Ellen Martha Clancy (January 23, 1919 – October 15, 2001), was an American actress. In her 1930s films she was billed as Ellen Clancy; then she adopted the professional name Janet Shaw.
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Early years
Born on January 23, 1919, in Beatrice, Nebraska, Ellen Clancy was picked as the finest baby in Nebraska when she was 18 months old. She was the daughter of Philip Windsor Clancy. After attending elementary schools in Nebraska, she attended high schools in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, graduating from the latter. Actress Olive May was her aunt.
Career
Ellen Clancy acted on stage with Harold Lloyd's Beverly Hills Little Theatre for Professionals, the Gateway Little Theater, and the Pasadena Community Players.
In 1935 she signed with Warner Bros. As Ellen Clancy. she worked regularly in the Warner stock company, appearing in major features (Jezebel, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Gold Diggers in Paris), minor features (Sergeant Murphy, Torchy Blane in Chinatown, Accidents Will Happen), westerns (as Dick Foran's leading lady), and short subjects. She left Warners in 1939 and began freelancing under a new screen name, Janet Shaw. She retired from the screen in 1950, and made a single television appearance in 1955.
Personal life
On April 19, 1944, in Beverly Hills, Shaw married Willard Ilefeldt, a former actor who was serving in the Army Air Forces, but the union was a brief one. In 1946 she married David Stuart, and they remained married until his death in 1984.
She died of Alzheimer's disease on October 15, 2001, in Beatrice, Nebraska at age 82.
