Jean Wallace

Former model Jean Wallace entered films at seventeen, playing a bit in Paramount's Louisiana Purchase (1941). That same year, she married actor Franchot Tone with whom she would appear in Jigsaw (1949) and The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949). Her second husband was actor Cornel Wilde, who upon turning director with 1957's The Devil's Hairpin made it his goal to transform Wallace, whose previous film roles had been largely forgettable, into an actress of stature. As a result, Jean Wallace enjoyed some of her finest on-screen moments in such Wilde-directed productions as Sword of Lancelot (1962), Beach Red (1967) and the pro-ecological No Blade of Glass (1970).

Born Jean Walasek in Chicago to John T. Walasek and Mary A. Walasek (née Sharkey), Wallace began her career as a model then got her first small movie role at the age of seventeen. She attempted suicide in 1946 with sleeping pills, and in 1949 with a self inflicted knife wound. Wallace died of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage on February 14, 1990. She is buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

She had three sons. Her two sons with Franchot Tone are Pascal Franchot Tone and Thomas Jefferson Tone. Her son with Cornel Wilde is Cornel Wallace Wilde.

FILMOGRAPHY

Ziegfeld Girl - 1941

Glamour Boy - 1941

Louisiana Purchase - 1941

Salute for Three - 1943

You Can't Ration Love - 1944

It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog - 1946

Blaze of Noon - 1947

When My Baby Smiles at Me - 1948

Jigsaw - 1949

The Man on the Eiffel Tower - 1949

The Good Humor Man - 1950

Native Son - 1951

Star of India - 1954

The Big Combo - 1955

Storm Fear - 1955

The Devil's Hairpin - 1957

Maracaibo - 1958

Lancelot and Guinevere - 1963

Beach Red - 1967

No Blade of Grass - 1970

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