Jane Withers obit

Jane Withers, child star and ‘Giant’ actress with James Dean, dead at 95

 

 She was not on the list.

Jane Withers, a Hollywood golden age child star with Shirley Temple and veteran character actress opposite Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, died Saturday night at her home in Burbank, California. She was 95.

The Atlanta native’s death was confirmed by her daughter Kendall Errair.

“My mother was such a special lady,” Errair said in a statement via Deadline. “She lit up a room with her laughter, but she especially radiated joy and thankfulness when talking about the career she so loved and how lucky she was.”

Growing up, Withers was a natural performer, taking singing and dancing lessons by the age of 3 — and by the age of 4 she had her own radio program in her hometown, according to her IMDB profile.

When Jane was two, Ruth enrolled her in a tap dance school, and also taught her to sing. Jane launched her entertainment career at the age of three after winning a local amateur contest called Dixie's Dainty Dewdrop. She was cast on Aunt Sally's Kiddie Revue, a Saturday-morning children's program broadcast on WGST radio in Atlanta, in which she sang, danced, and did impersonations of notable film stars including W. C. Fields, ZaSu Pitts, Maurice Chevalier, Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, and Greta Garbo. At age 3 ½ she had her own radio show called Dixie's Dainty Dewdrop, where she also interviewed celebrities who were visiting Atlanta.

Her breakout role came in 1934 at the age of 8, when she starred alongside Hollywood’s box office golden child Shirley Temple in “Bright Eyes.” Her role as the antagonist to ringlet-topped Temple propelled her to childhood stardom and earned her a seven-year contract with 20th-Century Fox.

Her offbeat, irreverent non-child-star-style generated a string of starring roles in “Ginger” [1935], “This is the Life” [1935], “Paddy O’Day” [1936], “Pepper” [1936] and “Angel’s Holiday” [1937].

Withers made her transition from childhood scene-stealer to teenage ingenue before the 1940s, with her first on-screen kiss coming in the 1939 film “Boy Friend.” After completing her contract with Fox in 1942, she signed a three-year contract with Republic Pictures, where her stardom waned.

She married wealthy Texas oil baron William Moss in 1947, and had two children in the short-lived marriage. They divorced in 1953.

In 1955, Withers remarried to Kenneth Errair, a musical performer. The couple had three children together.

Withers launched a major big screen comeback in 1956, starring opposite James Dean, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor in acclaimed filmmaker George Stevens’ epic oil-rig soap opera “Giant,” an adaptation of the best-selling Edna Ferber novel.

She also worked in touring productions of the classic Broadway musicals “Mame,” “Hello, Dolly!” and “No, No, Nanette” while raising her family. However, she may have reached her widest audience away from the big screen on television, where she was known as Josephine the Plumber on Comet Cleanser commercials for a generation of viewers in the 1960s.

She would later make small screen guest appearances on ’70s and ’80s TV shows such as “The Munsters,” “The Love Boat,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Hart to Hart.”

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Withers also did voice-over acting for Disney films such as “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and its sequel.

Filmography

Film Year             Title       Role       Notes

1932      Handle with Care              Girl at puppet show        Uncredited

1933      Cavalcade                            Uncredited

Zoo in Budapest                Little girl at zoo Uncredited

1934      Tailspin Tommy                 Little girl at premiere      Uncredited

Imitation of Life                Peola's front-row classmate         Uncredited

Kid Millions                         Uncredited

It's a Gift              Girl playing hopscotch    Uncredited

Bright Eyes          Joy Smythe        

1935      The Good Fairy Child in orphanage          Uncredited

Ginger   Ginger  

The Farmer Takes a Wife               Della     

Redheads on Parade       Young girl            Uncredited

This Is the Life    Geraldine Revier              

1936      Paddy O'Day       Paddy O'Day      

Gentle Julia         Florence Atwater            

Little Miss Nobody           Judy Devlin        

Pepper Pepper Jolly       

1937      The Holy Terror                 Corky Wallace   

Angel's Holiday June "Angel" Everett      

Wild and Woolly               Arnette Flynn    

Can This Be Dixie?            Peg Gurgle         

45 Fathers           Judith Frazier    

Checkers              Checkers Judy   

1938      Rascals Gypsy   

Keep Smiling      Jane Rand           

Always in Trouble             Jerry Darlington               

1939      The Arizona Wildcat        Mary Jane Patterson      

Boy Friend           Sally Murphy     

Chicken Wagon Family   Addie Fippany   

Pack Up Your Troubles   Colette

1940      High School         Jane Wallace     

Shooting High    Jane Pritchard   

The Girl from Avenue A Jane      

Youth Will Be Served      Edie May             

1941      Golden Hoofs     Jane Drake         

Her First Beau    Penny Wood     

A Very Young Lady           Kitty Russell       

Small Town Deb                Patricia Randall Wrote screenplay under the pseudonym Jerrie Walters

1942      Young America Jane Campbell  

The Mad Martindales     Kathy Martindale            

Johnny Doughboy            Ann / Penny      

1943      The North Star   Claudia

1944      My Best Gal        Kitty O'Hara       

Faces in the Fog                Mary Elliott        

1946      Affairs of Geraldine         Geraldine Cooper            

1947      Danger Street    Pat Marvin         

1956      Giant     Vashti Snythe    

1958      The Heart Is a Rebel        Grace   

1961      The Right Approach         Liz          

1963      Captain Newman, M.D. Lt. Grace Blodgett           

1996      The Hunchback of Notre Dame   Laverne                Voice

2002      The Hunchback of Notre Dame II               Laverne                Voice; final film role

Sources:

Short subjects Year          Title       Notes

1939      Hollywood Hobbies        

1940      Meet the Stars: Chinese Garden Festival               

1941      Meet the Stars: Stars at Play       

Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 2             

1942      Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 4             

Picture People No. 6: Hollywood War Efforts       

1945      Screen Snapshots: Fashions and Rodeo  

1956      Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Small Fry

Television Year Title       Role       Episode

1949      The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre                         "Everybody Loves My Baby"

1959      The United States Steel Hour                      "The Pink Burro"

1961      Malibu Run                         Episode: "The Frankie Adventure"

General Electric Theater                                "A Possibility of Oil"

1962      General Electric Theater                Betty Hamilton "A Very Special Friend"

Pete and Gladys                Wilma   "Go Help Friends"

Bachelor Father                                Episode: "Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight"

1964      The Alfred Hitchcock Hour                            Episode: "How to Get Rid of Your Wife"

Summer Playhouse         Billie      "The Apartment House"

The Munsters                    Episode: "Pike's Pique"

1966      The Munsters                   

1975      All Together Now             Helen Drummond           

1980      The Love Boat                    Episode: "Peekaboo and September Song"

1982      Whatever Became Of…?                                Reality TV pilot

1984      Murder, She Wrote                         2 episodes

1995      Amazing Grace Esther   1 episode

TV specials Year                Title       Role       Notes

1974      Mitzi: A Tribute to the American Housewife                        

1977      The Winged Colt               Mrs. Minney      

1981      Zack & the Magic Factory              Aunt Daisy          

Documentaries Year        Title       Notes

1974      Grammy Salutes Oscar  

1989      When We Were Young ... Growing Up on the Silver Screen           

1992      Shirley Temple: America's Little Darling

1995      Betty Grable: Behind the Pin-Up               

1996      Shirley Temple: The Biggest Little Star    

Alice Faye: The Star Next Door   

1997      20th Century-Fox: The First 50 Years       

2000      Hollywood at Your Feet: The Story of the Chinese Theatre Footprints       

2003      A&E Biography

2006      Private Screenings: Child Stars