Born in Campgaw, New Jersey, Jane Waddington Wyatt emerged from a prestigious New York family with strong social standing, her father being a renowned Wall Street investment banker and her mother a respected drama critic.
From the tender age of three months, Jane was raised in New York City, where she attended the esteemed Chapin School and later Barnard College.
After completing two years of college, Jane decided to forgo her academic pursuits to join the apprentice school of the Berkshire Playhouse at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where she spent six months honing her craft, taking on a diverse range of roles.
One of her early Broadway endeavors was as understudy to the talented Rose Hobart in a production of "Trade Winds," a career move that unfortunately led to her being removed from the New York Social Register.
Jane made the seamless transition from stage to screen, signing a contract with Universal Pictures, where she made her film debut in director James Whale's "One More River" in 1934.
Throughout her career, Jane continued to oscillate between Universal and Broadway, co-starring in Frank Capra's Columbia film "Lost Horizon" in 1937, which was loaned from Universal.
In the 1950s, Jane co-starred alongside Robert Young in the iconic sitcom "Father Knows Best" (1954),a classic series that chronicled the life and times of the Anderson family in the Midwestern town of Springfield.
Jane Waddington Wyatt passed away at the ripe age of 96 due to natural causes at her home in Bel-Air, California, on October 20, 2006.
