Jane Waddington Wyatt (August 12, 1910 – October 20, 2006) was a three-time Emmy-winning American actress perhaps best known for her role as the housewife and mother on the television series Father Knows Best and as Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock on the science fiction television show, "Star Trek".
Jane Wyatt was born on August 12, 1910 in Campgaw (now part of Mahwah, New Jersey), but was raised in New York City. Her father, Christopher Billopp Wyatt, Jr., was a Wall Street investment banker, and her mother, the former Euphemia Van Rensselaer Waddington, was a drama critic for the Catholic World. One of her ancestors, Rufus King, was a signer of the U.S. Constitution, a U.S. Senator and ambassador, and the Federalist candidate in the 1816 United States presidential election. She was also a distant cousin of Eleanor Roosevelt and the poet Harry Crosby, through their shared descent from Philip Livingston, also a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
While in New York City, Wyatt attended the fashionable Chapin School and later attended two years of Barnard College. After leaving Barnard, she joined the apprentice school of the Berkshire Playhouse at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where for six months she played a varied assortment of roles.
One of her first jobs on Broadway was as understudy to Rose Hobart in a production of Trade Winds - a career move that cost her her listing in the New York Social Register (she later was relisted upon her marriage). Receiving favorable notices on Broadway and celebrated for her understated beauty, Wyatt made the transition from stage to screen and was placed under contract at Universal, where she co-starred as Ronald Colman's love interest in Frank Capra's Columbia film Lost Horizon (1937). This was arguably her most famous role. Of her experience in Lost Horizon, she noted in an article in the St. Anthony Messenger newsletter, "During the war, they cut out all the pacifist parts of the film—the High Lama talking about peace in the world. All that was cut because they were trying to inspire those G.I.'s to get out there and go 'bang! bang! bang!' which sort of ruined the film." Other film appearances included 1947's Gentleman's Agreement (with Gregory Peck), None but the Lonely Heart (with Cary Grant), and Boomerang (with Dana Andrews).
Her film career suffered because of her outspoken opposition to Senator Joseph McCarthy, the chief figure in the anti-Communist investigations of that era. Her career was temporarily damaged for having assisted in hosting a performance by the Bolshoi Ballet during the Second World War, even though it was at President Roosevelt's request (). As a result, she returned to her roots on the New York stage for a time and appeared in such plays as Lillian Hellman's The Autumn Garden opposite Fredric March.
For many people, Wyatt is best remembered for her television role as Margaret Andersonin the television comedy Father Knows Best from 1954 to 1960. Her role, opposite Robert Young, was of the devoted wife and mother in the show which chronicled the life and times of the Anderson family in the Midwestern town of Springfield. This role won Wyatt three Emmy Awards for best actress in a comedy series.
In addition to Father Knows Best, Wyatt also starred as as Amanda Grayson, Mr. Spock's mother, in the 1967 episode Journey To Babel of the original Star Trek series and the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Late in her career, she played Katherine Auschlander, the wife of hospital administrator Dr. Daniel Auschlander (Norman Lloyd), on the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere. Wyatt was once quoted as saying her fan mail for the first two roles exceeded that for her appearance in Lost Horizon. She also appeared as Anna, mother of the Virgin Mary, in the 1978 TV film The Nativity.
Jane Wyatt died on October 20, 2006 of natural causes at her home in Bel-Air, California. She was 96 years old.
Though one of her early suitors was John D. Rockefeller III, Wyatt was married to investment broker Edgar Bethune Wardon from November 9, 1935 until his death on November 8, 2000, just one day short of the couple's 65th wedding anniversary. The couple met in the late 1920s when both were weekend houseguests of Franklin D. Roosevelt at Hyde Park. Wyatt was survived by two sons, and according to an obituary in The Washington Post, a third son died in infancy in the early 1940s.
