Jan Duggan


Jan Duggan was an American film and stage actress.

Early life

Duggan was born Genevieve Hussey in St. Louis, Missouri. She was the daughter of George W. Hussey Sr. and Mary E. Flynn, she had three siblings. Her father died from a gunshot wound in 1894 in an act that was considered a homicide.
Voice lessons and breathing exercises that were administered for her frailty in childhood helped to prepare her for her career. She sang in light opera and in concerts in St. Louis and taught voice lessons after she moved to Dallas.

Career

Duggan started her theatrical career in 1933 after she was cast as the "Bowery Nightingale" in the revival of The Drunkard in the Los Angeles Theatre Mart. Her film career started in 1934, when W. C. Fields interpolated The Drunkard into his 1934 film comedy The Old Fashioned Way. Fields worked well with Duggan, and she became one of the comedian's favorites; he cast her in several of his films. Some of her other films of the 1930s include Wagon Wheels, The County Chairman, A Damsel in Distress, and Mountain Music during the 1930s. During the 1940s she appeared in Manhattan Heartbeat, The Big Store, and Dudes Are Pretty People, among others.
For 20 of the 24 years from 1933 through 1957, Duggan sang between the second and third acts of The Drunkard at the Theater Mart in Los Angeles. She estimated that the number of performances exceeded 7,300.

Personal life

Duggan died on March 10, 1977, in Anaheim, California, aged 95. She was buried in Grove Hill Memorial Park in Dallas, Texas.

Filmography

Film

The Old Fashioned Way - Cleopatra PepperdayWagon Wheels - Abby MastersForsaking All Others - Mrs. Cobal - Costumer The County Chairman - Abigail Mississippi - Thrilled Passenger in Pilot HouseReckless - Chairwoman Alimony Aches - -- Mary ClydeI Live My Life - Aunt Mathilde, Loud SingerThe Prisoner of Shark Island - Actress at Ford's Theatre Drift Fence - Carrie BinghamSmall Town Girl - Florence Easy to Take - Miss HigieMountain Music - Ma Burnside New Faces of 1937 - Opera singer at audition Wife, Doctor and Nurse - Supt. of NursesLife Begins in College - Telephone Operator A Damsel in Distress - Miss RugglesMidnight Intruder - Mrs. Randolph Scandal Street - Vera VeazyKentucky Moonshine - NurseOne Wild Night - Mrs. HallidayThe Wages of Sin - uncreditedThanks for Everything - Miss Twitchell You Can't Cheat an Honest Man - Mrs. Sludge Inside Story - FloraThe Story of Alexander Graham Bell - Mrs. WinthropThe House of Fear - Sarah HendersonHere I Am a Stranger - Landlady My Little Chickadee - Uppity Little Bend Woman Manhattan Heartbeat - WifeThe Bank Dick - Mrs. Muckle - Mother in Bank Las Vegas Nights - Flirtatious Dowager The Big Store - Henry's Wife The Richest Man in Town - Penelope Kidwell Dudes Are Pretty People - Dude Ranch GuestCalaboose - Radio Girl The Meanest Man in the World - Mrs. Throckmorton

Select Stage Credits