Jean Hagen

Jean Hagen is popularly known for her character ‘Lina Lamont’ in the movie ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ in the year 1952. She was nominated for the category of ‘Best Supporting Actress’ in ‘Academy Awards’ for her role in the movie ‘Singin’ in the Rain’. She was nominated for the category of ‘Best Supporting Actress’ in the ‘Emma Awards’ for the series named ‘Make Room for Daddy’ in which she acted as ‘Margaret Williams’. She was born on 3rd of August, 1923, in Chicago located in Illinois as Jean Shirley Verhagen. Her father is Christian Verhagen, who was a Dutch, and her mother is Marie, who was from Chicago.

When she was twelve years old they migrated to Elkhart Indiana, and she had completed her graduation from Elkhart High School. She had done her graduation in drama form ‘Northwestern’ in the year 1945 where actress Patricia Neal was her roommate. She was married to Tom Seidel on 12th June 1947. They were blessed with two children named Christine Patricia Seidel, born on 26th August 1950 and Aric Phillip Seidel, born on 19th August 1952. She started giving her shows on the radio in 1940’s by performing in the programs like ‘Light of the World’ and ‘Hollywood Story’. She appeared for the first time on stage in ‘Swan Song’.

She also performed in ‘Another part of the Forest’ and ‘The Traitor’. Her first film was ‘ Adam Click to look into! >> Read More... ’s Rib’ released in the year 1949. In the year 1950, she had done her first lead role in the movie named ‘The Asphalt Jungle’. In 1950, she acted in the film named ‘Noir Side Street’ in which she did the character of a girlfriend. In the year 1957, she did a role in the ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ in Episode 7 of Season 3 in which she did the character of a woman who was trying to get the money back from the mine shaft. Later, in the year 1960, she appeared in an episode of the anthology series named ‘The DuPoint Snow with June Allyson as ‘Elizabeth’.

She also gave the guest appearance on ‘The Andy Griffith’s Show’. In spite of making several guest appearances, she wasn’t able to act as a lead actress in the movies. In the year 1959, she appeared in a lead role in ‘The Shaggy Dog’ and since then she got opportunities to act only in the supporting roles. In 1960’s, her health began to degrade, and she started spending several days in the hospital. In the year 1976, she returned to acting with a character role in the series named ‘Starsky and Hutch’ and also in another series named ‘The Streets of San Francisco’. In the year 1977, she acted in her last TV series named ‘Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn’.

She passed away on 29th of August, 1977 and was 54 years old. She died due to esophageal cancer at ‘Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital’. She was buried in ‘Chapel of the Pines Crematory’.

Another Version of this story…

Jean Hagen was an American actress who was born on 3rd August 1923, in Chicago, and died on August 29 1977. She was born as Jean Shirly Verhagen. Hagen graduated from Elkhart High School at the age of 18. She went on to graduate from Northwest University, Illinois, in the year 1922 with a degree in Dramatics. Her first Broadway show appearance was with Swan Song. 

She was known best for her roles in Make Room for Daddy, Singin’ In the Rain and Asphalt Jungle. Hagen was nominated for her role in Singin’ in The Rain for an Academy Award and nominated thrice for Emmy Award for Make Room for Daddy. The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, was her first opportunity to have worked with the American actor and author, Sterling Hayden. She gained a lot of praise for her role. She was a part of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Enough Rope for Two”. 

Hagen got married to Tome Seidel, in 1947, and later, they got divorced. She had two children: Christine Patricia and Aric Phillip. It was reported that Hagen was a victim of domestic violence, which led to her appealing for the divorce. She lived till the age of 52, until the year of 1977 and lost her life to cancer. 

After many strong roles in movies, Jean Hagen was cast for sitcoms and shows, which showed another turn of a successful path of her career. However, after a certain point, the number of offers she was getting decreased and she was left with making guest appearances on many shows.

 Soon enough, her roles as starring characters slowly started dying off. She never recovered from that downfall in her career after that. She did many guest appearances and side roles in shows and films like The Shaggy Dog. She was a part of the movie, Sunrise at Campobello.