Jan Sterling

Acting

Jan Sterling

Born 1921-04-03 · New York City, New York, USA

Jan Sterling (born Jane Sterling Adriance; April 3, 1921 – March 26, 2004) was an American actress. At her most active in films during the 1950s, she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The High and the Mighty (1954) as well as an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination. Her best performance is often considered to be opposite Kirk Douglas, as the opportunistic wife in Billy Wilder's 1951 Ace in the Hole.

Acting credits

Ace in the Hole poster
7.8

An arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career.

Ace in the Hole

1951

The High and the Mighty poster
6.0

Dan Roman is a veteran pilot haunted by a tragic past. Now relegated to second-in-command cockpit assignments he finds himself on a routine Honolulu-to-San Francisco flight - one that takes a terrifying suspense-building turn when disaster strikes high above the Pacific Ocean at the point of no return.

The High and the Mighty

1954

The Harder They Fall poster
7.2

Jobless sportswriter Eddie Willis is hired by corrupt fight promoter Nick Benko to promote his current protégé, an unknown Argentinian boxer named Toro Moreno. Although Moreno is a hulking giant, his chances for success are hampered by a powder-puff punch and a glass jaw. Exploiting Willis' reputation for integrity and standing in the boxing community, Benko arranges a series of fixed fights that propel the unsophisticated Moreno to #1 contender for the championship. The reigning champ, the sadistic Buddy Brannen, harbors resentment at the publicity Toro has been receiving and vows to viciously punish him in the ring. Eddie must now decide whether or not to tell the naive Toro the truth.

The Harder They Fall

1956

Man with the Gun poster
6.1

A stranger comes to town looking for his estranged wife. He finds her running the local girls. He also finds a town and sheriff afraid of their own shadow, scared of a landowner they never see who rules through his rowdy sidekicks. The stranger is a town tamer by trade, and he accepts a $500 commission to sort things out.

Man with the Gun

1955

1984 poster
6.5

In a totalitarian future society, a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by falling in love.

1984

1956

Pony Express poster
5.8

Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok join forces to establish a mail route that can get mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in ten days. Along the way they must battle bad weather, hostile Indians and outlaws intent on robbing the mail and shutting down the entire operation.

Pony Express

1953

Mystery Street poster
6.8

When a young woman's skeletal remains turn up on a Massachusetts beach, Barnstable cop Peter Moralas teams with Boston police and uses forensics, with the help of a Harvard professor, to determine the woman's identity, how she died, and who killed her.

Mystery Street

1950

The Incident poster
7.4

Two hoodlums terrorize the passengers of a late-night New York City subway train.

The Incident

1967

Caged poster
7.1

A single mistake puts a 19-year old girl behind bars, where she experiences the terrors and torments of women in prison.

Caged

1950

Johnny Belinda poster
6.9

A small-town doctor helps a deaf-mute farm girl learn to communicate.

Johnny Belinda

1948

Union Station poster
6.5

Police catch a break when suspected kidnappers are spotted on a train heading towards Union Station. Police, train station security and a witness try to piece together the crime and get back the blind daughter of a rich business man.

Union Station

1950

The Vanquished poster
4.9

A man returns to his home -- a post Civil-War village -- and finds the law is in the hands of a few scrupulous people.

The Vanquished

1953

Split Second poster
6.4

Escaped convicts hold hostages in a ghost town targeted for a nuclear bomb test.

Split Second

1953

The Female Animal poster
6.0

Jaded movie star Vanessa Windsor, saved from a studio accident by handsome extra Chris Farley, pursues him, and soon he's the 'caretaker' of her beach house. Vanessa's sexy, alcoholic adult daughter Penny accidentally meets Chris, who rescues her from an 'octopus' boyfriend. Before you know it, Chris is involved with both mother and daughter, and his only way out is to take a job in a Mexican picture about man-eating orchids...

The Female Animal

1958

Dangerous Company poster
6.0

The true story of Ray Johnson, a convict who spent most of his life in and out of prison until he finally decided to turn his life around.

Dangerous Company

1982

Tycoon poster
5.6

Engineer Johnny Munroe is enlisted to build a railroad tunnel through a mountain to reach mines. His task is complicated, and his ethics are compromised, when he falls in love with his boss's daughter

Tycoon

1947

Appointment with Danger poster
5.7

Al Goddard, a detective who works for the United States Postal Inspection Service, is assigned to arrest two criminals who've allegedly murdered a U.S. postal detective.

Appointment with Danger

1950

High School Confidential! poster
5.6

A tough kid comes to a new high school and begins muscling his way into the drug scene. This is a typical morality play of the era, filled with a naive view of drugs, nihilistic beat poetry, and some incredible '50s slang.

High School Confidential!

1958

Female on the Beach poster
5.7

Lynn Markham moves into her late husband's beach house the morning after former tenant Eloise Crandall fell from the cliff. To her annoyance, Lynn finds both her real estate agent and Drummond Hall, her beachcomber neighbor, making themselves quite at home. Lynn soon has no doubts of what her scheming neighbors are up to, but she finds Drummond's physical charms hard to resist. And she still doesn't know what really happened to Eloise.

Female on the Beach

1955

Sky Full of Moon poster
6.0

A cowboy seeks fame and fortune in Las Vegas where he meets a girl working in a casino.

Sky Full of Moon

1952

Women's Prison poster
5.8

A crusading psychiatrist battles a sadistic female warden to improve conditions at a women's prison.

Women's Prison

1955

Having Babies poster
8.0

The story of four couples who are about to have children using the Lamaze method.

Having Babies

1976

The Mating Season poster
6.6

Ellen McNulty leaves her New Jersey hamburger stand and heads west to pay a surprise visit to her son and his new bride. When Ellen arrives, her daughter-in-law mistakes her for the maid she has hired for a big party they are throwing. Rather than cause any embarrassment, Ellen goes along with the charade, which leads to many complications.

The Mating Season

1951

First Monday in October poster
6.2

For the first time in history a woman is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she becomes a friendly rival to a liberal associate.

First Monday in October

1981