Jane Winton, affectionately known as the "Green-Eyed Goddess of Hollywood," was a statuesque and gorgeous former Ziegfeld Follies dancer who made a significant impact in the film industry from 1925 to 1930. Although she was not always the nominal star, she consistently appeared high up on the credits list of many films.
Winton's beauty was particularly suited for playing patrician socialites, and she effortlessly breezed through numerous roles in both comedies and dramas. Her most notable role was as Donna Isobel in Don Juan (1926),which marked the first use of the Vitaphone process to synchronize film and sound effects, effectively making it a precursor to The Jazz Singer (1927).
At Warner Brothers, Winton appeared in the period drama My Official Wife (1926) and the successful comedy Why Girls Go Back Home (1926),playing a seductive model. She was also featured in The Fair Co-Ed (1927),as a vamp rivaling Marion Davies for the affections of Johnny Mack Brown, and as Davies' elder sister in The Patsy (1928).
Winton's career reached its peak when she played a murder suspect in The Furies (1930),adapted for the screen by Zoe Akins. However, her star began to fade abruptly after 1930, and she made a few more appearances in 17- and 18-minute mystery "featurettes" at the Warner Brothers Vitaphone facilities in Brooklyn.
It is unclear what led to Winton's career decline, although some speculate that it was the transition to sound pictures. Despite this, she went on to become a soprano of international repute, performing with the National Grand Opera Company in 1933 and singing on radio broadcasts in England.
Winton devoted her time to her various talents, including painting and playing bridge, and even wrote two novels, "Park Avenue Doctor" and "Passion is the Gale," a period romance set in the Virgin Islands. She died in 1959 at the age of 54, leaving behind a legacy as one of the most beautiful and talented actresses of her time.
As Gloria Swanson famously said in Sunset Boulevard (1950),"There just aren't any faces like that anymore..."
