The Who2 Blog

Jane Wyman, America’s First Ex-Lady

Oscar-winning actress Jane Wyman has died at age 93.

Wyman was the first wife of actor Ronald Reagan, who went on to become America’s first divorced president. Reagan and Wyman were married from 1940-48. Reagan married another actress, Nancy Davis, in 1952.

Before she was the First Ex, Wyman had another first with her Oscar for the film Johnny Belinda: she played a deaf and mute rape victim, and thus was the first person in the sound era to win an Oscar without saying a word.

Years later, While Nancy shared the White House with Reagan from 1981-89, Wyman revitalized her career on the prime-time soap opera Falcon Crest, playing the devious wine family matriarch Angela Channing.

Jane Wyman never made First Lady, but she is the first ex-wife of a divorced U.S. president. (Rachel Jackson doesn’t count, if you’re wondering: *she* was divorced (sort of!) but President Andrew Jackson wasn’t.)

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