Bonnie Lenora "Jane" Nigh (February 25, 1925 – October 5, 1993) was an American actress who appeared in more than 40 films and television shows.

Early years

Her sister Nancy was also an actress, and her mother worked in research at a film studio. Nigh worked as a stenographer at a

Sears Roebuck Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwa ...

store before she became an actress.

Career

She was discovered in 1944 by Arthur Wenzler while working in a defense plant. (Another source identifies Ivan Kahn as the

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

talent scout.) That same year she signed a five-year contract with Fox, and joined the studio's stock company. Her first screen appearance was in the major motion picture '' Laura''. She continued to play incidental roles in Fox features, including ''

State Fair A state fair is an annual competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population, usually held in late summer or early fall. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in t ...

'' (1945), '' Dragonwyck'' (1946), and '' Give My Regards to Broadway'' (1948, as June Nigh). When her Fox contract lapsed, she began freelancing and appeared in minor features for Columbia,

RKO RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Kei ...

, and Robert L. Lippert. In 1949, she participated in a ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' magazine photo layout, in which she posed with up-and-coming actresses

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...

Lois Maxwell Lois Ruth Maxwell (née Hooker; February 14, 1927 – September 29, 2007) was a Canadian actress. She was best known for portraying Miss Moneypenny in the first 14 Eon Productions, Eon-produced James Bond in film, ''James Bond'' films (1962–1 ...

Cathy Downs Catherine N. Downs (March 3, 1926 – December 8, 1976) was an American film actress. Biography Downs was born in Port Jefferson, New York. She was the daughter of James Nelson Downs and Edna Elizabeth Newman. A model for the Walter Thornton ...

Suzanne Dalbert Suzanne Dalbert (12 May 1927 – 31 December 1970) was a French actress who appeared in a number of American films and television series during the 1940s and 50s. Biography Dalbert was born in Paris, France and moved to the United States, follow ...

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, and Laurette Luez. This led to a contract with

Monogram Pictures Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...

, where at last Jane Nigh received starring roles. She was usually cast in wholesome outdoor features filmed in

Cinecolor Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel an ...

, including ''

County Fair An agricultural show is a public event exhibiting the equipment, animals, sports and recreation associated with agriculture and animal husbandry. The largest comprise a livestock show (a judged event or display in which breeding stock is exhib ...

'' (1950), '' Blue Grass of Kentucky'' (1950), and ''

Rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working vaqu ...

'' (1952). In 1952 Nigh joined the cast of the TV series ''

Big Town ''Big Town'' is a popular long-running radio drama featuring a corruption-fighting newspaper editor initially played from 1937 to 1942 by Edward G. Robinson in his first radio role, with echoes of the conscience-stricken tabloid editor he had p ...

'', with Patrick McVey as the city editor of a newspaper, and Nigh as his secretary Lorelei Kilbourne. She played the role for two seasons.Terrace, Vincent (2011). ''Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 104. She remained a working actress in television through 1961, returning to the motion-picture screen only once, back at Monogram (renamed Allied Artists); she was featured as a dumb blonde in ''

Hold That Hypnotist ''Hold That Hypnotist'' is a 1957 American comedy film starring the comedy team of The Bowery Boys. The film was released on March 10, 1957 by Allied Artists and is the forty-fourth film in the series. Former assistant director Austen Jewell was ...

'' (1957) with

The Bowery Boys The Bowery Boys are fictional New York City characters, portrayed by a company of New York actors, who were the subject of 48 feature films released by Monogram Pictures and its successor Allied Artists Pictures Corporation from 1946 through 1 ...

Personal life

Nigh was married four times, to three men, all ending in divorce. Her longest marriage was to her second husband, Navy lieutenant John Baker, while she was married twice to Norman Davidson Jr. She had four children, three girls and a boy, though her first, a girl, died very soon after birth in 1952.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nigh, Jane American film actresses American television actresses 1925 births 1993 deaths Actresses from Hollywood, Los Angeles 20th-century American actresses