JAN STERLING

Jan Sterling was an actress from the 1940s to the 1980s. She was born in Manhattan in 1921, but her wealthy parents divorced when she was eight, and she grew up all over the world, but spent a lot of time in England, where she developed an English accent.

At 17, she became a Broadway actress, having much success over the 1940s playing British ladies (she was billed as "Jane Adrian"). In 1947, she got the lead in "Born Yesterday" in its Chicago stage version, and she was a big hit, and it was thought that she would surely appear in the film version, which was made in 1950, but that was not to be (Judy Holliday, who played in the New York stage version, was chosen to play the lead over Sterling).

She had great success in the movies in the 1950s, in films such as Caged (1950), Ace in the Hole (1951), Flesh and Fury (1952), and The High & The Mighty (nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for this film; 1954).

In 1959 her husband, actor Paul Douglas, died of a heart attack, and she quit the movies, returning to New York where she did much TV and stage work. She passed away in 2004 at the age of 83.