Janice Rule
Encyclopedia

Early life and career

Born in Norwood, Ohio
Norwood, Ohio
Norwood is the second most populous city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The city is an enclave of the larger city of Cincinnati. The population was 21,675 at the 2000 census. Originally settled as an early suburb of Cincinnati in the wooded countryside north of the city, the area is...

, her career included stage, screen and television work. Rule studied ballet and began dancing in Chicago nightclubs in her teens. She soon attracted attention in Hollywood and made her film debut in 1951. Among her noteworthy film roles were Emily Stewart in The Chase
The Chase (1966 film)
The Chase is a 1966 American drama film directed by Arthur Penn, about a series of events set into motion by a prison break. Since one of the two escapees is Charlie "Bubber" Reeves , the escape causes a stir in a nearby town where Bubber is a well-known figure.The film deals with themes of racism...

, Virginia in Goodbye My Fancy, Willie in Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...

's 3 Women
3 Women (film)
3 Women is a 1977 American film directed by Robert Altman, starring Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Janice Rule. The story came directly from a dream Altman had, which he did not fully understand, but nonetheless adapted into a treatment, intending to film without a script...

, journalist Kate Newman in Costa Gavras' 1982 political thriller Missing
Missing (film)
Missing is a 1982 American drama film directed by Costa Gavras, and starring Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea, Charles Cioffi and Janice Rule...

, Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...

's bitter ex-lover in The Swimmer
The Swimmer
"The Swimmer" a short story by American author John Cheever, published in 1964 in the short story collection The Brigadier and the Golf Widow. Originally conceived as a novel and pared down from over 150 pages of notes, it is probably Cheever's most famous and frequently anthologized story...

, and Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner
Kevin Michael Costner is an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and businessman. He has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards, won two Academy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Costner's roles include Lt. John J...

's mother in the bicycle racing
Bicycle racing
Bicycle racing is a competition sport in which various types of bicycles are used. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, bike trials, and cycle speedway. Bicycle racing is recognised as an Olympic sport...

 film American Flyers
American Flyers
American Flyers is a 1985 film starring Kevin Costner, David Marshall Grant, Rae Dawn Chong, Alexandra Paul and Janice Rule about bicycle racing....

.

She was pictured on the cover of Life magazine on Jan. 8, 1951, as a rising young actress. Her films in the 1950s included Starlift
Starlift
Starlift is an American musical film released by Warner Brothers in 1951, starring Janice Rule, Dick Wesson, Ron Hagerthy and Ruth Roman. The film was directed by Roy Del Ruth and written by Karl Lamb and John D. Klorer...

, Holiday for Sinners, A Woman's Devotion and Bell, Book and Candle
Bell, Book and Candle
Bell, Book and Candle is a romantic comedy directed by Richard Quine based on the hit Broadway play by John Van Druten. It starred James Stewart and Kim Novak in their second on-screen pairing . The film, adapted by Daniel Taradash, was Stewart's last film as a romantic lead...

, in which she was the strait-laced fiancée who loses James Stewart.

Rule was in the original cast of William Inge
William Inge
William Motter Inge was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s, he had a string of memorable Broadway productions, and one of these, Picnic, earned him a Pulitzer Prize...

's Picnic
Picnic (play)
Picnic is a 1953 play by William Inge. The play premiered at the Music Box Theatre, Broadway on 19 February 1953 in a Theatre Guild production, directed by Joshua Logan, which ran for 477 performances....

, which was also Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...

's Broadway debut. She played Madge Owens, the naïve beauty. Among her other Broadway shows were The Flowering Peach, The Happiest Girl in the World
The Happiest Girl in the World
The Happiest Girl in the World is a musical with a book by Fred Saidy and Henry Mayers, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, and music taken from the works of Jacques Offenbach....

 and Michael V. Gazzo
Michael V. Gazzo
Michael Vincenzo Gazzo was an American Broadway playwright who later in life became a film and television actor....

's Night Circus, a 1958 production with Ben Gazzara
Ben Gazzara
-Early life:Gazzara was born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer and carpenter. Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He actually lived on E. 29th Street and participated in the drama program at...

.

She was troubled by the attitude toward women's beauty in the studios in the early 1950s. She was afraid of losing her individuality and fought to retain a sense of her own identity. She was in great demand during this era precisely because she could depict strong, non-conventional women. The jaded publicists and studio make up artists described her as "being careless about her appearance." In 1960 she played Elena Nardos, the roommate of Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...

's character, Marilyn Parker, in the Checkmate
Checkmate (TV series)
Checkmate is an American detective television series starring Anthony George, Sebastian Cabot, and Doug McClure. The show aired on CBS Television from 1960 to 1962 for a total of 70 episodes and was produced by Jack Benny's production company, "JaMco Productions" in co-operation with Revue...

 episode The Mask of Vengeance. She appeared as different characters in three episodes of Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...

.

On television she appeared as Barbara Webb and Barbara Wells opposite David Janssen
David Janssen
David Janssen was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive , the starring role in the 1950s hit detective series Richard Diamond, Private Detective , and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.In 1996 TV Guide...

 in two episodes of The Fugitive entitled "Wife Killer" and "The Walls of Night".

Personal life

Rule had a brief engagement to Farley Granger
Farley Granger
Farley Earle Granger was an American actor. In a career spanning several decades, he was perhaps best known for his two collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Rope in 1948 and Strangers on a Train in 1951.-Early life:...

 in 1956. They had appeared in the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 play The Carefree Tree in 1955. Then followed a relationship with Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker was an American stage and film actor best-known for starring in the 1953 Broadway production of Picnic, and in the 1955 film noir cult classic Kiss Me Deadly.-Career:...

, Meeker had played "Hal" in Picnic
Picnic (play)
Picnic is a 1953 play by William Inge. The play premiered at the Music Box Theatre, Broadway on 19 February 1953 in a Theatre Guild production, directed by Joshua Logan, which ran for 477 performances....

.

Rule married and then divorced three men, N. Richard Nash
N. Richard Nash
N. Richard Nash was a writer and dramatist best known for writing Broadway shows, including The Rainmaker.-Early life:...

, Robert Thom
Robert Thom
Robert Thom was an American painter and historian who specialized in the portrayal of historical scenes...

 and Ben Gazzara
Ben Gazzara
-Early life:Gazzara was born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer and carpenter. Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He actually lived on E. 29th Street and participated in the drama program at...

.

During the 1960s she became interested in psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...

. She began studying it in 1973 and received a Ph.D. 10 years later from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute in Los Angeles. She practiced in New York and Los Angeles and continued to act occasionally until her death from a cerebral hemorrhage in 2003.

She is survived by her daughters, Kate Thom Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gazzara, both of Brooklyn; her sisters, Kathleen Rule, of Oceano, Calif.; Ann Nader, of San Marcos, Calif.; and Emily Forbes, of Las Cruces, N.M.; and her brother Ralph, of Mallorca, Spain.

Filmography

  • L.A. Bad (1986)
  • American Flyers
    American Flyers
    American Flyers is a 1985 film starring Kevin Costner, David Marshall Grant, Rae Dawn Chong, Alexandra Paul and Janice Rule about bicycle racing....

     (1985)
  • Missing
    Missing (film)
    Missing is a 1982 American drama film directed by Costa Gavras, and starring Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea, Charles Cioffi and Janice Rule...

     (1982)
  • 3 Women (1977)
  • Kid Blue
    Kid Blue
    Kid Blue is a 1973 film directed by James Frawley and starring Dennis Hopper, Warren Oates, Peter Boyle and Ben Johnson-Plot:Bickford Waner arrives in Dime Box, Texas to find work. He's befriended by Reese Ford and his wife Molly . Molly seduces Bickford...

     (1973)
  • Gumshoe
    Gumshoe
    Gumshoe may refer to:* Gumshoe , a 1986 Nintendo shooter* Gumshoe , Stephen Frears's 1971 directorial debut* Gumshoe, the Hardboiled Detective in the 30s, a 1981 book-based game published by Sleuth Publications...

     (1971)
  • The Devil and Miss Sarah (1971)
  • Trial Run
    Trial Run
    Trial Run is a 1969 TV series following a young lawyer, his adoring secretary, and his employer, a famed lawyer. This show was released January 18, 1969.-Cast:*James Franciscus as Louis Coleman*Janice Rule as Lucille Harkness...

     (1969) (TV)
  • Journey to the Unknown
    Journey to the Unknown
    Journey To The Unknown was a British TV anthology series made in 1968, by Hammer Film Productions Ltd. It has a fantasy, science fiction and supernatural theme. It featured both British and American actors...

     Episode "Stranger in the Family" (1968)
  • Shadow on the Land (1968)
  • The Swimmer
    The Swimmer
    "The Swimmer" a short story by American author John Cheever, published in 1964 in the short story collection The Brigadier and the Golf Widow. Originally conceived as a novel and pared down from over 150 pages of notes, it is probably Cheever's most famous and frequently anthologized story...

     (1968)
  • The Fugitive Episode "The Walls of Night" (1967, ABC)
  • The Ambushers
    The Ambushers
    The Ambushers is the title of a novel by Donald Hamilton first published in 1963, continuing the exploits of assassin Matt Helm.-Plot introduction:Matt Helm conducts a by-the-book assassination in the Central American nation of Costa Verde...

     (1967)
  • Welcome to Hard Times (1967)
  • Alvarez Kelly
    Alvarez Kelly
    Alvarez Kelly is a 1966 war film set in the American Civil War. It starred William Holden and Richard Widmark. The film was based on the real-life Beefsteak Raid of September 1864.-Plot:...

     (1966)
  • The Chase
    The Chase (1966 film)
    The Chase is a 1966 American drama film directed by Arthur Penn, about a series of events set into motion by a prison break. Since one of the two escapees is Charlie "Bubber" Reeves , the escape causes a stir in a nearby town where Bubber is a well-known figure.The film deals with themes of racism...

     (1966)
  • Invitation to a Gunfighter
    Invitation to a Gunfighter
    Invitation to a Gunfighter is a 1964 drama directed by Richard Wilson, starring Yul Brynner and George Segal.-Plot:Confederate veteran Matt Weaver returning home after the Civil War discovers his farm was sold by a banker named Brewster .-Cast:* Yul Brynner as Jules Gaspard d'Estaing* Janice Rule...

     (1964)
  • The Subterraneans
    The Subterraneans
    The Subterraneans is a 1958 novella by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. It is a semi-fictional account of his short romance with an African American woman named Alene Lee in San Francisco in 1953. In the novel she is renamed "Mardou Fox," and described as a carefree spirit who frequents the...

     (1960)
  • The Twilight Zone
    The Twilight Zone
    The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...

     Episode "Nightmare as a Child" (1959)
  • Bell Book and Candle (1958)
  • Wagon Train
    Wagon Train
    Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...

     ("The Zeke Thomas Story") (1957, NBC)
  • Gun for a Coward (1957)
  • A Woman's Devotion (1956)
  • Appointment with Adventure
    Appointment with Adventure
    Appointment with Adventure is a half-hour adventure/dramatic anthology television series broadcast live on CBS from 1955-1956. The program has no host. It aired at 10 p.m...

     (1955, CBS)
  • Rogue's March (1953)
  • Holiday for Sinners (1952)
  • Starlift
    Starlift
    Starlift is an American musical film released by Warner Brothers in 1951, starring Janice Rule, Dick Wesson, Ron Hagerthy and Ruth Roman. The film was directed by Roy Del Ruth and written by Karl Lamb and John D. Klorer...

     with Ron Hagerthy
    Ron Hagerthy
    Ronald F. "Ron" Hagerthy is a former American actor known primarily for his guest-starring and supporting roles on television westerns. In 1952, he portrayed Clipper King in the modern western series, Sky King, with Kirby Grant in the title role of Clipper's uncle, Schuyler "Sky" King, pilot of...

     (1951)
  • Goodbye, My Fancy
    Goodbye, My Fancy
    Goodbye, My Fancy is a 1951 Warner Bros. film starring Joan Crawford, Robert Young, and Frank Lovejoy in a light tale about a woman and her old flame. The screenplay by Ivan Goff was based upon a 1948 play by Fay Kanin. The film was directed by Vincent Sherman and produced by Henry Blanke...

     (1951)
  • Fourteen Hours
    Fourteen Hours
    Fourteen Hours is a 1951 drama film directed by Henry Hathaway, which tells the story of a New York police officer trying to stop a despondent man from jumping to his death from the fifteenth floor of a hotel....

    (1951) (uncredited)

External links

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