Janet Blair

Janet Blair didn't seek out Hollywood's spotlight on her own; the spotlight found her while she was singing with Hal Kemp's orchestra. Her name was Martha Janet Lafferty, and her voice had a distinctive quality that record labels in the 1940s didn't want to let slip away.

Columbia Pictures changed her last name and put a seven-year contract on the table. In 1941, she signed the papers that would radically change her life.

Her first major role came with My Sister Eileen in 1942. She shared the screen with Rosalind Russell, and suddenly her face was on magazine covers across the country. But the studio wasn't sure what to do with her, since Janet fit neither the femme fatale nor the pure ingenue mold.

She was too real for Hollywood's papier-mâché world.

In 1945, she starred in Tonight and Every Night alongside Rita Hayworth. While Hayworth brought an almost impossible magnetism, Blair offered a natural warmth that connected with audiences returning from the war. The formula worked for a while because moviegoers were looking for something real amid all the makeup.

The stage versus the system

In the late 1940s, her relationship with Columbia fell apart over low pay and scripts she considered mediocre. Janet decided she wasn't going to be just another cog in the machinery of the major Los Angeles studios and turned to the theater for refuge.

She went off to Broadway.

In 1951, she accepted the role of Nellie Forbush in the stage production of South Pacific. She performed more than 1,200 shows across the United States, and critics had to acknowledge that her vocal talent went far beyond what the movies allowed her to showcase. As a result, she stayed on stage for much of the 1950s.

But the movies came calling again in 1962 with Burn, Witch, Burn!. It was a British horror film where she proved she could carry a suspense plot without relying on musical numbers. It was one of her strongest performances and a far cry from her usual image.

Small-Screen Security

During the 1970s she moved into television because the film industry no longer knew what to do with actresses over forty. In 1971, she starred in The Smith Family alongside Henry Fonda, playing the wife of a police detective.

The series ran for two seasons and posted respectable ratings before the network decided to change its programming strategy. Janet took the cancellation in stride and used the opportunity to diversify her appearances on variety shows and game shows.

She kept working in supporting roles and guest appearances. In 1982, she appeared in The Love Boat, and later had a role in an episode of Murder, She Wrote in 1991. Her appearances became more selective as she preferred to devote time to her private life in California.

Because Janet always understood that show business was just that, a business, and she never let her identity depend solely on audience applause.

Her savings and smart management of her contracts allowed her to enjoy a quiet retirement, far from the scandals that were common among her generation. She died on February 19, 2007 at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica from complications of pneumonia at the age of 85.