Jean Hagen

Jean Hagen
from the trailer for the film Singin' in the Rain (1952).
Born	Jean Shirley Verhagen (1923-08-03)August 3, 1923 Chicago, Illinois
Died	August 29, 1977(1977-08-29) (aged 54) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1945–1977
Spouse(s)	Tom Seidel (m. 1947–1965; divorced) 2 children

Jean Hagen (August 3, 1923 – August 29, 1977) was an American film actress.

Early life

Hagen was born as Jean Shirley Verhagen in Chicago, to Christian Verhagen (born August 10, 1890 – died April 1983), a Dutch immigrant, and his Chicago-born wife, Marie. The family moved to Elkhart, Indiana when she was 12, and she subsequently graduated from Elkhart High School. She studied drama at Northwestern University and worked as a theater usherette before making her Broadway theatre debut in Another Part of the Forest in 1946. On Broadway, she was understudy for Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday.

Career

Hagen in her debut film, Adam's Rib (1949)

Her film debut was as a femme fatale in Adam's Rib in 1949. The Asphalt Jungle (1950) provided Hagen with her first starring role beside Sterling Hayden and excellent reviews. She appeared in the film noir Side Street (1950) playing a gangster's sincere, but none-too-bright, gun moll. She is arguably best remembered for her comic performance in Singin' in the Rain as the vain and talentless silent movie star Lina Lamont; Hagen received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

By 1953, she had joined the cast of the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy. As the first wife of Danny Thomas, Hagen received three Emmy Award nominations, but after three seasons she grew dissatisfied and left the series. Thomas, who also produced the show, reportedly didn't appreciate Jean's departing the successful series, and her character was killed off rather than recast.^{[citation needed]} This was the first TV character to be killed off in a family sitcom.^{[citation needed]} Marjorie Lord was cast a year later as Danny's second wife and played opposite Thomas successfully for several seasons. Hagen starred in the 1957 Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Season 3, Episode 7, entitled "Enough Rope for Two". She appeared as Frida Daniels in The Shaggy Dog starring with Fred MacMurray. In 1960, she appeared as "Elizabeth" in the episode "Once Upon a Knight" of CBS's anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson.

Although she made frequent guest appearances in various television series, she was unable to successfully resume her film career, and for the remainder of her career she played supporting roles, such as Marguerite LeHand, personal secretary to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello (1960), as the title character in season 2, episode 3 of The Andy Griffith Show titled "Andy and the Woman Speeder" (1961), and the friend of Bette Davis in Dead Ringer (1964). In the 1960s, Hagen's health began to decline and she spent many years hospitalised or under medical care.

In 1976, she made a comeback of sorts playing character roles in episodes of the television series Starsky and Hutch and The Streets of San Francisco and made her final film appearance in the 1977 television movie Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn.

Personal life and death

Jean Hagen married Tom Seidel on June 12, 1947 in Brentwood. They had 2 children, Aric Phillip (born August 1950) and Christine (born May 16, 1952). After a marriage full of domestic violence, she divorced Seidel on November 1, 1965 in Los Angeles. Hagen died of esophageal cancer on August 29, 1977, she is buried in Chapel of the Pines Crematory and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to television, at 1502 Vine Street.

Filmography

Film	Year	Role	Notes
Adam's Rib	1949	Beryl Caighn	film debut. National Film Registry
The Asphalt Jungle	1950	Doll Conovan	National Film Registry
Side Street	1950	Hariette Sinton
Singin' in the Rain	1952	Lina Lamont	nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. National Film Registry. Selected by AFI as Best Movie Musical. National Film Registry
Latin Lovers	1953	Anne Kellwood
The Big Knife	1955	Connie Bliss
The Shaggy Dog	1959	Freeda Daniels	Later remade
Sunrise at Campobello	1960	Marguerite "Missy" LeHand
Panic in Year Zero	1962	Ann Baldwin
Dead Ringer	1964	Dede Marshall	last film

Television appearances

Television series	Role	Year	Notes
Make Room for Daddy	Margaret Williams	117 (3 seasons) 1953–1956	later called The Danny Thomas Show; first family sitcom character to be killed off

References

TV, 1957, Madge Griffin, "Enough Rope for Two", Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

External links

• Jean Hagen at the Internet Movie Database
• Jean Hagen at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jean Hagen at Find a Grave