Janet Gaynor

Janet Gaynor (1906-1984) was an American actress who began as an extra in shorts and silent films, signed with Fox Film in 1926 and became one of the biggest box-office draws of the late silent era. In 1929 she became the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress, honoured for 7th Heaven, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Street Angel, and she was nominated again for A Star Is Born (1937). After retiring from acting in 1939 she returned occasionally to film, television and the stage, and later worked as an oil painter.

October 6, 1906