Jean Arthur, born Gladys Georgianna Greene in upstate New York, 20 miles south of the Canadian border. Following her screen debut in a bit part in John Ford's Cameo Kirby (1923), Jean spent several years portraying unremarkable roles as ingenue or leading lady in comedy shorts and cheapie westerns. With the arrival of sound she was able to appear in films whose quality was but slightly improved over that of her past silents.

Her career bloomed with her appearance in Ford's The Whole Town's Talking (1935), in which she played opposite 'Edward G. Robinson', the latter in a dual role as notorious gangster and his look-alike, a befuddled, well-meaning clerk. Here is where her wholesomeness and her flair for farcical comedy began making themselves plain.

The real turning point in her screen career came when she was chosen by Frank Capra to star with Gary Cooper in the now-classic 1936 social comedy, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. In Capra's 1939 masterpiece Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Miss Arthur rescues a besieged hero (James Stewart), protecting him from a band of manipulative and cynical politicians in Washington D.C. And she ends up as a heroine of sorts.

For her performance in George Stevens's The More the Merrier (1943), in which she starred with Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn, the actress received an Academy Award nomination. Janer's illustrious career began ebbing toward the end of the 1940's. She starred with Marlene Dietrich and John Lund in Billy Wilder's 1948 fluff about post-World War II Berlin, A Foreign Affair. Thereafter, the actress would return to the screen but once, again for George Stevens but not in comedy. She starred with Alan Ladd and Van Heflin in Steven's 1953 western, Shane.

This was Jean Arthur's silver-screen swansong. Miss Arthur would provide one more opportunity for a mass audience to appreciate her craft. In 1966 she starred as a witty and sophisticated lawyer, Patricia Marshall, a widow, in The Jean Arthur Show on TV. But her time was apparently past; her TV show ran for only 11 weeks.