Jean Willes
Biography
Jean Willes was an American film and television actress who appeared in about 65 films across a 38-year career. Born in Los Angeles, she started out with a little theater group there before playing small parts at Paramount Pictures. She signed with Columbia Pictures in 1946 and became a mainstay of its short-subject unit, making two dozen comedies with almost every one of the studio's comedy stars and appearing in several Three Stooges shorts. After Edward Bernds, a friend and director, left Columbia in 1952, she did too, with one later Three Stooges short in 1955. Her roles expanded to ingenues, villains, and character parts in films such as The King and Four Queens (1956) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). On television she debuted in an episode of Boston Blackie and worked in dozens of series, including The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, Perry Mason, The Munsters, and Kojak.
65years old at death
- Born Los Angeles
- Died Van Nuys
- Star sign: AriesThe sign runs March 21 to April 19
- Also credited as Jean Donahue
Movie Career
- Films
- 16
- Career span
- 28 years1947 to 1975
First and latest
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Big break
Edward Bernds liked Willes's work and gave her many roles in Columbia shorts and features, among them Blondie Knows Best, where she showed good comedy timing as a flustered nurse.
First role
Willes moved from movies into television work, and her first appearance on the small screen came in an episode of the series Boston Blackie.
Jean Willes movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers1956 Horror, Sci-Fi, Thrilleras Nurse Sally Withers
IMDb rating 7.761K votes
Most often with
Mervyn LeRoy directed two of these films, Raoul Walsh two. Five actors appear in two of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
James Stewart's page
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Murray Hamilton's page
Richard Egan's page
Nick Adams's page
Mervyn LeRoyDirector, 2 films, 1958 to 1959
All films by Mervyn LeRoy
All films by Raoul Walsh
Box office
What Jean Willes's films earned in cinemas worldwide.
Combined worldwide box office
$38.5 million
5 of the 16 films have a worldwide figure.
Of the 16 films: 5 worldwide figure; 3 us gross only; 8 figure not found.
- 5Worldwide figure
- 3US gross only
- 8Figure not found
Highest grossing
The five biggest films earned 100% of the total. The bars are drawn to scale.
- 1$31M79.1% of the total
- 2$3.0M7.8% of the total
- 3$2.8M7.3% of the total
- 4$1.2M3.2% of the total
- 5$1.0M2.6% of the total
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.