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Jan Sterling (April 3, 1921 - March 6, 2004) was
an United States|American actress.  She was born
Jane Sterling Adriance on April 3, 1921, in New
York City,  into a prosperous family. Sterling was
educated in private schools before heading to
Europe with her family. She was schooled by
private tutors in London and Paris, and was
enrolled in Fay Compton's dramatic school in
London.

As a teenager she returned to Manhattan, and,
billed as Jane Sterling, made her first Broadway
appearance in Bachelor Born and went on to appear
in such major stage offerings as Panama Hattie,
Over 21 and Present Laughter. In 1947, she made
her movies debut in Tycoon (movie)|Tycoon, now
billed as Jane Darian. Seldom cast in passive
roles, Sterling was at her best in parts calling
for hard-bitten, sometimes hard-boiled
determination. Actress Ruth Gordon insisted she
change her stage name and the two hit upon "Jan
Sterling".

In 1948 she broke into films supporting the
Academy Award winner Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda,
in a key, emotional role. Shuttling between films
and television, she showed up in nearly all the
major live anthologies of the 1950s, playing in
"bad girl" film roles in Caged (1950), Mystery
Street (1950), Ace in the Hole (1951 movie)|The
Big Carnival (1951), Flesh and Fury (1952), The
Human Jungle (1954), and Female on the Beach
(1955), while making a more sympathetic impression
in Sky Full of Moon (1952).

In 1954 Sterling was nominated for an Academy
Award and won a Golden Globe Award for Best
Supporting Actress - Motion Picture|Golden Globe
Award for Best Supporting Actress for her
performance in The High and the Mighty (movie)|The
High and the Mighty. Also the same year, she
travelled to England to play the role of Julia in
the first film version of George Orwell's 1984
(1956 movie)|1984, despite being several months
pregnant at the time. During the following years,
she appeared regularly in movies like Slaughter on
Tenth Avenue, Kathy O, and The Female Animal.  She
retired from films in favor of the stage in 1969
and returned before the cameras in 1976 to portray
Lou Henry Hoover|Mrs. Herbert Hoover in the TV
miniseries Backstairs at the White House. 

Married and divorced to actor John Merivale in the
40s, Sterling's career slipped down after the
death of her second husband, actor Paul Douglas
(actor)|Paul Douglas, in 1959.  In the 70s she
entered into a longlasting strong personal
relationship with actor Sam Wanamaker. They never
married. Inactive for nearly two decades, she made
an appearance at the Cinecon Film Festival in Los
Angeles in the fall of 2001.

After a long bout with diabetes, a broken hip, and
a number of strokes, Sterling died in Los Angeles,
California, a few days before her 84th birthday.
She is interred in the Garden of Actors Churchyard
Cemetery in London, England.


== Films ==

*First Monday in October (1981) 
*Sammy Somebody (1976)
*The Minx (1969) 
*The Angry Breed (1968) 
*The Incident (1967) 
*Love in a Goldfish Bowl (1961) 
*Kathy O (1958) 
*High School Confidential! (1958) 
*The Female Animal (1958) 
*Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1957) 
*1984 (1956 movie)|1984 (1956) 
*The Harder They Fall (1956) 
*Man with the Gun (1955) 
*Female on the Beach (1955) 
*Women's Prison (1955) 
*The Human Jungle (1954) 
*Return From the Sea (1954) 
*The High and the Mighty (movie)|The High and the
Mighty (1954) 
*Alaska Seas (1954) 
*Pony Express (1953 movie)|Pony Express (1953) 
*The Vanquished (1953)
*Split Second (1953) 
*Sky Full of Moon (1952) 
*Flesh and Fury (1952) 
*Rhubarb (1951 movie)|Rhubarb (1951) 
*Ace in the Hole (1951 movie)|Ace in the Hole
(1951)
*Appointment with Danger (1951) 
*The Mating Season (film)|The Mating Season (1951)

*Union Station (1950) 
*Gunfire (1950)
*Mystery Street (1950)
*Snow Dog (1950) 
*The Skipper Surprised His Wife (1950) 
*Caged (1950) 
*Johnny Belinda (1948) 
*Tycoon (1947 movie)|Tycoon (1947) 

==External links==
*
http://www.free.cts.com/crash/a/adamsd/jansterling
/ Official Homepage


lived|b=1921|d=2004|key=Sterling, Jan