Janet Gaynor

Gaynor began her career as an extra in shorts and silent films. After signing with Fox Film Corporation (later 20th Century-Fox) in 1926, she rose to fame and became one of the biggest box office draws of the era. In 1929, she became the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in three films: 7th Heaven (1927), Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) and Street Angel (1928). This was the only occasion an actress won one Oscar for multiple film roles. Gaynor's career success continued into the sound film era, and she achieved notable success in the original version of A Star Is Born (1937), for which she received a second Best Actress Academy Award nomination.


After retiring from acting in 1939, Gaynor married film costume designer Adrian, with whom she had a son. She briefly returned to acting in films and television in the 1950s and later became an accomplished oil painter. In 1980, Gaynor made her Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of the 1971 film Harold and Maude, and appeared in the touring theatrical production of On Golden Pond in February 1982.


On the evening of September 5, 1982, Gaynor sustained multiple injuries when a drunken driver, a former policeman, struck the taxicab in which she and others were passengers. The previous year the same driver was charged with two felonies for using his car as a deadly weapon against a woman motorist, with whom he'd argued over a parking spot, at which time he was placed on informal probation; subsequently, the charges were dropped. In September 1984, Gaynor's injuries sustained in the collision were ruled officially to have caused Gaynor's death.