Jean Wallace Biography

Former model Jean Wallace entered films at seventeen, playing a bit in Paramount's Louisiana Purchase (1941). That same year, she married actor Franchot Tone with whom she would appear in Jigsaw (1949) and The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949). Her second husband was actor Cornel Wilde, who upon turning director with 1957's The Devil's Hairpin made it his goal to transform Wallace, whose previous film roles had been largely forgettable, into an actress of stature. As a result, Jean Wallace enjoyed some of her finest on-screen moments in such Wilde-directed productions as Sword of Lancelot (1962), Beach Red (1967) and the pro-ecological No Blade of Glass (1970). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi