Years active 1896-1956 | Name Jane Morgan | |
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Born Jennie Morgan
December 6, 1880
UK ( 1880-12-06 ) Died January 1, 1972(1972-01-01) (aged 91)
North Hollywood, California, U.S. Occupation Stage, radio and television actress | ||
Jane Morgan (December 6, 1880 – January 1, 1972) was a British-born American actress and singer whose career encompassed concert halls, vaudeville, the legitimate stage, radio, television, and film, best known as Eve Arden's nosy landlady Mrs. Davis on the radio and television versions of Our Miss Brooks.
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Early life
Jennie “Jane” Morgan was born in England to Welsh parents on December 6, 1880, and within a year would cross the Atlantic to be raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Upon her graduation from the New England Conservatory of Music she began performing with the Boston Opera Company as a singer and violin player earning $25 per week. By 1900 she was living with her widowed father and a brother in Anaconda, Montana, where she became a frequent performer in amateur theater productions and community events. Her father, Roderick “Rod” Morgan worked as a blacksmith in Anaconda while her older brother, Charles, supported his family as a machinist.
Marriage
On Sunday, February 17, 1901, she married Leo Cullen Bryant, a 23-year-old native of Albion, Wisconsin, who taught music and headed the Margaret Theater Orchestra in Anaconda. The following month the Bryants opened a music school in Butte, Montana, teaching piano and violin.
A few years later they moved their business to Nampa, Idaho and shortly thereafter began performing on the vaudeville circuit. Leo Bryant would eventually become known as a pioneer symphony violinist and innovative music teacher. The couple had a daughter, Aline (aka Alice), and would remain together until Leo's death in Los Angeles on March 20, 1955.
Career
By the 1910s and probably earlier Morgan was touring in dramas and musical comedies such as The Master Mind (1914, with Carl Rickert), The Silent Voice (1914, with Otis Skinner), Her Temporary Husband (1926), She Couldn't Say No (1930, with Charlotte Greenwood), and Tattle Tales (1933, with Barbara Stanwyck).
In 1930 she began working on radio plays and series. Jane Morgan became a stock performer on the Lux Radio Theater and was remembered for her work as part of the cast of Point Sublime, and on such radio plays as House Undivided as Mother Adams, The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1941, with Keenan Wynn) and The Horn Blows at Midnight (1949, with Jack Benny). She made regular appearances on the Jack Benny and Bob Hope radio shows, but it was as "Mrs. Davis", Eve Arden's scheming landlady on the radio and television versions of Our Miss Brooks, for which she was best-known.
Death
Morgan retired after the nine-year run of Our Miss Brooks on radio, television, and film came to an end in 1957. She died in North Hollywood, California on New Years Day 1972, after a lengthy battle with heart disease. The actress was survived by her daughter, a granddaughter and two great grandchildren. Morgan was buried at sea in compliance with her last wishes.