Jean Inness

Inness was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended Bryn Mawr College, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Inness began her career in 1920 touring Indianapolis and Cincinnati with the Stuart Walker Stock Company. She also starred with Stewart Walker in productions of The Cradle Snatchers and An Ideal Husband.

Inness performed for 34 weeks with the Denham Stock Company in Denver, Colorado, and for 26 weeks in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She performed at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, with leading roles in stage plays including Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Stages and Death of a Salesman. Her son Jon Jory was a stage director at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. In 1928, Inness was cast in the lead role of the stage play The Jest at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Inness played the title role in the 1940 production of Ramona, starring with Onslow Stevens.

Inness began her screen career in 1942, appearing in the film Not a Ladies' Man. She appeared on television programs including Gunsmoke, The Andy Griffith Show, Bonanza, The Twilight Zone, Wagon Train, The Virginian, The Big Valley and Rawhide. Inness played Nurse Beatrice Fain in the medical drama television series Dr. Kildare.

Inness died in December 1978 at her home in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 78.