Janet Margolin(1943-1993)
- Actress
Pretty, demure-looking Janet Margolin was born in New York City in 1943
and educated at the New York High School of Performing Arts. The
long-haired brunette was discovered for films by director Frank Perry as
she was making great strides as a teen on Broadway. He saw her in the
play "Daughter of Silence," for which she earned a Tony nomination, and
took her immediately to Hollywood, casting her as the schizophrenic
lass in David and Lisa (1962) opposite Keir Dullea. She bowled over the critics. The
movie, which was praised for its handling of delicate, mature subject
matter, should have paved the way to stardom for Janet but strangely
didn't. She churned out uneventful second leads in such notable fare as
Bus Riley's Back in Town (1965), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and Nevada Smith (1966). Though she had better luck with her
ingenue roles in Enter Laughing (1967) and Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run (1969), the offers starting
drying up by decade's end and she turned to TV work. Woody used her
again, albeit briefly, in Annie Hall (1977). After a brief first marriage, Janet
met and married actor Ted Wass of TV's Soap (1977) and Blossom (1990) fame. Janet
was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and died at age 50.
