Jean Wallace

Acting

Jean Wallace

Born 1923-10-12 · Chicago, Illinois, USA

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 was married two times; once to her Jigsaw co-star Franchot Tone from 1941 to 1948 and once to actor Cornel Wilde (her co-star in The Big Combo and Lancelot and Guinevere) from 1951 to 1981. She had two sons with Tone and one with Wilde. 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.

Acting credits

Ziegfeld Girl poster
6.6

Discovery by Flo Ziegfeld changes a girl's life but not necessarily for the better, as three beautiful women find out when they join the spectacle on Broadway: Susan, the singer who must leave behind her ageing vaudevillian father; vulnerable Sheila, the working girl pursued both by a millionaire and by her loyal boyfriend from Flatbush; and the mysterious European beauty Sandra, whose concert violinist husband cannot endure the thought of their escaping from poverty by promenading her glamor in skimpy costumes.

Ziegfeld Girl

1941

The Big Combo poster
7.0

Police Lt. Leonard Diamond vies to bring a clever, well connected, and sadistic gangster to justice all the while obsessing over the gangster's girlfriend.

The Big Combo

1955

Louisiana Purchase poster
6.7

A bumbling senator investigating graft in Louisiana is the target of a scheme involving a Viennese beauty.

Louisiana Purchase

1941

The Devil's Hairpin poster
6.0

Cocky car racer Nick Jargin has retired since he nearly caused the death of his brother at a hairpin bend on a circuit. He now holds a trendy café who keeps him busy full time until one day, Tony Boari, a new champion racer, challenges him.

The Devil's Hairpin

1957

Native Son poster
5.5

In 1940s Chicago, a young black man takes a job as a chauffeur to a white family, which takes a turn for the worse when he accidentally kills the teenage daughter of the couple and then tries to cover it up.

Native Son

1951

Beach Red poster
6.5

American troops storm ashore on a Japanese-held island and push inland while their enemies plan a counterattack in this look at warfare. Soldiers on both sides are haunted by memories of home and the horrifying, sickening images they find in combat.

Beach Red

1967

Maracaibo poster
6.5

A firefighter is sent to Venezuela to battle a blazing oil well but still finds time for romance.

Maracaibo

1958

The Good Humor Man poster
6.3

Biff Jones is a driver/salesman for the Good Humor ice-cream company. He hopes to marry his girl Margie, who works as a secretary for Stuart Nagel, an insurance investigator. Margie won't marry Biff, though, because she is the sole support of her kid brother, Johnny. Biff gets involved with Bonnie, a young woman he tries to rescue from gangsters. But Biff's attempts to help her only get him accused of murder. When the police refuse to believe his story, it's up to Biff and Johnny to prove Biff's innocence and solve the crime.

The Good Humor Man

1950

No Blade of Grass poster
5.3

A strange new virus has appeared, which only attacks strains of grasses such as wheat and rice, and the world is descending into famine and chaos. Architect John, along with his family and friends, is making his way from London to his brother's farm in northern England where there will hopefully be food and safety for all of them.

No Blade of Grass

1970

The Man on the Eiffel Tower poster
5.2

A down-and-out student is hired to kill a wealthy woman. When someone else is suspected of the crime, the student taunts police until they realize that they may have to wrong man.

The Man on the Eiffel Tower

1949

Storm Fear poster
6.0

A wounded bank robber takes over his brother's home.

Storm Fear

1955

Sword of Lancelot poster
4.6

Lancelot is King Arthur's most valued Knight of the Round Table and a paragon of courage and virtue. Things change, however, when he falls in love with Queen Guinevere.

Sword of Lancelot

1963

Blaze of Noon poster
5.7

In this aerial melodrama, four brothers working as stunt pilots for a flying circus leave their jobs to become mail pilots. Because their job requires that they constantly travel, they are advised to not settle down with wives and kids. Still, one pilot falls in love and marries. Unfortunately, the woman dislikes his brothers and constantly worries that he will be killed during a flight. Her fears are not unfounded and much tragedy ensues as the story unfolds.

Blaze of Noon

1947

Star of India poster
4.4

Squire Pierre St. Laurent returns from wars in India to 17th-century provincial France to find his estate confiscated by governor Narbonne, for back taxes, and resold to Katrina, a Dutch Countess. Katrina offers to return Pierre's property if he will help her get possession of the 'Star of India,' a fabulous sapphire, held at the moment by Narbonne.

Star of India

1954

It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog poster
5.8

A pretty blonde with a Doberman pinscher walks into a bar on April Fool's Day and asks for a bag of bones. Thus begins a merry chase in which a newspaper reporter, a drunken policeman and a hand-painted necktie help locate the missing witness in a criminal investigation.

It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog

1946

Jigsaw poster
5.0

New York Assistant District Attorney Howard Malloy launches an investigation into a series of murders related to a neo-fascist organisation.

Jigsaw

1949

Glamour Boy poster
6.5

Former child star Jackie Cooper headlines this sentimental behind-the-scenes comedy drama. He plays an ex-child star who now jerks sodas for a living in Hollywood. He gets back into the movie business when he overhears a conversation between producers discussing their newest prodigy. Cooper butts in and suggests the producers remake Skippy (a real-life 1931 film that made young Cooper a star). The bigwigs like the idea and then hire Cooper to become the boy's acting coach. Once back on the backlot, Cooper finds both trouble and romance while helping the young boy adjust to life as a movie star.

Glamour Boy

1941

You Can't Ration Love poster
8.0

In this WW II musical, a group of lovely college co-eds, realizing that there is a shortage of single young men, decide to begin rationing their dates so that all of them can have some fun. This is beneficial for the campus wimp who suddenly finds himself the hottest property on campus.

You Can't Ration Love

1944

When My Baby Smiles at Me poster
5.5

Bonny Kane and 'Skid' Johnson are vaudeville performers in the 1920s. The two of them suffer marital difficulties when Skid gets an offer to appear on Broadway while Bonny gets left behind on the road. Things get worse with Skid's increasing drinking problem and the fact that the press has reported him to be spending a lot of time with his pretty co-star.

When My Baby Smiles at Me

1948

Salute for Three poster
9.0

Press agent Jimmy Gates gets an idea while watching a New York parade, for a returned war hero Sergeant Buzz McAllister, with his chief client, singer Judy Ames; Dona Drake, leader of an all-girl orchestra; his photographer Foggy, and his secretary Myrt. Jimmy, thinking Judy needs publicity in order to get a singing job on a radio program, thinks that a romance between her and the war hero would be just the ticket.

Salute for Three

1943