Janice Rule
| Janice Rule | |
|---|---|
Janice Rule press photo from a guest appearance on the television program Barnaby Jones, episode To Catch a Dead Man, (1973).
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| Born |
Mary Janice Rule August 15, 1931 Norwood, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | October 17, 2003 (aged 72) Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute (Ph.D., Psychology, 1983) |
| Occupation | Actress, Psychotherapist |
| Years active | 1951-1992 |
| Spouse(s) |
N. Richard Nash (1956–56) (divorced) Robert Thom (1960–61) (divorced) 1 daughter Ben Gazzara (1961–82) (divorced) 1 daughter |
| Children | Elizabeth Gazzara Kate Thom Fitzgerald |
Mary Janice Rule (August 15, 1931 – October 17, 2003) was an American actress "at her most convincing playing embittered, neurotic socialites".
Janice Rule was born in Norwood, Ohio, to parents of Irish origin. Her father was a dealer in industrial diamonds.
She began dancing at the Chez Paree nightclub at fifteen, which paid for ballet lessons, and was a dancer in the 1949 Broadway production of Miss Liberty. Rule also studied acting at the Chicago Professional School.
She was pictured on the cover of Life magazine of January 8, 1951, as being someone to watch in the entertainment industry. Given a contract by Warner Bros., her first credited screen role was as Virginia in Goodbye, My Fancy (1951), which featured Joan Crawford in the lead. The established star belittled the younger woman, making her work on the film difficult, although Crawford years later wrote a letter of apology to Rule for treating her badly on this film. Rule's Warner contract was allowed to lapse after only two films. She was troubled by the attitude toward women's beauty at the studios in the early 1950s: "Because I was afraid of being robbed of my individuality, I fought with the makeup people, the hairdressers, and I didn't understand problems of the publicity department," she was reported as saying in 1957.
Rule was in the original 1953 Broadway cast of William Inge's Picnic (in the role of Madge Owens, the innocent beauty, played by Kim Novak in the film version) whose company also included Paul Newman who was making his debut on Broadway. This commitment led her to turn down the role ultimately played by Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront (1954). "I knew I couldn't shoot in a movie all day and work on a stage at night and do my best in both," she was quoted as saying by Hedda Hopper of the Los Angeles Times in 1966. Among her other Broadway shows were The Flowering Peach, The Happiest Girl in the World and Michael V. Gazzo's Night Circus, a 1958 production which lasted for only a week, but introduced Rule to Ben Gazzara, who became her third husband.
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