Teenage fashion model and Earl Carroll showgirl Jean Wallace failed in her first bid to break into movies, after MGM discovered that she was only 17, not 19 years old - as she had claimed. Being underage meant that she could only work four hours a day (and with an official tutor) and so her bit in Ziegfeld Girl (1941) was all there was. At ...
She was 18 when she married the 36-year-old actor Franchot Tone. They later had a bitter divorce. She lost custody of their two children after he claimed she was romantically involved with shady mobster Johnny Stompanato (1925-1958), who later was stabbed to death in self defense by Lana Turner's daughter Cheryl Crane. Amazingly, after their custody battle she and Tone went off and appeared together in the films The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949) and Jigsaw (1949). She re-won custody of the children in 1951, after her more stable marriage to Cornel Wilde.
2
Sang the title song in the Wilde film Beach Red (1967).
3
In October 1962, she was injured while practicing for a horse riding part in the film Sword of Lancelot (1963). Her horse refused a jump, she fell off and suffered a fractured sacrum.
4
She and husband Cornel Wilde are appointed guardians of Jean's 13-year-old sister, Karol Walasek, after the August 1954 hit-and-run death of their mother on a Los Angeles street.
5
Daughter of John T. Walasek, an insurance salesman, and Mary Walasek (nee Sharkey).
Cornel Wilde turned producer/director for several of his movies in the 1950s and tried to transform Wallace from sexpot to legit actress. She appeared exclusively for Wilde from 1953 on in a number of well-done potboilers.
12
Platinum-blonde model-turned-bombshell of the 40s and 50s whose film career was enhanced by marriages to top films stars Franchot Tone and Cornel Wilde.
13
Her two sons with Franchot Tone are Pascal Franchot Tone and Thomas Jefferson Tone. Her son with Cornel Wilde is Cornel Wallace Wilde.
14
She attempted suicide in 1946 with sleeping pills, and in 1949 with a self inflicted knife wound.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
No Blade of Grass
1970
Ann Custance
Beach Red
1967
Julie
Sword of Lancelot
1963
Guinevere
Maracaibo
1958
Laura Kingsley
The Devil's Hairpin
1957
Kelly James
Storm Fear
1955
Elizabeth Blake
General Electric Theater
1955
TV Series
Leslie Mason
The Big Combo
1955
Susan Lowell
Star of India
1954
Katrina
Schlitz Playhouse
1952
TV Series
Native Son
1951
Mary Dalton
The Good Humor Man
1950
Bonnie Conroy
The Man on the Eiffel Tower
1949
Edna Wallace
Jigsaw
1949
Barbara Whitfield
When My Baby Smiles at Me
1948
Sylvia Marco (uncredited)
Blaze of Noon
1947
Poppy
It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog
1946
Bess Williams
You Can't Ration Love
1944
Madge (unconfirmed)
Salute for Three
1943
Hostess Offering Buzz Apple from Basket (unconfirmed)
$6 Million
