Jean Wallace was a beautiful starlet who married Franchot Tone and Cornel Wilde
She was born Jean Walasek on October 12, 1923 in Chicago, Illinois. Jean started modeling when she was a teenager and worked as an Earl Carroll showgirl. The shapely blonde made her film debut in the 1941 musical Ziegfeld Girl. She had to lie about her age to get the part. When she was just eighteen years old she married actor Franchot Tone who was twice her age. Then was offered a five year contract with Fox. Jean was given small roles in movies like When My Baby Smiles At Me and It Shouldn't Happen To A Dog with Carole Landis. She and Franchot had two sons together - Pascal and Thomas. The couple had a difficult marriage and separated several times. During this time she attempted suicide twice. She divorced Franchot in 1949 claiming he had cheated on her with actress Barbara Payton. Although she continued to make movies her personal life created more headlines than her career. Jean had romances with Howard Hughes, Jackie Coogan, and gangster Johnny Stompanato.
Her second marriage, to Army Sergeant Jim Lloyd Randall, lasted only five months. She began drinking heavily and in 1950 she was arrested for drunk driving. Sadly she ended up losing custody of her two sons with Franchot. Jean seemed to finally find happiness when she married actor Cornel Wilde in 1951. The couple worked together in several films including The Devil's Hairpin, Star Of India, and Sword Of Lancelot. Their son, Cornel Wallace, was born in 1967. She retired from making movies to be a full-time mother. Her final film role was in the 1970 drama No Blade Of Grass. Jean's thirty year marriage to Cornel came to an end in 1981. Unfortunately she was still struggling with alcoholism. She spent the next decade living in Beverly Hills with her beloved pets. On February 14, 1990 she died after suffering a gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Jean was only sixty-six years old. She is buried at Hollywood Forever cemetery in Hollywood, California.
With Cornel Wilde