Years active 1930–1968 Children Michael Jaffe Role Film actress | Name Jean Muir | |
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Full Name Jean Muir Fullarton Spouse Henry Jaffe (m. 1940–1960) Movies A Midsummer Night's Dr, Dr Monica, The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady, As the Earth Turns, Desirable Similar People William Dieterle, Max Reinhardt, Sidney Salkow, Alfred E Green, William Keighley | ||
Jean Muir (February 13, 1911 – July 23, 1996) was an American stage and film actress and educator. She was the first performer to be blacklisted after her name appeared in the infamous anti-Communist 1950 pamphlet Red Channels.
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Early years
An only child, Muir was born in Suffern, New York, as Jean Muir Fullarton; her father was a certified public accountant, and her mother was a substitute teacher. Her education came at the Dwight School in Englewood, New Jersey.
Career
Muir first appeared on Broadway in 1930, and was signed by Warner Bros. three years later. She played opposite several famous actors including Warren William, Paul Muni, Richard Barthelmess and Franchot Tone, but she returned to Broadway in 1937 because she was unsatisfied with the roles. She appeared occasionally in films through 1943. She was also one of the candidates for the role of Melanie in Gone with the Wind.
In 1950 Muir was named as a Communist sympathizer by the notorious pamphlet Red Channels, and immediately removed from the cast of the television sitcom The Aldrich Family, in which she had been cast as Mrs. Aldrich. NBC had received between 20 and 30 phone calls protesting her being in the show. General Foods, the sponsor, said that it would not sponsor programs in which "controversial persons" were featured. Though the company later received thousands of calls protesting the decision, it was not reversed. Muir was the first performer to be deprived of employment because of a listing in Red Channels.In the mid-1950s she reportedly suffered from alcoholism and cirrhosis of the liver.
She was back on Broadway and TV by the early 1960s. In 1968 she moved to Columbia, Missouri, where she taught drama at Stephens College.
Muir died in Mesa, Arizona on July 23, 1996.
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6280 Hollywood Blvd.
Filmography
Sources for Jean Muir's filmography include the Internet Movie Database, the Turner Classic Movies Database, The Warner Bros. Story (1979) by Clive Hirschhorn, and Alanna Nash's cover story in Take One (July–August 1977).