Jeanne Crain

Jeanne Elizabeth Crain was born in Barstow, California, to George A. Crain, a high-school English teacher, and Loretta Crain, née Carr. Both of Crain's parents were Catholics of Irish descent. By 1930, they were living in Inglewood, California, at 822 S. Walnut Avenue. When her parents divorced in 1934, her mother, her sister Rita Marie (who served as Crain's stand-in during the mid-1940s), and she moved to 5817 Van Ness Avenue in Los Angeles. Crain began winning leads in school plays at 14 and beauty contests at 15. A skilled ice skater, she first attracted attention when she was crowned Miss Pan-Pacific at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles. She attended Inglewood High School, where her father was head of the English department. While still in high school, she was asked to do a screen test with Orson Welles, but she did not get the part. After high school, she enrolled at UCLA to study drama. In 1943 at age 18, she appeared in a bit part in the film The Gang's All Here, produced by 20th Century Fox.

At age 19 Crain was cast by Fox in her first sizable role in the romantic drama Home in Indiana (1944), with Walter Brennan, in which she played the love interest of Lon McCallister's character. The film, shot in Technicolor, was popular at the box office and established Crain as a film name.Darryl F. Zanuck, head of Fox, gave Crain top billing in In the Meantime, Darling (1944), directed by Otto Preminger, in which she played a war bride. Her acting was critically panned, but she gained nationwide attention. It resulted in her landing the lead role in The Shocking Miss Pilgrim in October 1944, a musical film that was eventually made with Betty Grable as the star. Crain first received critical acclaim when she starred in Winged Victory (1944). She co-starred in 1945 with Dana Andrews in the musical film State Fair, for which Louanne Hogan dubbed Crain's singing. After that, Crain often had singing parts in films, and they were invariably dubbed, usually by Hogan. State Fair was a hit, as was Leave Her to Heaven (1945), in which Crain played the "good" sister of her "bad" sibling, played by Gene Tierney, both of whom are in love with Cornel Wilde's character. Crain became established as one of Fox's bigger stars—so much so that Zanuck refused to let her play the comparatively small part of Clementine in My Darling Clementine (1946). Crain and Wilde were reunited in Centennial Summer (1946), directed by Preminger, Fox's attempt to match the success of MGM's Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). More popular was Margie (1946), which displayed her ice-skating ability when Conrad Janis and she danced around the ice rink while her boyfriend, played by Alan Young, slipped and stumbled after them. She made two films in 1948: You Were Meant for Me, a musical with Dan Dailey that may have included Marilyn Monroe's first film appearance, and Apartment for Peggy with William Holden.

In 1949, Crain appeared in three films. A Letter to Three Wives, in which she was top billed, was a solid box-office hit that won Joseph L. Mankiewicz two Oscars and is considered a classic. The Fan, directed by Preminger and based on Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde, was poorly received. Pinky brought Crain a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and was one of the year's more popular films, but it was controversial. It told the story of a light-skinned African American woman who passed for white in the Northern United States. Although Lena Horne and other black actresses were considered, producer Darryl F. Zanuck chose to cast a white actress for fear of racial backlash. Crain had another big success when she starred with Myrna Loy and Clifton Webb in the 1950 biographical film Cheaper by the Dozen, although hers was more of a supporting role. She had a cameo as herself in I'll Get By (1951) and starred in Take Care of My Little Girl (1951), a mildly popular drama about snobbery in college sororities. Next, Crain was paired with Cary Grant in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's offbeat comedy/drama People Will Talk (1951). Despite Crain's intense campaigning for the female lead, Anne Baxter was initially cast in the part; when Baxter became pregnant, though, Crain ended up with the role after all. Shortly after, Crain starred in Charles Brackett's production of The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951). Cast in May 1951, she was Brackett's first choice. She was reunited with Loy for Belles on Their Toes (1952), the sequel to Cheaper by the Dozen, and received top billing this time. While still at 20th Century Fox, Crain played a young wife losing her mind amid high-seas intrigue in Dangerous Crossing (1953), co-starring Michael Rennie. She starred in Vicki (1953), a remake of I Wake Up Screaming; and Fox tried her in a Western, City of Bad Men (1954). Both films performed only mildly at the box office, and Crain left the studio.

Crain worked for a number of studios after leaving Fox. She made Duel in the Jungle (1954) in Britain, released in the U.S. by Warner Bros., and then Man Without a Star (1955), a Western with Kirk Douglas at Universal, as the lead female role of a hard-nosed ranch owner. She showed her dancing skills in 1955's Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, a quasisequel to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes based on Anita Loos' novel and co-starring Jane Russell. An independent production, it was released in the U.S. by United Artists. Later in the 1950s, Crain, Russell, and another actress formed a short-lived singing and dancing lounge act on the Las Vegas Strip. Crain made the Western comedy The Second Greatest Sex (1956), again for Universal, then starred with Glenn Ford, Russ Tamblyn, and Broderick Crawford in The Fastest Gun Alive, an MGM production directed by Russell Rouse. It was a big hit. At Universal, she starred with Jeff Chandler in the thriller The Tattered Dress (1957) and then played a socialite who helps floundering singer and comedian Joe E. Lewis (Frank Sinatra) redeem himself in The Joker Is Wild (1957) by Paramount. At this time Crain began working in television, playing Daisy in a 1958 adaptation of The Great Gatsby and Rose in 1959's all-star production of Meet Me in St. Louis alongside Myrna Loy, Walter Pidgeon, Jane Powell, Ed Wynn, and top-billed Tab Hunter.

Crain appeared in fewer films in the 1960s as she entered semiretirement. She starred as Nefertiti in the Italian production of Queen of the Nile (1961), with Edmund Purdom and Vincent Price, and in Madison Avenue (1962), with Dana Andrews and Eleanor Parker. During this period, Crain appeared—for the second time—as a mystery guest on What's My Line? and made guest appearances on Riverboat and Burke's Law. She again co-starred with Dana Andrews in Hot Rods To Hell (1967). Her last films were The Night God Screamed (1971) and Skyjacked (1972) with Charlton Heston.

At the height of her stardom in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Crain was known as "Hollywood's Number One party girl", and she was quoted as saying she was invited to at least 200 parties a year. She was a devout Catholic. Against her mother's wishes, on December 31, 1945, Crain married Paul Brinkman, a former contract player at RKO Pictures, who was credited as Paul Brooks. He later became a top executive with an arms-manufacturing company. In the mid-1950s the marriage became rocky, and Crain obtained an interlocutory divorce decree. Each claimed the other was unfaithful, and she alleged that he was abusive. However, they reconciled on December 31, 1956, and remained married. They had seven children. Although they later lived separately in Santa Barbara County, they maintained an amicable relationship, with Brinkman visiting Crain about once a month and on her birthday. Brinkman died in October 2003. Crain died on December 14, 2003, of a heart attack, aged 78. Her funeral mass was held at the Santa Barbara Mission. She is buried next to her husband under the name Jeanne Crain Brinkman.