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Jane Darwell
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American actress Jane Darwell was the daughter of a Missouri railroad executive. Despite her father's disapproval, she spent most of her youth acting in circuses, opera troupes and stock companies, making her film debut in 1912. Even in her early thirties, Darwell specialized in formidable "grande dame" roles, usually society matrons or strict maiden aunts. Making an easy transition to talking pictures, Darwell worked primarily in small character parts (notably as governesses and housekeepers in the films of Shirley Temple) until 1939, when her role as the James Brothers' mother in Jesse James began a new career direction--now she was most often cast as indomitable frontierswomen, unbending in the face of hardship and adversity. It was this quality that led Darwell to be cast in her favorite role as Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), for which she won an Oscar. Darwell continued to work until illness crept upon her in the late 1950s.
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Jane Darwell is the whole show in the 61-minute 20th Century-Fox programmer Private Nurse. The formidable Ms. Darwell is first scene at a birthday party, thrown in her honor by her favorite charge, little Ann Todd. The daughter of ex-gangster Sheldon Leonard, Todd has been raised to believe that her mother is dead and that her father has always been a paragon of virtue. Upon learning the truth, Todd is told the whole story by nurse Darwell. Essentially an extended flashback, Private Nurse served as an acceptable lower-berth entry at the double-feature houses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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One of the greatest female character actors ever, matronly, motherly Jane Darwell excelled in every role. She was like everyone's grandmother, kind, warm and loving. Of medium height, plump and stocky, her hair usually in a bun, with a warm smile and very expressive eyes she was charismatic on film. She was born Patti Woodward in Palmyra, Missouri on October 15, 1879 the daughter of a railroad president, W. R. Woodward, who claimed descent from Andrew Jackson and Ellen Booth, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. She grew up on a ranch in Missouri where her father raised horses. She studied music, voice and drama as a youth and aspired to be a performer or an opera singer.
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Dowdy, heavy-set Jane Darwell played mostly small parts in more than 100 films from the early silent era through "Mary Poppins" (1964) and rarely had a truly great role. However, her time came in 1940 when John Ford filmed John Steinbeck’s best-seller "The Grapes of Wrath" and cast Darwell as Ma Joad, the strong, loving center of a migrant Oklahoma family coming west to California at the time of the 1930s Dust Bowl. Darwell won her only Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category, stealing the picture from star Henry Fonda. To see film acting at its best, watch Darwell’s Ma Joad sort through her most beloved possessions before leaving for California. Though she has no dialogue in this sequence, it’s heartbreaking to see her fondly touch a ceramic doggie souvenir from a 1904 Exposition, then put on a long-forgotten pair of earrings--symbols of her vanished youth and the life she’s leaving behind.
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Jane Darwell movies DVDs filmography available to buy at CDUniverse are listed below. Information on films includes: other actor and actress, star cast and crew information, reviews, director, photo of cover art, product pics and more.
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Darwell wurde als Tochter eines Eisenbahnunternehmers in Missouri geboren. Zunächst wollte sie Zirkusartistin werden, doch ihre Familie fand den Kompromiss der Schauspielerei angenehmer. Sie begann in Chicago Theater zu spielen und trat 1913 erstmals in einem Film auf. Ihre Filmarbeit endete allerdings bereits wieder 1915. Danach konzentrierte sie sich wieder voll auf ihre Theaterarbeit. Erst 1930 kehrte sie mit Beginn der Tonfilmzeit wieder auf die Leinwand zurück.
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Jane Darwell