LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jean Hagen
built 655 days ago
Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are trying to move from the silent-film era, in which they were stars, to the new "talkie" pictures. Their latest movie is a musical, and with the help of Don's pal Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor), a cheerful guy and accomplished pianist, the numbers are coming together. The only problem is Lina's voice, or lack thereof. Don has fallen for a chorus girl who can sing (Debbie Reynolds), so she's brought in secretly to dub Lina's lines and sing the songs. Unfortunately, Lina finds out.
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Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are the golden couple of the silent era. They are adored by the movie-going public and touted by the gossip columnists as a hot-and-heavy young couple. Lockwood attends the premiere of his latest film “The Royal Rascal”.Fleeing his adoring fans after the screening, he lands in the front seat of Kathy Selden's (Debbie Reynolds) car and is promptly smitten.
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From All Movie Guide: After majoring in drama and music at Northwestern University, Jean Hagen went to New York, where she worked as an usherette by day and a radio actress by night. In 1949, Hagen was one of several "new face" Broadway performers (including Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell and David Wayne) selected to appear in the supporting cast of the Tracy/Hepburn comedy Adam's Rib; she played the slatternly "other woman" who comes between Judy Holliday and Tom Ewell. This led to a long-term MGM contract and a telling dramatic role as Sterling Hayden's doomed girlfriend in John Huston's Asphalt Jungle (1950). In 1952, Hagen was cast in her best-ever screen role: screechy-voiced silent film star Lina Lamont ("Waddya think I am, dumb or sumpin'?") in the imperishable Singin' in the Rain. From 1953 through 1956, Hagen played Margaret Williams, wife of nightclub entertainer Danny Thomas, in Make Room for Daddy. Her character was summarily "killed off" when she left the series in its third season; according to Thomas, Hagen felt that sitcom work was beneath her.
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In 1956, Jean Hagen quit the show, and the producers had her character written out as having died making the character the first to be "killed off" in a sitcom. The following season, Thomas' character dated several women, with the help of his children. At the end of the season, he met widowed Kathy O'Hara, played by Marjorie Lord, who had a young daughter, Linda, played by Angela Cartwright. No wedding was ever shown, but when the show returned in 1957, with the new title, Danny and Kathy were married, and Linda was adopted by Danny, and the show's ratings dramatically increased.[1]
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Adam's Rib represented the film debuts of New York-based actors Jean Hagen, Tom Ewell, and David Wayne (as Hepburn's erstwhile songwriting suitor), and the return to Hollywood of Judy Holliday after her Born Yesterday triumph. One of the best of the Tracy-Hepburn efforts, it inspired a brief 1973 TV series starring Ken Howard and Blythe Danner.
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The film features the wonderful debuts of New York-based stage actors Jean Hagen, Tom Ewell, and David Wayne. Judy Holliday, who had the starring role of the dumb blonde in the Broadway version of Born Yesterday, basically auditioned for the movie role in this film. With Kate's help, she manages to steal this pic and thereby won the movie role for Born Yesterday (1950). Judy had minor parts in three minor films in 1944, and this pic signaled her triumphant return to Hollywood.
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Jean Hagen