Jeanne Crain

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Jeanne Crain was born on May 25, 1925 in Barstow, California. She grew up in Los Angeles, where she started acting in high school.

While still in school she made a screen test for Orson Welles; she didn't get the part, but this inspired her to become an actress. At 18, she debuted in "The Gang's All Here (1943) and was given a contract with Fox Studios. Her next film, "Home in Indiana" (1944) was a hit, and throughout the 1940s and 1950s she starred in a number of popular films, including "State Fair" (1945), "A Letter to Three Wives" (1949) and "Pinky" (1949), for which she won an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

In the 1950s, Jeanne Crain moved to Warner Brothers and starred in several hit movies, including "The Joker is Wild" (1957). A devout Catholic, she married actor/businessman Paul Brooks in 1945 ; they had seven children. Jeanne Crain died on December 14, 2003, two months after her husband's death.