- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJean Shirley Verhagen
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Jean Shirley Verhagen (later shortened to Hagen) was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 3, 1923. Her father was a Dutch immigrant. Hagen and her family moved to Elkhart, Indiana when she was twelve; she subsequently graduated from Elkhart High School. Afterwards, she graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied drama and was a roommate of fellow actress Patricia Neal.
Hagen began her show business career in the late 1940s, performing in radio programmes. She also dabbled in Broadway plays. She made her film debut in 1949 with a role as a comical femme fatale in the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy pairing Adam's Rib (1949). She had her first leading role the following year, when she starred opposite Sterling Hayden in the film noir classic The Asphalt Jungle (1950), a performance which gained her considerable attention and praise.
The performance for which Hagen is best remembered today came about in 1952, when she lent her support to the classic musical Singin' in the Rain (1952). Hagen's portrayal of the helium-voiced silent film star Lina Lamont earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress; she lost to Gloria Grahame for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).
Following her 'Singin' in the Rain' success, Ms. Hagen joined the cast of the television sitcom The Danny Thomas Show (1953). She was nominated for three Emmys for her role as Margaret Williams, but grew tired of the role after three seasons and subsequently left the show.
For the rest of her career, Hagen mostly made guest appearances on numerous television shows, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The Andy Griffith Show (1960), Wagon Train (1957), and Starsky and Hutch (1975). She also had supporting roles in Sunrise at Campobello (1960) and Dead Ringer (1963).
Sadly, by the 1960s, Ms. Hagen's health had declined and she spent many years under medical care. She died of esophageal cancer on August 29, 1977 at the age of 54.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- SpouseTom Seidel(June 12, 1947 - November 1, 1965) (divorced, 2 children)
- ChildrenAricChristine Patricia Seidel
- ParentsChristian VerhagenMarie Verhagen
- Though nominated three times (twice in one year) for an Emmy Award as Danny Thomas' first TV wife on his popular comedy series, The Danny Thomas Show (1953), Jean became disenchanted with the rather colorless wife-and-mother role and left the series after four seasons. Marjorie Lord replaced her as Danny's perky second wife.
- A prolonged illness necessitated her early retirement in the mid-60s with her entering a convalescent home for the rest of her life. A desire to act one more time happened in 1977 when she appeared briefly as a landlady in the TV-movie Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn (1977). She died shortly after of throat cancer.
- Best remembered as Lina Lamont, the silent-film star in Singin' in the Rain (1952), who could not manage the transition to talkies. That is, not without Debbie Reynolds's help, albeit ironically the voice she gets dubbed with is in real life her own voice and not Debbie Reynolds'.
- Shared an apartment with Patricia Neal in New York City while working on Broadway.
- She has appeared in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Adam's Rib (1949), The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and Singin' in the Rain (1952).
- [explaining how she proved she dubbed her own voice in Singin' in the Rain (1952)] They didn't believe me when I told them I did - until I gave them samples. But I finally convinced them that I was the blonde, not-so-bright movie queen whose squeaky voice was not okay for sound.
- When I told a group of interviewers that my favorite role, before Singin' was in Asphalt Jungle, they wanted to know what part I played. I told them there were only two girl roles. And I obviously wasn't Marilyn Monroe.
- I knew from the time I saw my first movie that I wanted to be an actress, but like the average high school student, I would have been afraid of ridicule if I had admitted it.
- Our high school dramatic coach was newly out of college, in tune with high school students, a perceptive human being, and a resourceful teacher. . . One day he said to me, "You're planning to be an actress, aren't you?" I gulped and tried to hide my terrible eagerness. "You'll be a good one," he observed matter-of-factly. "Don't be shy about it. It's a job, like anything else: keeping books, keeping house, nursing, or teaching. Be a good workman and you'll get along fine." I hope that this teacher knows now that it was he who started me on the road to an Academy Award nomination, last year, for Singin' in the Rain (1952).
- [1950] I've been wonderfully lucky as I've done five interesting roles in a row.
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