A Star is Born

Oh the horror. There's talk of remaking "A Star is Born" yet again, perhaps with Beyoncé and Russell Crowe.

There have been three so far; the 1937 version with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, then Judy Garland's version in 1954 with James Mason, and the ghastly 1976 version with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

The Janet Gaynor version has some great dialog and was one of the early color films. Janet walked away from Oscar-winning success in films in 1938, and returned nearly 20 years later for one more, "Bernardine" with Pat Boone, of all people.


In 1978, she appeared on the Oscar telecast, handing Diane Keaton the Best Actress award for "Annie Hall."


Her last acting gig was on "The Love Boat" in 1981.


Janet Gaynor was riding in a taxi in San Francisco in 1982 with her husband and Mary Martin and her manager. A drunk driver in a van ran a red light at Franklin and California Streets, hitting the cab, and Gaynor suffered 11 broken ribs, a ruptured bladder, a broken collar bone, kidney damage and pelvic fractures. The taxi driver and the drunk sustained minor injuries.


She lived for two more years. Martin's manager, Ben Washer, was killed. The van driver, Robert Cato, was convicted of drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to 3 years.



Gaynor is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery next to her second husband, one of filmdom's great fashion designers, Adrian.


In September of '84, Cato was paroled after getting time off for good behavior. Janet died that same month of injuries attributed to the crash. Rather than pursue another charge against Cato, the DA chose not to investigate her death... at the request of Gaynor's family.