Janet Gaynor

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Family

American actress who made 34 films from 1926 to 1938 including the original version of A Star is Born, 1937. In 1928, Gaynor won the first Oscar ever given (Best Actress for her performances in three silent films: 7th Heaven, 1927, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1927, and Street Angel, 1928). This was the only occasion on which an actress has won one Oscar for multiple film roles. At the top of the film industry, she retired at age 33. Gaynor had three marriages. Her first marriage was to lawyer Jesse Lydell Peck, from 11 September 1929 to 7 April 1933. On 14 August 1939, she married Hollywood costume designer Adrian. This relationship has been called a lavender marriage, since Adrian was openly gay within the film community while Gaynor was rumoured to be gay or bisexual. Nevertheless, they had a son in 1940. Gaynor and Adrian remained married until Adrian's death from a stroke on 13 September 1959. On 24 December 1964, Gaynor married her longtime friend, stage producer Paul Gregory, to whom she remained married until her death. In the 1970s she became a skilled contemporary artist, an oil painter of vegetable and flower still lifes, selling over 200 paintings. In 1980, Gaynor made her Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of the 1971 film Harold and Maude and appeared in the touring theatrical production of On Golden Pond in February 1982. Gaynor died of pneumonia on 14 September 1984, aged 77, in Palm Springs, California after being injured in a San Francisco car crash on the evening of 5 September 1982. Gaynor had sustained several serious injuries, including 11 broken ribs, a fractured collarbone, pelvic fractures, a punctured lung, and injuries to her bladder and kidney. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Janet Gaynor has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6284 Hollywood Blvd. Link to Wikipedia biography