Gloria Jean

Gloria Jean (born Gloria Jean Schoonover; April 14, 1926 – August 31, 2018) was an American actress and singer who starred in 26 feature films from 1939 to 1959 and made numerous radio, television, stage and nightclub appearances. She may be best remembered for her appearance with W. C. Fields in the film Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.

Early years Gloria Jean was born Gloria Jean Schoonover in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Ferman and Eleanor Schoonover; her ancestry was Pennsylvania Dutch. Gloria Jean was three years old when she first sang on radio under the name of Baby Skylark.

Film Universal In 1938, Gloria Jean was being trained as a coloratura soprano when her voice teacher Leah Russel took her to an audition held by Universal Pictures producer Joe Pasternak, who had guided Deanna Durbin to stardom. Pasternak wanted a younger singer for the same kind of musical in which Durbin had starred. He held auditions for a film called The Under-Pup. and Gloria Jean was selected for the role. She later recalled: "There were hundreds of beautiful little girls there. I had been grabbed out of the sandbox, and I didn't look so nice. I had pigtails and my teeth were a little crooked. But that's what Joe liked." Universal's publicity department initially claimed that she was 11 years old rather than 13. Her actual age was not well known for many decades.

She next costarred with Bing Crosby in If I Had My Way (1940), directed by David Butler, and in the well-received A Little Bit of Heaven (1940), which reunited her with many from The Under-Pup cast.

In December 1940, Gloria Jean was sued by William Lustig, a Pennsylvania bandleader who had appeared with her during her local radio years and claimed to be her former agent.

Gloria Jean's fourth film role became perhaps her best-known when she costarred with W.C. Fields in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941). She later recalled working with Fields: "He had a reputation, I know, for not liking children, but he was very kind and considerate to me. I used to wonder, though, why he didn't eat on the set. When we broke for a meal he'd say, 'Get that kid off to school.' Of course, I know now, it was because he wanted to drink." She supported the Andrews Sisters in What's Cookin' (1942) and then appeared in Get Hep to Love (1942), directed by Charles Lamont, who directed her next film, When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1942). She received top billing along with Donald O'Connor in It Comes Up Love (1943).

For her first dramatic performance in 1942, Gloria Jean portrayed a blind girl in one of four vignettes for Julien Duvivier's Flesh and Fantasy (1943). Gloria Jean was relieved when the studio began to admit her real age, saying: "[This] proves I'm no child. Everyone will know that I'm grown-up then. Charles Boyer, the producer, tested 60 girls for the part of the blind girl in this sequence. When my name was suggested, everyone said, 'But Gloria Jean's such a child!' I made the test and was chosen." Although her performance was warmly received at the film's advance preview, Universal removed her half-hour sequence at the insistence of a prominent studio stockholder.

In the wake of Flesh and Fantasy, Universal tried to afford Gloria Jean a smooth transition from adolescent roles to leading-lady status, as she was outgrowing juvenile roles but not yet mature enough for adult leads. In December 1942, she was tested for the female lead in The Phantom of the Opera, but was thought to be too young for the role. She was then considered as the singing ingenue in the Abbott and Costello comedy It Ain't Hay (1943) but was believed to be too old for the role. Universal returned Gloria Jean to budget musicals when she costarred with O'Connor and Peggy Ryan in Mister Big (1943) and in Moonlight in Vermont (1943).

In January 1944, Universal announced plans to launch Gloria Jean as a more adult star, and she turned 18 in April. She costarred with Olsen and Johnson in the large-budget Ghost Catchers (1944), which featured singer-actor Kirby Grant. Gloria Jean worked so well with Grant that Universal teamed them for two more features in 1945: As Universal had already promised exhibitors three films starring her for the 1945 season, she was rushed through three final productions: Easy to Look At, River Gang and Destiny, an expansion of Gloria Jean's 30-minute sequence from Flesh and Fantasy.

Gloria Jean's family lawyer had vanished with her earnings and she found great difficulty in securing film roles. She later admitted: "It was a mistake for me to stay away from Hollywood that long. You can easily be forgotten."

The 1950s In 1951, Gloria Jean starred in six Snader Telescriptions, three-minute musicals syndicated for television. The episodes were later compiled into the 1955 television series Showtime. She appeared in other musical and dramatic television shows such as Hollywood Theatre Time, Rebound, Death Valley Days, Hallmark Hall of Fame, The Colgate Comedy Hour, Your Favorite Story, Annie Oakley and Lux Video Theatre. She continued to appear sporadically in low-budget features such as the lost Wonder Valley (1952), her first color film. Patrons were surprised that a former star had resorted to restaurant work, resulting in sympathetic feature stories in the national press. Hollywood producer Edward Finney read one of these reports and hired Gloria Jean to star in the lightweight comedy Laffing Time (filmed in 1959, rereleased as The Madcaps in 1964). However, Lewis removed almost all of her footage from the finished film, and she appears only as an extra with no dialogue.

Gloria Jean's final television appearances occurred in episodes of The Dick Powell Theatre, Lockup and Saints and Sinners.

Personal life Newspaper columnist Bob Thomas reported that Gloria Jean was engaged to a pilot who was killed in the Korean War.

Gloria Jean encountered problems with taxes, saying: "Seems there had been a lot of mistakes in old income tax returns. So the Internal Revenue Service came along and seized all my assets. Everything ... I decided, unlike so many other child stars, that instead of just sitting around waiting for work in the acting business, I'd pick myself up and go out and get a job."

In December 1991, Gloria Jean was honored by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award, recognizing her film achievements as a juvenile. She also attended nostalgia and autograph shows, meeting fans and displaying memorabilia.

Final years After her retirement from Redken, Gloria Jean lived in California with her sister Bonnie. After her sister died in 2007, Gloria Jean moved to Hawaii to live with her son Angelo and his family. Her son died in 2017, and very late in life, she suffered health problems, including two serious falls that slowed her mobility and a heart condition. She died of heart failure and pneumonia on August 31, 2018 in a hospital near her home in Mountain View, Hawaii at the age of 92.