Biography
Janet Gaynor (October 6, 1906 – September 14, 1984) was an American actress and painter. One of the most popular actresses of the silent film era, in 1928 Gaynor became the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in three films: Seventh Heaven (1927), Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) and Street Angel (1928). This was the only occasion on which an actress has won for multiple roles. This rule would be changed three years later by AMPAS. Her career continued wi...
Known For
Complete Filmography

And the Oscar Goes To...
2014
as Self (archive footage)
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy ...

Classic Movie Bloopers: Uncensored
2013
as Self (archive footage)
Uncensored. Laugh along with Hollywood's brightest stars in this hilarious compilation of bloopers from some of the biggest movies in history . You'll...

Hooray for Hollywood
1976
as Self (archive footage)
A celebration of Hollywood in the 1930s, featuring a compilation of clips from features and newsreels of the era.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1975
as Self (archive footage)
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.

Hollywood: The Selznick Years
1961
as Self (uncredited)
Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in t...

Hedda Hopper's Hollywood
1960
as Self
A look at the past, present and future of Hollywood as seen through the eyes of the movie columnist.

Bernardine
1957
as Mrs. Ruth Wilson
A teenager pines for (and sings about) his dream girl.

Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940
as Self (archive footage)
This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeche...

Three Loves Has Nancy
1938
as Nancy Briggs
A small-town country homebody goes to New York to find her missing fiancé and gets romantically involved with two sophisticated men.

The Young in Heart
1938
as George-Anne Carleton
A family of confidence tricksters sets their sights on a very rich, very lonely old lady named Miss Fortune.

A Star Is Born
1937
as Esther Blodgett / Vicki Lester
Esther Blodgett is just another starry-eyed farm kid trying to break into the movies. Waitressing at a Hollywood party, she catches the eye of her ido...

Ladies in Love
1936
as Martha Karenye
Three young women in Budapest share living quarters while searching for romance.

Small Town Girl
1936
as Katherine 'Kay' Brannan
Kay is a girl living in a small rural town whose life is just too dull and repetitious to bear. One night, she meets young, handsome, and rich Bob Dak...

The Farmer Takes a Wife
1935
as Molly Larkins
A farmer tries to convince a girl to leave her life on a canal boat to live with him on his farm.

One More Spring
1935
as Elizabeth Cheney
Three people live together in the maintenance shed at Central Park as an alternative to living on the streets.

Servants' Entrance
1934
as Hedda Nilsson aka Helga Brand
Heiress Hedda Nillson certain that her family is about to lose all its money, takes a job as a maid. After the usual trials and tribulations, Hedda fa...

Change of Heart
1934
as Catherine Furness
Catherine and Mack and their close friends Chris and Madge graduate from a West Coast college and fly to New York City to find work.

Carolina
1934
as Joanna Tate
During Civil War Reconstruction, the Connelly family is romantically restored to their former glory when Will Connelly marries a Yankee farm girl, Joa...

Paddy the Next Best Thing
1933
as Paddy Adair
In Ireland, Major Adair’s older daughter Eileen is about to marry Lawrence Blake for his money in order to pay off her father’s debts, even though she...

Adorable
1933
as Marie Christine "Mitzi"
Rebellious Princess Marie "Mitzi" Christine must try to marry the man she loves, instead of the stuffy old prince her parents want her to marry.

State Fair
1933
as Margy Frake
The children of Iowa farmers find love, with mixed results, at the state fair.

Tess of the Storm Country
1932
as Tess Howland
When Captain Howland decides that his daughter Tess is getting a bit to old to continue to go to sea with him, they move into a small cottage on the c...

The First Year
1932
as Grace Livingston
Grace Livingston is leading a happy life in her small town, with her mother and father, being courted by two men, the steady but predictable Tommy Tuc...

Delicious
1931
as Heather Gordon
A comic group of Europeans coming to the USA have romantic and immigration troubles.

Merely Mary Ann
1931
as Mary Ann
Orphan drudge Mary Ann finds love and hope in the arms of a promising but poor composer, John Lonsdale.

Daddy Long Legs
1931
as Judy Abbott
Wealthy Jervis Pendleton acts as benefactor for orphan Judy Abbott, anonymously sponsoring her in her boarding school. But as she grows up, he finds h...

The Man Who Came Back
1931
as Angie Randolph
A spoiled carefree rich kid gets into too much trouble for his father who sends him out on his own to prove himself capable of making a respectable ma...

High Society Blues
1930
as Eleanor Divine
After selling his business in Iowa, Eli Granger and his family move to an exclusive Scarsdale area in New York, where by chance he occupies a house ad...

Sunny Side Up
1929
as Molly Carr
Molly and Bee, sweet young 'working girls,' live in a cheap room over a New York grocery store. Molly's idol, wealthy Jack Cromwell, lives in a Long I...

Christina
1929
as Christina
This part-talkie (17 minutes of dialogue in its 83-minute running time) tells the tale of Christina, the daughter of Dutch toymaker Niklaas. Much to h...

Happy Days
1929
as Janet Gaynor
In Fox's contribution to the all-star revue cycle of early talkies, showboat singer Margie, hearing that the show is in arrears, goes to New York to g...

Lucky Star
1929
as Mary Tucker
Mary, a poor farm girl, meets Tim just as word comes that war has been declared. Tim enlists in the army and goes to the battlefields of Europe, where...

4 Devils
1928
as Marion
Four orphans, raised by an aging clown, becomes a high wire act in a circus. Lost film.

Street Angel
1928
as Angela
A spirited young woman finds herself destitute and on the streets before joining a traveling carnival, where she meets a vagabond painter.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1927
as The Wife (Indre)
A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.

Two Girls Wanted
1927
as Marianna Wright
Marianna Miller, who together with her sister Sarah pounds the pavements, looking for a job. After a period of starvation and deprivation Marianna is ...

7th Heaven
1927
as Diane
In 1910s Paris, a sewer worker disillusioned with Christianity feels his prayers have been answered when he chances upon a street waif and they fall i...

With Love and Hisses
1927
as Extra
Dimwitted Cuthbert Hope is enlisted in the army, and gets himself and his sergeant in constant trouble.
The Horse Trader
1927
as (uncredited)

45 Minutes from Hollywood
1926
as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
A young man visiting Hollywood on family business gets into trouble when he sees a bank robbery in progress, and thinks it is a movie scene.

The Stolen Ranch
1926
as Extra
Returning home from the Great War, "Breezy" Hart (Fred Humes) and his shell-shocked buddy Frank Wilcox (Ralph McCullough) discover the Wilcox property...

Martin of the Mounted
1926
as (uncredited)
Martin, the heroine's father is falsely believed to be in league with fur thieves, but the real villain, not content with robbing the old man of his f...

The Return of Peter Grimm
1926
as Catherine
"Old Peter Grimm makes his ward Katie promise to marry his nephew Frederik [ sic ] and then dies. Frederik proves to be a scapegrace and Peter's spiri...

The Midnight Kiss
1926
as Mildred Hastings
While vain Lenore Hastings busies herself with her romantic pursuits, Lenore's kid sister Mildred tries to keep the family of her boyfriend Thomas fro...

The Blue Eagle
1926
as Rose Kelly
Waterfront rivals George Darcy and Big Tim Ryan are both in love with Rose Kelly, and continue their feud when they join the Navy. After the war, they...

Don't Shoot
1926
as Girl
Nancy Burton, niece of the sheriff, is in love with Deputy Tom Farrell, but she as an aversion to bloodshed. She overhears that he shot and killed an ...

The Man in the Saddle
1926
as Doubtful (uncredited)
A party of campers return to Tom Stewart's ranch resort to report they have been held up by bandits. Lawrence, their guide, explains that it is a stag...

The Galloping Cowboy
1926
as Extra (uncredited)
Bill Crane is a fun-loving cowboy who likes to play pranks with an Australian bull-whip, much to the dismay of his ranch-owning uncle, Pete Perry. Bil...

The Shamrock Handicap
1926
as Lady Sheila O'Hara
Because he refuses to collect rent payments from his impoverished tenants, kindly Irish nobleman Sir Miles Gaffney is in danger of losing his estate. ...
Fade Away Foster
1926
as (uncredited)
Ridin' for Love
1926
as Girl
Robert Kane, owner of the Bar-L Ranch, has received word from his attorney that he will have to marry Ann Scott before the 15th of the month, whom he ...
The Gunless Bad Man
1926
as Gertrude Dowell
A band of desperadoes employed as cow punchers take advantage of an ordinance prohibiting the carrying of firearms to hold up the owner and escape wit...

Oh! What a Nurse!
1926
as (uncredited)
Oh! What a Nurse! is a 1926 American comedy film directed by Charles Reisner and written by Darryl F. Zanuck. The film stars Sydney Chaplin, Patsy Rut...

The Johnstown Flood
1926
as Anna Burger
A dramatic recreation of the Johnstown Flood of 1889.

The Beautiful Cheat
1926
as Extra
A motion picture producer has press agent Jimmy Austin take Mary Callahan, a pretty shopgirl, to Europe. After an extensive publicity campaign, Mary r...

A Punch in the Nose
1926
as Bathing Beauty (uncredited)
A troupe of actors stranded in a small town take job as recreation directors in a sanitarium and hilarity ensues.

Flaming Flappers
1925
as One of the Co-Eds (uncredited)
Glen and his friends are attending a co-ed school and are managing to have a very enjoyable time of it - in fact so much so - that Glen becomes engage...

The Crook Buster
1925
as (uncredited)
A 1925 silent Western

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
1925
as Slave Girl (uncredited)
Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy,...

The Plastic Age
1925
as Co-ed (uncredited)
Hugh Carver is an athletic star and a freshman at Prescott College. He falls in love with Cynthia Day, a popular girl who loves to party, and finds th...

The Teaser
1925
as (uncredited)
Ann Barton, the daughter of a once-wealthy family, is forced to clerk at the cigar counter of a village hotel, where she meets James McDonald, a breez...

The Burning Trail
1925
as (uncredited)
A professional boxer known as "Smiling Bill Flannigan" accidentally kills an opponent in the ring. He gives up the sport and heads west. He gets a job...

Dangerous Innocence
1925
as (uncredited)
Ann, a 19-year-old girl who looks much younger, meets a dashing army major on a boat sailing from Liverpool to Bombay, India, and falls in love with h...

The Haunted Honeymoon
1925
as (uncredited)
The Haunted Honeymoon is a 1925 American silent comedy film directed by Fred Guiol and Ted Wilde, starring Glenn Tryon and Blanche Mehaffey with Janet...

Young Ideas
1924
as (uncredited)
Universal star Laura LaPlante stars in this lighthearted comedy based on Sophie Kerr's magazine story, Relative Values. Octavia Lowden (LaPlante) has ...

Cupid's Rustler
1924
as (uncredited)
Story of a cowboy who falls for a notorious dance-hall girl. The girl is brought back home to the farm, where a crooked ranch foreman who knew the gir...

All Wet
1924
as Extra (uncredited)
Charley Chase has car trouble.