Jean Hagen (born Jean Shirley Verhagen; August 3, 1923 – August 29, 1977) was an American actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Lina Lamont in Singin' in the Rain (1952), and for three Primetime Emmy Awards for playing Margaret Williams on the first three seasons (1953–56) of the television sitcom The Danny Thomas Show (when titled as Make Room for Daddy). She was also known for her role as Doll Conovan in the classic film noir The Asphalt Jungle (1950).
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Early life and education
Hagen was born August 3, 1923, in Chicago, Illinois, to Christian Verhagen, a Dutch immigrant, and Marie, his Chicago-born wife. The family moved to Elkhart, Indiana, when she was 12, and she graduated from Elkhart High School.
She studied drama at Northwestern University, where she was a roommate of actress Patricia Neal. Hagen graduated from Northwestern in 1945. She also worked as an usher.
Career
Radio
Hagen's career began on radio in the 1940s, performing in Light of the World, Hollywood Story, and other programs. Billed under her birth name, she played Betty Webster on Those Websters.
Stage
Hagen first appeared on Broadway in Swan Song. She acted in Another Part of the Forest, Ghosts, and The Traitor. She was the understudy for Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday, and replaced her in the latter part of the run.
Film and television
Her film debut was as a comical femme fatale in the 1949 Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn film Adam's Rib, directed by George Cukor. The Asphalt Jungle (1950) provided Hagen with her first starring role. Hagen played "Doll" Conovan, a woman who sticks by criminal Dix's side until the bitter end. She appeared in the film noir Side Street (1950), playing a gangster's sincere but dim girlfriend. Hagen gave a memorable comic performance in Singin' in the Rain as the vain, spoiled, and talentless silent film star Lina Lamont. She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
By 1953, she had joined the cast of the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy. After she left the show, Marjorie Lord was cast as Danny's second wife and played opposite Thomas for the remainder of the series.
In 1957, Hagen co-starred in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents titled "Enough Rope for Two", portraying a woman who accompanies two thieves trying to retrieve stolen money from a desert mine shaft. She then appeared as Elizabeth in the 1960 episode "Once Upon a Knight" on The DuPont Show with June Allyson; Also in 1960, Hagen was Marie Brandt on Wagon Train in the episode "The Marie Brandt Story"; and in 1963 Hagen portrayed Sarah Proctor on Wagon Train in the episode “The Sarah Proctor Story”. The following year, she guest-starred on The Andy Griffith Show in the episode "Andy and the Woman Speeder".
Although she made frequent guest appearances in television series, Hagen was unable to resume her film career in starring roles. Her health began to decline due to an alcohol problem and she spent many years hospitalized or under medical care in the 1960s. After appearing with Fred MacMurray in the Disney comedy The Shaggy Dog (1959), for the remainder of her career she played supporting roles, such as Marguerite LeHand, personal secretary to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in Sunrise at Campobello (1960) and the friend of Bette Davis in Dead Ringer (1964).
Much later, in 1976, she made a comeback of sorts playing character roles in episodes of the television series Starsky and Hutch and The Streets of San Francisco. She made her final acting appearance the next year in the television movie Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn.
Honors
Hagen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1502 Vine Street for her contributions to television.
Personal life
Jean Hagen married actor Tom Seidel in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on June 12, 1947. He originated the role of Dr. Sanderson in the play Harvey. The couple had two children, Christine Patricia and Aric Phillip. According to Lorraine LoBianco, Seidel divorced Hagen and gained custody of their children in order to dissuade her from drinking. Hagen's alcoholism, instead, turned more severe. In 1968, her addiction left her hospitalized and in a coma at UCLA Medical Center. Her daughter said that after Hagen recovered, she never drank again.
Later life and death
Hagen was later diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Patricia Neal wrote in her autobiography that Hagen went to Germany "'for laetrile, a supposed cure unavailable in the United States. But she was bubbly and bright and so much the way I remembered her from the old days.'"
Hagen died of cancer on August 29, 1977, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital just 26 days after turning 54.