes with help from Mother. Wyatt was the stereotypical suburban housewife, and she was always proud of the program's "family values".

In her later career, she had a recurring part on St. Elsewhere, and her fame was unexpectedly resuscitated when she played Amanda Grayson, Spock's mother on the original Star Trek. Nearly twenty years later, she reprised the role in the film Star Trek IV.

Father: Christopher Billopp Wyatt II (investment banker)
Mother: Euphemia Van Rensselaer Waddington Wyatt (drama critic, b. 1884, m. 1906)
Husband: Edgar Bethune Ward (m. 9-Nov-1935, d. 8-Nov-2000, two sons)
Son: Christopher Billopp Wyatt III
Son: Michael Wyatt
Daughter: Elisabeth Wyatt Russell
Daughter: Monica Wyatt

    High School: Chapin School, New York, NY
    University: Barnard College (dropped out)

    Emmy 1958 for Father Knows Best
    Emmy 1959 for Father Knows Best
    Emmy 1960 for Father Knows Best
    Hollywood Walk of Fame 6356 Hollywood Blvd.

    TELEVISION
    Father Knows Best Margaret Anderson (1954-60)
    St. Elsewhere Katherine Auschlander (1983-88)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    Amityville: The Evil Escapes (12-May-1989)
    Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (26-Nov-1986)
    Katherine (5-Oct-1975)
    My Blue Heaven (15-Sep-1950)
    Our Very Own (27-Jul-1950)
    House by the River (25-Mar-1950)
    Task Force (30-Aug-1949)
    Canadian Pacific (19-May-1949)
    Gentleman's Agreement (11-Nov-1947)
    Boomerang! (28-Apr-1947)
    None But the Lonely Heart (22-Sep-1944)
    Kisses for Breakfast (5-Jul-1941)
    Lost Horizon (2-Mar-1937)

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