Sarah Jane Mayfield was born on 5 January 1917, in Saint Joseph, Missouri USA, and was an actress, dancer, singer and philanthropist, best known for her acting career that spanned seven decades. She was also the first wife of 40th United States President Ronald Reagan. All of her efforts have helped put her net worth to where it was prior to her passing in 2007.
How rich was Jane Wyman? As of early-2017, sources inform us of a net worth that was at $15 million, mostly earned through a successful career in entertainment. Some of her projects included “Public Wedding”, “Magnificent Obsession”, and “Johnny Belinda”. She won numerous awards and all of these achievements ensured the position of her wealth.
Jane Wyman Net Worth $15 million
Jane had a very unsettled family life, with her father dying when she was young after her parents’ divorce. She lived with a foster family, and later attended Lafayette High School, where she started a radio singing career under the name Jane Durrell. She dropped out of high school at age 15 and took odd jobs in Hollywood, to support herself while she got small parts in films such as “My Man Godfrey”. In 1936, she signed a contract with Warner Brothers which led her to star in “Public Wedding”, so her net worth was established.
In 1939, Jane and Regis Toomey had the longest screen kiss in cinema history in “You’re in the Army Now”. Six years later, she appeared in the noir film “The Lost Weekend” for which she got critical acclaim. Her net worth started to increase after her Academy Award nomination for her performance in “The Yearling”, and two years later she would win an Academy Award after portraying a rape victim in “Johnny Belinda”, making her the first person in the sound era to win an Oscar without speaking a line of dialogue. This led her to appear in more high profile roles including “Stage Fright”, “The Story of Will Rogers”, “Magnificent Obsession”, and “Holiday for Lovers”.
For television, Wyman made her first guest appearance in an episode of “General Electric Theater”. This then continued with more television opportunities in “Wagon Train”, “The Investigators”, and “The Ford Show”. Her net worth continued to build, and she became the hostess of “The Bell Telephone Hour”. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her show “Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theater”, but her popularity started declining, and she went into semi-retirement for most of the 1970s. She made a resurgence in 1981 in the soap opera “Falcon Crest” which aired until 1990; the series was very successful and was a ratings hit, and for her role as Angela Channing, Jane was five times nominated for a Soap Opera Digest Award, and for two Golden Globe Awards. However, later in the show her health was becoming a problem which led her to miss episodes; she was absent for most of the final season.
For her personal life, it is known that Jane was married five times, firstly to Ernest Eugene Wyman in 1933, which led her to use the Wyman surname professionally. They divorced after two years, and in 1937 she married Myron Martin Futterman, but they separated after just three months and divorced a year later. In 1940, she married Ronald Raegan and they had three children together – their divorce made Raegan the first US president to have been divorced. In 1952, Wyman married Fredrick Maxwell Karger, but they divorced in 1955, however, they remarried in 1961 before divorcing again in 1965. Jane passed away in her sleep at her home at the age of 90 in 2007.
You are omitting several facts about Jane Wyman’s career that might better explain her “net worth.” Besides her Oscar nomination for “The Yearling” in 1946 and her win for “Johnny Belinda” in 1948, she was nominated again in 1951 for “The Blue Veil” (which she personally favored as her best role/movie) but lost to Vivien Leigh in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Ironically she BEAT Leigh for that year’s Best Actress Golden Globe award, and won another Academy Award nomination for 1954’s “Magnificent Obsession.” Many fans and film critics considered it a sad oversight that she was not even nominated for her outstanding performance in 1953’s “So Big.”
Jane Wyman became the highest paid dramatic actress on television during the decade of the 80’s, making over $3 million per year as the indomitable Angela Channing in “Falcon Crest” (which also earned her an Emmy as TV’s Best Actress.) Her income during the 1980’s was much higher than that earned by her former husband, Ronald Reagan, as President of the United States.
It should also be noted that Wyman’s conversion to Catholicism after her fifth divorce (from musical director Fred Karger) and her subsequent generosity and devotion to the church, may have affected her ultimate net worth. The terms of her will have not been made public.