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Janis Carter

American actress (1913-1994)

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Janis Carter (born Janis Elinore Dremann, October 10, 1913 , July 30, 1994) was an American stage and film actress who performed throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s. During the mid-1950s, she began working regularly on television, co-hosting with Bud Collyer the NBC daytime game show Feather Your Nest.

01Early years

Carter was born Janis Elinore Dremann in Cleveland, Ohio. When she started her professional career, Dremann changed her last name to Carter, because people had trouble pronouncing and spelling of Dremann, so she chose her grandmother's maiden name as her new last name.

After initial training as a pianist, Carter changed to singing when she was eight years old. Her elementary and secondary education was provided by schools in East Cleveland, Ohio. After that, she attended Cleveland's Flora Stone Mather College at Western Reserve University, graduating with two degrees , bachelor of arts and bachelor of music. She also participated in dramatics in college.

Pin-up photo of Carter for Yank, the Army Weekly in 1945
Pin-up photo of Carter for Yank, the Army Weekly in 1945

02Career

After graduating from college, Carter headed to New York in an attempt to start a career in opera. Although that goal was unsuccessful, she then worked on Broadway, where she was spotted on stage by Darryl F. Zanuck, who signed her to a movie deal. Her Broadway credits included Du Barry Was a Lady (1939), Virginia (1937), and Panama Hattie (1940).

After moving to Hollywood, she appeared in over 30 films beginning in 1941 for 20th Century Fox, MGM, Columbia, and RKO. She appeared in the films Night Editor (1946) and Framed (1947) with Glenn Ford, and Flying Leathernecks (1951) with John Wayne. After leaving Los Angeles, Carter returned to New York and found work in television in comedies and dramas and as hostess for the quiz show Feather Your Nest opposite Bud Collyer. Her last role was in a January 1955 episode of The Elgin Hour.

03Personal life and death

Carter married Carl Prager, a musician and composer, in 1942, but they divorced nine years later. She retired from acting in early 1955, after meeting New York lumber and shipping tycoon Julius Stulman; the couple married in 1956. Carter died in 1994, at age 80, from a heart attack in Durham, North Carolina.

Carter (left), Janet Blair and Franchot Tone in I Love Trouble (1948)
Carter (left), Janet Blair and Franchot Tone in I Love Trouble (1948)

04Partial filmography

Watch videos about Janis CarterExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Janis Carter, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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