Vivi Janiss

Vivi Janiss, born Vivian Audrey Jamison on May 29, 1911, in Nebraska, and died September 7, 1988, was an American actress whose career spanned Broadway, film, radio, and television. She was the only child of Earl Alexander Jamison, born August 3, 1889, in Nebraska, and died June 17, 1962, in California, and Helen Matilda Jamison née Liljgren. Her parents were traveling theatrical performers working across the Midwest during the 1920s and 1930s before eventually settling in California.

Janiss made her Broadway debut in the 1934 Ziegfeld Follies, where she was billed as Vivian Janis. On January 4, 1934, she and fellow cast member Bob Cummings, who performed under the stage name Brice Hutchins, gave the first live performance of the Vernon Duke and E. Y. Harburg song "I Like The Likes of You." She returned to Broadway in 1947, appearing in Miracle in the Mountains. Her time in the 1934 Follies also marked the beginning of her relationship with Cummings, whom she married in 1935. The two divorced in 1943. She subsequently married actor John Larch, who appeared as the police chief in the 1971 Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry, and remained married to Larch until her death.

Her film credits include The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (1955), Man on the Prowl (1957), and the 1978 CBS television film First, You Cry, a story about breast cancer starring Mary Tyler Moore. In 1955, she portrayed the historical figure Mary Todd Lincoln in the anthology series TV Reader's Digest episode "How Chance Made Lincoln President," opposite Richard Gaines as Abraham Lincoln. Beyond her on-screen work, Janiss provided the voice of Daisy Duck for Walt Disney and accumulated extensive radio credits, including appearances on Escape, Suspense, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, On Stage, and both the radio and television versions of Gunsmoke.

Her television work was prolific. From 1952 to 1955, she appeared in five episodes of Jack Webb's Dragnet, having also performed on the radio version of the series. Between 1953 and 1957, she was cast in four episodes of the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. From 1954 to 1959, she played Myrtle Davis in eleven episodes of Father Knows Best, the Robert Young situation comedy that aired on both NBC and CBS. From 1959 to 1962, she had supporting roles in six episodes of the NBC Western series Wagon Train, featuring Ward Bond and John McIntire.

Janiss appeared in two episodes of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone. The first, "The Fever," season one, episode seventeen, aired January 29, 1960, and featured her alongside Everett Sloane. The second, "The Man in the Bottle," aired October 7, 1960, in which she played Edna Castle opposite Luther Adler as her husband, a pawnbroker named Arthur Castle; a genie grants the couple four wishes that ultimately fail to lift them from their circumstances but lead them to appreciate their lives. In 1957, she joined Frank Ferguson as a guest star in the State Trooper episode "No Blaze of Glory," set in Goldfield, Nevada, and returned to the series in 1959 in the episode "Excitement at Milltown," playing Ella Westover alongside Dayton Lummis and Suzanne Lloyd. On December 4, 1959, she appeared in the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse episode "The Hanging Judge," alongside James Whitmore, John McIntire, Jean Hagen, Buddy Ebsen, and Warren Berlinger.

Janiss and her husband John Larch appeared together on multiple television productions. On November 23, 1959, they co-starred as Johnny and Elsie in the Tales of Wells Fargo episode "End of an Era." On May 23, 1960, they played Isaiah and Rebecca Macabee in the Goodyear Theatre episode "The Proud Earth." On November 9, 1960, they appeared as Ben and Sarah Harness in the Wagon Train episode "The Cathy Eckhart Story," with Susan Oliver in the lead role. On October 3, 1961, they were cast as John and Mary Clark in the series premiere of ABC's The New Breed, "No Fat Cops," starring Leslie Nielsen. On December 19, 1968, the couple appeared together in the Hawaii Five-O episode "Yesterday Died and Tomorrow Won't Be Born."

Among her many other television credits, Janiss appeared three times on The F.B.I. starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., and twice each on The Virginian and Ben Casey. Single appearances included roles on Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, Lawman, Trackdown, Cimarron City, Route 66, Have Gun – Will Travel, Follow the Sun, Outlaws, Laramie, 87th Precinct, Perry Mason, Mannix, and The Streets of San Francisco. In 1977, she played a pawnshop proprietor in the Rockford Files episode "Second Chance." Her final television appearances came in 1979, in two episodes of Barnaby Jones with Buddy Ebsen and one episode of House Calls, starring Wayne Rogers.