Don't Ask About Him

Jane Wyman, who starred in the television series "Falcon Crest" while her ex-husband Ronald Reagan was in the White House, died of undisclosed causes Sept. 10 at her home in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Off Limits

She forbade reporters to ask about the U.S. President. She said she felt she had long proved herself as an actress and celebrity in her own right and walked away from those who questioned her about subjects she considered off-limits.

Too Boring

While making "Johnny Belinda," she ended her eight-year marriage to Reagan, then a B-list actor starting his political career in the Screen Actors Guild. Initially attracted to his modest and mild demeanor, Ms. Wyman said she they grew apart as she focused more on her fast-moving career and he on his political interests.

She once described becoming bored by his breakfast table commentary "expounding on the far right, far left, the conservative right, the conservative left."

A Daughter and Son

They had a daughter, Maureen (who died in 2001) and adopted a son, Michael, now a right-wing radio talk show host. Another child died in 1947, soon after birth, and Ms. Wyman left for New York. She announced to a reporter her dissatisfaction with the marriage but neglected to tell Reagan, who tried to win her back before eventually giving up.

In 1952, Reagan married actress Nancy Davis, who became his spouse during his governorship of California and during his eight years in the White House.

Oscar Winning

Jane Wyman, who won an Academy Award as best actress for "Johnny Belinda," had a career spanning six decades and more than 80 films, Ms. Wyman earned Oscar nominations for "The Yearling" (1946), as the backwoods wife of Gregory Peck; "The Blue Veil" (1951), as a nursemaid viewed over many decades; and "Magnificent Obsession" (1954), as a blind woman romanced by a playboy (Rock Hudson) who accidentally killed her saintly husband.

Early Role Cut

Her biggest early-career role, in a party scene in the William Powell-Carole Lombard screwball comedy "My Man Godfrey" (1936), was mostly cut.

She grieved at the time but years later tried to have a sense of humor:

"I'm still in the picture, next to the monkey and the organ grinder . . . That monkey bit me, too."

'Stage Fright'

The next year, she went to England to film "Stage Fright" with director Alfred Hitchcock. He reportedly accepted her reluctantly, complaining she was more a star than an actress. He fought with her as she tried to glamorize the outfits she was supposed to wear while playing a poor drama student trying to clear a friend (Richard Todd) of murder.

'Essentially Alone'

She was comfortable with solitude, telling one reporter:

"I have always felt that I was essentially alone at the beginning of my life and that I will be essentially alone at the end of it."

Adapted from an obituary appearing in The Washington Post by Adam Bernstein on September 11, 2007.