Actress Jane Wyatt dies at 96

LOS ANGELES – Jane Wyatt, the lovely, serene actress who for six years on “Father Knows Best” was one of TV’s favorite moms, has died. She was 96.

Wyatt died Friday in her sleep of natural causes at her Bel-Air home, according to publicist Meg McDonald. She experienced health problems since suffering a stroke at 85, but her mind was sharp until her death, her son Christopher Ward said.

Wyatt had a successful film career in the 1930s and ‘40s, notably as Ronald Colman’s lover in 1937’s “Lost Horizon.”

But it was her years as Robert Young’s TV wife, Margaret Anderson, on “Father Knows Best” that brought the actress her lasting fame.

She appeared in 207 half-hour episodes from 1954 to 1960 and won three Emmys as best actress in a dramatic series in the years 1958 to 1960. The show began as a radio sitcom in 1949; it moved to television in 1954.

The role wasn’t the only time in her 60 years in films and TV that Wyatt was cast as the warm, compassionate wife and mother. She even played Mr. Spock’s mom in the original “Star Trek” series and the feature “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.”

Wyatt was born in Campgaw, N.J., into a wealthy family in 1910, according to McDonald.

She left college after two years to apprentice at the Berkshire Playhouse in Stockbridge, Mass. While acting with Lillian Gish in “Joyous Season” in 1934, she got a contract offer from Universal Pictures. She agreed, on condition she could spend half each year in the theater.

Wyatt is survived by sons Christopher, of Piedmont, Calif., and Michael of Los Angeles; three grandchildren, Nicholas, Andrew and Laura; and five great-grandchildren.