Existing comment:
Janet Gaynor, 1906-1984
Janet Gaynor was just twenty-two when she became the first person to win an Academy Award for Best Actress. Honored for her memorable performances in three dramatic films-Sunrise (1927), Seventh Heaven (1927), and Street Angel (1928)-Gaynor was the only actress ever to earn the Oscar for multiple roles rather than for work in a single film. One of the few stars to make the successful transition from silent films to "talkies," Gaynor made her talking picture debut in 1929 in Sunny Side Up and maintained her standing as a major Hollywood star throughout the 1930s. Her Oscar-nominated performance in the 1937 version of A Star Is Born was the high point of her movie career, and she was still at the top of her profession when she retired two years later, after marrying MGM's director of costume design, Gilbert Adrian.
Otto Dyar, c 1931 |