Jean Hagen

Jean Hagen (born Jean Shirley Verhagen;Template:Efn August 3, 1923 – August 29, 1977) was an American actress best known for her role as Doll Conovan in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and as Lina Lamont in Singin' in the Rain (1952), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Hagen was also nominated three times for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Margaret Williams on the first three seasons (1953–56) of the television series The Danny Thomas Show (when titled as Make Room for Daddy).<ref>Obituary Variety, September 7, 1977, p. 111.</ref>

Early life

Hagen was born August 3, 1923, in Chicago, to Christian Verhagen, a Dutch immigrant, and Marie, his Chicago-born wife. The family moved to Elkhart, Indiana, when she was 12, and she graduated from Elkhart High School. She studied drama at Northwestern University, where she was a roommate of actress Patricia Neal. She graduated from Northwestern in 1945.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She also worked as an usher.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Career

File:Jean Hagen in Singin in the Rain trailer.jpg

Hagen in Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Radio

Hagen began her show-business career in radio in the 1940s performing in Light of the World, Hollywood Story, and other programs.<ref name=ls/> Using her birth name (Jean Verhagen), she played Betty Webster on Those Websters.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref>

Stage

Hagen first appeared on Broadway in Swan Song. She acted in Another Part of the Forest, Ghosts, Born Yesterday,<ref name=ls/><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> and The Traitor.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Film and television

Her film debut was as a comical femme fatale in the 1949 Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn film Adam's Rib, directed by George Cukor. The Asphalt Jungle (1950) provided Hagen with her first starring role. Hagen played Doll Conover, a woman who sticks by criminal Dix's side until the bitter end. She appeared in the film noir Side Street (1950), playing a gangster's sincere but dim girlfriend. Hagen gave a memorable comic performance in Singin' in the Rain as the vain, spoiled, and talentless silent film star Lina Lamont. She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:Danny Thomas and Jean Hagen 1955.jpg

Thomas and Hagen in Make Room for Daddy (1955)

By 1953, she had joined the cast of the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy. After she left the show, Marjorie Lord was cast as Danny's second wife and played opposite Thomas for the remainder of the series.

In 1957, Hagen co-starred in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents titled "Enough Rope for Two", portraying a woman who accompanies two thieves trying to retrieve stolen money from a desert mine shaft. She then appeared as Elizabeth in the 1960 episode "Once Upon a Knight" on The DuPont Show with June Allyson; Also in 1960, Hagen was Marie Brandt on Wagon Train in the episode "The Marie Brandt Story"; and in 1963 Hagen portrayed Sarah Proctor on Wagon Train in the episode “The Sarah Proctor Story”. The following year, she guest-starred on The Andy Griffith Show in the episode "Andy and the Woman Speeder".

Although she made frequent guest appearances in television series, Hagen was unable to resume her film career in starring roles. Her health began to decline due to an alcohol problem and she spent many years hospitalized or under medical care in the 1960s.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After appearing with Fred MacMurray in the Disney comedy The Shaggy Dog (1959), 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) and the friend of Bette Davis in Dead Ringer (1964).

Much later, 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. She made her final acting appearance the next year in the television movie Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn.

Personal life

Jean Hagen married actor Tom Seidel (who originated the role of Dr. Sanderson in the play Harvey) on June 12, 1947, in Brentwood, California. The couple had two children, Christine Patricia and Aric Phillip. According to Lorraine LoBianco's authoritative biography, Seidel, in his attempt to stop his wife from drinking, divorced her and gained custody of the children. It did not work; Hagen's alcoholism only worsened, finally becoming so severe by 1968 that she was hospitalized and lapsed into a coma at UCLA Medical Center. She managed to survive the ordeal, and her daughter, Christine, said that after she emerged from the coma, Hagen never drank again.<ref>The dark tale of Jean Hagenthelifeandtimesofhollywood.com Template:Webarchive</ref>

Unfortunately, another health problem arose: throat cancer. Patricia Neal wrote in her autobiography that Hagen went to Germany "'for laetrile, a supposed cure unavailable in the United States. But she was bubbly and bright and so much the way I remembered her from the old days.'"<ref>"Jean Hagen Profile", Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Turner Broadcasting System, New York, N.Y. Retrieved November 2, 2017.</ref><ref>Motion Picture and Television Magazine, November 1952, page 33, Ideal Publishers</ref>

Death

Hagen died of esophageal cancer on August 29, 1977 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.<ref name=ls>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref>

Honors

Hagen was nominated for a 1956 Emmy Award in the "Best actress (continuing performance)" category.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1502 Vine Street for her contributions to television.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1949	Adam's Rib	Beryl Caighn
1950	Ambush	Martha Conovan
	Side Street	Hariette Sinton
	The Asphalt Jungle	"Doll" Conovan
	A Life of Her Own	Maggie Collins
1951	Night Into Morning	Girl Next Door
	No Questions Asked	Joan Brensen
1952	Shadow in the Sky	Stella Murphy
	Singin' in the Rain	Lina Lamont	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
	Carbine Williams	Maggie Williams
1953	Arena	Meg Hutchins
	Latin Lovers	Anne Kellwood
	Half a Hero	Martha Dobson
1955	The Big Knife	Connie Bliss
1957	Spring Reunion	Barna Forrest
1959	The Shaggy Dog	Freeda Daniels
1960	Sunrise at Campobello	Marguerite "Missy" LeHand
1962	Panic in Year Zero	Ann Baldwin
1964	Dead Ringer	Dede Marshall

Television appearances

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1953–1956	Make Room for Daddy (later called The Danny Thomas Show)	Margaret Williams	117 episodes (3 seasons)
1957	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Madge Griffin	Season 3 Episode 7: "Enough Rope for Two"
1960	Wagon Train	Marie Brandt	Episode "The Marie Brandt story"
1962	’’Wagon Train’’	Sarah Proctor	Episode 23 Season 6 “the Sarah Proctor Story”
1961	The Andy Griffith Show	Elizabeth Crowley	Episode: "Andy and the Woman Speeder"
1976	Starsky and Hutch	Belle Kates	Episode: "The Hostages"
	The Streets of San Francisco	Ms. Unger	Episode: "Judgement Day"
1977	Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn	Landlady	Television film (final role)

Radio appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
1952	Stars in the Air	The Yearling<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref>

External links

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