Jane Frazee began in show business in childhood as one-half of a singing sister act. The girls split up amicably in the late 1930s when Jane's sister Ruth gave up performing to marry screenwriter Norman Krasna. Jane went on to a contract with Universal pictures in 1940, supporting such comedians as Abbott and Costello (Buck Privates), Olsen and Johnson (Hellzapoppin') and the Ritz Brothers (Hi'ya Chum), and headlining several "B" musicals. In the late 1940s she began appearing in Republic westerns, where she was one of Roy Rogers' favorite leading ladies. After making her last feature film in 1951, Frazee co-starred with George O'Hanlon in the "Behind the Eight-Ball" (aka "Joe McDoakes") short-subject series at Warner Bros, and also appeared regularly on the 1952 TV sitcom Beulah. Long inactive in show business, Frazee began selling California real estate in the early 1970s. Married four times, Jane Frazee was at one time the wife of actor/director/studio executive Glenn Tryon.
by Hal Erickson
biography
