Home > Jeanne Crain

In 1943 she starred in Home in Indiana , and in 1944 in In the Meantime, Darling . Her acting was critically panned, but she rebounded in the hit Winged Victory . During World War II, Crain's fan mail was second in volume only to that of Betty Grable.

In 1945 she starred in State Fair, and in 1949 in three films, A Letter to Three WivesA Letter to Three Wives is a 1949 film which tells the story of a woman who mails a letter to three women, telling them she has left town with the husband of one of them. It stars Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas and Paul Douglas., The Fan and PinkyPinky is a 1949 film which tells the story of a young lightskinned African American woman passing as white, who becomes torn between the needs of her grandmother and the love of a white doctor. It stars Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore and Ethel Waters., for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best ActressThe Academy Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. The winners are chosen. Pinky was a controversial movie, since it told the story of a girl who passesPassing is a slang term used when a person appears to be someone or something else or makes others believe that they are. It is attributed, generally, to being able to be accepted as a member of the opposite gender a different race or to appear as not hav for white in the northern United States. Although Lena HorneCarl Van Vechten, 1941 Lena Calhoun Horne (born June 30, 1917) is an American popular singer. While she has recorded and performed extensively with jazz musicians (notably Artie Shaw and Teddy Wilson), she is usually not considered a jazz singer because s and other black actresses were considered for the role, Darryl F. ZanuckDarryl Francis Zanuck ( September 5, 1902 December 22, 1979) was one of the major figures in the Hollywood studio system and the longest survivor of that system. He was also a producer, writer, actor and director. Darryl Francis was born in Wahoo, Nebrask chose to cast a white actress for box-office reasons.

In the 1950s, Crain paired up with Cary GrantCary Grant ( January 18, 1904 November 29, 1986) was an English-born American film actor. He was perhaps the foremost exemplar of the debonair leading man, not only handsome, but witty and charming. Born Archibald Alexander Leach in Bristol, he had a conf, for the Joseph L. MankiewiczJoseph Leo Mankiewicz ( February 11, 1909— February 5, 1993) was a Polish- American legendary Hollywood screenwriter, director and producer. He is best known for writing All About Eve. He won four Academy Awards for directing and writing. He was the young production of People Will Talk (1951). Crain then starred in a string of pictures for Universal, including notable pairings with Kirk Douglas, such as Man Without a Star (1955). Crain also showed off her lively dancing abilities in Gentleman Marry Brunettes that same year, co-starring Jane Russell and Rudy Vallee. The production was filmed on location in Paris and Crain's singing in the film was dubbed, as was customary.

Roles became fewer in the 1960s as Crain went into semi-retirement. Crain was captivating as Nefertiti in the 1961 Italian production of Queen of the Nile , with Edmund Purdom and Vincent Price. Her last role was in Skyjacked in 1972.

Against her mother's wishes, Crain married former RKO Studios contract player Paul Brinkman on December 31, 1946; the first of their 7 children was born the following April. During the early 1950s, Crain was earning approx. $3,500 per week. Crain and her husband Brinkman bought a large, lovely home for their growing family on Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills (The home can be seen and is described by Bette Davis in candid footage of a driving sequence in the 1952 now cult-classic, The Star ). The marriage was rocky for some years. Crain obtained an interlocutory divorce decree, each spouse claiming the other had been unfaithful (she also claimed Brinkman had been abusive), but the couple reconciled on the eve of their 11th wedding anniversary.

As a lifelong devout Catholic, Jeanne Crain Brinkman and her husband Paul remained married, though they lived separately in Santa Barbara, California, until Mr. Brinkman's death in October of 2003. Crain passed away a few months later. It was speculated that she died of a broken heart. The couple outlived two of their children. The Brinkmans were survived by five adult children, including, Paul Brinkman, Jr. a successful television executive, most known for his work on CBS TV's "JAG." Crain was also survived by many grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.

Crain's career is fully documented by an extraordinary collection of memorabilia about her assembled by the late Charles J. Finlay (longtime publicist at 20th Century-Fox ). The Jeanne Crain collection resides perpetually at the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives in Middletown, Connecticut. These archives also hold the papers of Frank Capra, Ingrid Bergman, Clint Eastwood, and others.