Background
Jeanne Crain was born on 25 May 1925 in Barstow, California, United States.
Jeanne Crain was born on 25 May 1925 in Barstow, California, United States.
Miss Long Beach of 1941, then a model, Jeanne Crain was one of the prettiest adornments of Fox costume films during the 1940s: Home in Indiana (44, Henry Hathaway); In the Meantime, Darling (44, Otto Preminger); Winged Victory (44, George Cukor); State Fair (45, Walter Lang); Leave Her to Heaven (45, John Stahl); Centennial Summer (46, Preminger); playing mother and daughter in Margie (46, Henry King), and very funny in its falling knickers sequence; A Letter to Three Wives (48, Joseph L. Mankiewicz); Lady Windermere’s Fan (49, Preminger); Pinky (49. Elia Kazan), purportedly as a black, photographed in lustrous low key to show the studio's liberal intentions—Kazan said he relied on her “submissive vacuity”; Cheaper by the Dozen (50, Lang); Take Care of My Little Girl (51, Jean Negulesco); The Model and the Marriage Broker (51, Cukor); People Will Talk (51, Mankiewicz); “The Gift of the Magi” episode from O. Henry’s Full House (52, King); Belles on Their Toes (52, Henry Levin); Dangerous Crossing (53, Joseph Newman); and Vicki (53, Harry Horner).
Ironically, once away from Fox, her sweet prettiness was subtly altered to a more sophisticated glamour and hints of sexiness in King Vidor’s Man Without a Star (55). But no one cared to exploit this properly and her career trailed tamely away: Duel in the Jungle (54, George Marshall); Gentlemen Marry Barnettes (55, Richard Sale); The Fastest Gun Alive (56, Russell Rouse); The Joker Is Wild (57, Charles Vidor); Madison Avenue (61, Bruce Humberstone); Twenty Plus Two (61, Newman); Pontius Pilate (61, living Rapper); Queen of the Nile (63, Fernando Cerchio); Hot Rods to Hell (67, John Bralnn); The Night God Screamed (71, Lee Madden); and Skyjacked (72, John Guillermin).