This month we are learning about “Model Parents” as we learn more about the careers of Jane Wyatt and Robert Young from Father Knows Best and Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont from Leave it to Beaver.
First up is Jane Wyatt. Jane was born in New Jersey in 1910 because her mother, who lived in New York, was at a resort when she was born. The doctor had to come by horse and buggy, so she was born before he got there. Her father was an investment banker on Wall Street, and her mother was a drama critic and playwright. Jane attended Chapin School and after high school enrolled at Barnard College. Halfway through her college studies, she left school to join the apprentice school at the Berkshire Playhouse in Massachusetts. She wanted to be a horse jockey or an actress and after acting throughout her private schooling and college, acting it was.
After working on Broadway for a bit, she was given a contract at Universal, appearing in One More River in 1934. Wyatt said the road to the studio was barely paved and it ran next to a trolley path. Make-up and hair people didn’t come to the studio, so the actors had to hire their own maids who brought their equipment to the studio by trolley.
A year later she married an investment banker, Edgar Bethune Ward, and they were together until his death in 2000. The couple met when they were house guests of Franklin D. Roosevelt at his Hyde Park home.
She would go on to appear in 34 films, the two most famous coming at the end and beginning of her career. She appeared in Lost Horizon in 1937. Later in her career in an interview with St. Anthony Messenger, she said that she felt the movie was ruined because “during the war, they cut out all the pacifist parts of the film—the High Lama talking about peace in the world. All that was cut because they were trying to inspire those GIs to get out there go bang, bang, bang.”
At the end of her career, she took a role in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Wyatt’s career might have looked very different. She was up for the role of Melanie Hamilton on Gone with the Wind, but she didn’t get the part.
During the forties, her film career suffered because she was an outspoken critic of Joseph McCarthy. She said she was able to work in New York but not in California.
Wyatt recalled seeing television for the first time at Benny Goodman’s house. He had this “tiny square thing on his bar,” and they watched a western for a bit and then everyone at the dinner party agreed that it would never amount to anything. Ironically, she ended up becoming well known because of television.
Wyatt began her television career in 1951 on Nash Airflyte Theatre. These drama series kept her employed during the early to mid-fifties. Then in 1954 Wyatt was given the role of Margaret Anderson on Father Knows Best. She would continue with the role until 1960.
Wyatt was a three-time Emmy winner, winning for her role of Margaret Anderson from 1958-1960.
Jane talked about her time on the hit series. She said the shows “were written to be entertaining, but the writers had something to say. Every script always solved a little problem that was universal. It appealed to everyone. I think the world is hankering for a family. People may want to be free, but they still want a nuclear family.”
She admitted to The Washington Post that she got frustrated at times because “she was never seen reading a book or having a hobby . . . for the time, it was okay.” She also felt strongly that Margaret was an equal to Jim intellectually. She recalled an episode when Margaret became a successful fly fisherman.
It sounds like everyone was ready for the show to end. Wyatt said “The first year was pure joy. The second year was when the problems set in. We licked them, and the third year was smooth going. Fatigue began to set in during the fourth year. We got through the fifth year because we all thought it would be the last. The sixth? Pure hell.”
Wyatt did get along with her sitcom husband well. When he passed away in 1998, she said he was “simply one of the finest people to grace our industry.” She went on to say that “though we never socialized off the set, we were together every day for six years, and during that time he never pulled rank and always treated his on-screen family with the same affection and courtesy he showed his loved ones in private life.”
The cast was close. Elinor Donahue said in her Television Academy interview that Jane Wyatt was a friend of hers all her life as was Billy Gray. Jane was the one who disciplined the kids on the set. Elinor never had a nuclear family of her own and never had a typical high school day until she started at Hollywood High while the show was being worked on.
Perhaps part of why they were so close is that they had to endure producer Eugene Rodney and his many rules. Elinor said that Robert Young called him a Benevolent Despot. He wouldn’t allow them to ask to change a line or action. He made everyone who was in the show audition for a part no matter how small it was or how many acting credits they had.
Although Wyatt must have received a lot of fan mail during her time on the series, she later said she received the most fan mail for two other roles: her Star Trek roles.
Though she never joined the cast for another show, she was kept busy for the next three decades. During the sixties you can see her on Wagon Train and Star Trek. Ironically when Gene Roddenberry presented his idea for Star Trek to the network officials, he compared it to a space-themed Wagon Train. These were two of her favorite appearances.
In 1964, she was part of the very first made-for-tv movie, See How They Run. This was about three children who are stalked by hired killers after they unknowingly take evidence pointing to the existence of a corrupt international cartel, which has just murdered their father.
She did another first in the sixties, appearing in Season 1, Episode 1 of Love American Style, “Love and the Pill.”
During the seventies, Wyatt continued her appearances, and you will see her in reruns from The Virginian, Marcus Welby MD, and Medical Center, as well as several made-for-tv movies reunions for Father Knows Best.
The eighties kept her busy in Qunicy, ME; Happy Days; The Love Boat; and St. Elsewhere. Her last role was in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in 1992.
Wyatt began fundraising for the March of Dimes in 1943 and continued with the organization until her death. She also enjoyed gardening and birding with Betty White.
Wyatt was offered the role of Rose in her later years for Titanic in 1997, but she turned it down. In 2006 she died in her sleep from natural causes at home. Her son said her mind was sharp until the end.
Listening to her interview with the Television Academy, it’s obvious she truly loved acting. She discussed how tough of a profession it was with the long hours, the rejections, and the unending preparation.
Fun fact, Jane said there is a Mount Wyatt in Antarctica. Her boyfriend at the time was with Byrd there and Admiral Byrd later sent her a letter telling her that they named the mountain for her.
She said she would like to be remembered as having a happy marriage and family life. She did have to give up some of her acting offers in order to do that well.
Jane Wyatt certainly had a successful marriage, family life, and career. You can’t ask for more than that.
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