Jane Withers’ daughter Kendall Erriar conveyed the news of her passing on Saturday (7 August). The veteran actor died at 95, and was among one of the last few living stars from the 1930s and 1940s; the height of Hollywood's studio dominance.
Fame started early for Jane Withers. Born April 12, 1926, in Atlanta, she had appeared as Dixie's Dainty Dewdrop on local radio by the age of 3. She also supplied voices for Willie Whopper and the Looney Toons Cartoons.
She was cast by Twentieth Century Fox to star in the 1934 film Bright Eyes, as the nemesis of the lovable Shirley Temple, then Hollywood's most popular star. Critics claimed that she stole the picture from Shirley. Children wrote fan letters admiring what she did to Shirley "because she's so perfect." Withers recalled in 2000, "I had to play the meanest, creepiest little girl that God ever put on this planet”.
I ran over Shirley with a tricycle, and a baby buggy. And I thought, Oh dear, everybody's going to hate me forever because I was so creepy mean to Shirley Temple!Jane Withers
In 1934, W.C. Fields chose her to do a scene in the film It’s a Gift wherein she played hopscotch in front of his store, frustrating his exit. He coached her and afterward praised her professionalism, although he hated children. When she won her first starring role, he sent her two large bouquets and a note saying, "I know you're going to knock them dead in 'Ginger' and you're going to have a fantastic career."
Post the success of Bright eyes, Fox produced three or four films starring Withers on an annual basis at budgets much lower than that of the Temple specials. A few of them are, Ginger, Paddy O'Day, Little Miss Nobody, Wild and Wooly and Arizona Wildcat. A theatre owners poll named Withers one of the top money-making stars in 1936 and 1937.
Her popularity led to Jane Withers dolls and other merchandise. At her best, she made $2,500 a week and $50,000 a year in endorsements. Unlike other child stars, her earnings did not disappear.
During her childhood she started collecting dolls and teddy bears, and she continued throughout her lifetime. In 1988 she reported that she owned 12,000 dolls and 2,500 teddy bears which were boxed and crated in a 27,000-square-foot warehouse.
Withers proved less of a draw as a teenager, and her career dwindled. As an adult she appeared in a few films and on television.
Eventually, Withers stepped back in the game as she portrayed 'Josephine the Plumber' for Comet Cleanser in TV commercials that aired during the 1960s and '70s, for about 12 years.
The main advantage, she said, was that unlike the Broadway offers she was getting, the job didn't interfere with her home life in Hollywood. Withers' film appearances as an adult were sporadic, partly because of three marriages and five children. Her most notable credits were Giant (1956) and Captain Newman, M.D.(1963).
She explained in 1974: "Fortunately, my dad had a great love of California land. He kind of dibble-dabbled in real estate in a marvellous way."
In 1947, Withers left Hollywood to live with her first husband, producer-oil man William Moss, in Midland, Texas. The marriage produced three children and ended after seven years. She returned to Hollywood and was paralyzed with arthritis. She recovered after spending five months in a hospital. She had two more children with her second spouse Kenneth Errair, one of the Four Freshmen singing group, who died in 1968. In 1985 she married Thomas Pierson, a travel agency executive.
An interviewer in 1974 asked Withers how she managed to escape the troubles that plagued many child stars in adulthood. A lifelong Presbyterian, she commented, "I always took my troubles to the good Lord, and I never failed to get an answer."
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