There are several reasons I have deep admiration for Jane Wyman, our Star of the Month this January. For instance, Jane managed to do something very few movie actresses ever accomplished: she survived for 57 years in a business which usually has said adieu to most stars after ten years tops, unless that actress was blessed with a voice like Streisand or a dramatic talent and drive like Hepburn, which even Wyman was the first to say she didn't possess. It's also amazing to me that after she spent nine years playing perky, unnecessary cuties in a multitude of B-level films, she still managed to become Warner Bros.' most important leading lady between the eras there of Bette Davis (1937-1949) and Doris Day (1951- 1957).

It was during that time that Jane unexpectedly landed the role every actress in Hollywood lusted after in the 1940s: the embittered Ma Baxter in MGM's 1946 adaptation of the best-selling novel, The Yearling; two years after that, for her performance in Johnny Belinda, she was named the Best Actress in a year when the competition for the Oscar® was among the roughest in the history of the Academy. Her competition: Olivia de Havilland in The Snake Pit; Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number; Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama; and Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc.

Wyman was a true team player. She never battled her bosses or turned down a role they asked her to play. She always showed up for work on time, and fellow actors and crewmembers adored her. Other high-marks in Wyman's career included her starring in all 228 episodes of the successful 1981-1990 TV series Falcon Crest. (Lana Turner became a regular on the series in 1982 and gave the show a big spike in ratings, but Lana was used to making movies rather than working at TV's frenetic pace causing the producers to say goodbye to her after only six episodes.)

But of all the grand, unexpected things connected to Jane Wyman in Hollywood, nothing ever impressed me more about her than her refusal to ever say a word about her marriage to Ronald Reagan (1940-1949). Not a peep. When the 1970s rolled around, no divorced man had ever occupied the Oval Office and RR, then the governor of California, was clearly bound for D.C. with the second Mrs. Reagan. Every TV talk show and magazine editor tried to get Jane to talk about her ex, offering her huge pots of money to do so (one offer was from Cosmopolitan magazine for $250,000). But she wouldn't say a word-even though at that time (the 1970s and pre-Falcon Crest), she was going through some dire financial struggles. She made her decision to say nothing without grandstanding or trying to impress anyone. I've often thought how lucky RR was that it was Jane Wyman who was the first Mrs. Reagan, not Shelley Winters--a chatterbox on TV at that time--or any of today's housewives of Beverly Hills. Bravo, Jane!

In the meantime, do join us every Thursday this month as we bring you 45 of the films this special lady made through all the many, and varied, aspects of her one-of-a-kind career. You couldn't find a worthier person with whom to spend some enchanted evenings.

by Robert Osborne