| Jan Duggan | |
| Birth Name: | Genevieve Hussey |
| Birth Date: | November 6, 1881 |
| Birth Place: | St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Anaheim, California, U.S. |
| Resting Place: | Grove Hill Memorial Park, Dallas, Texas |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 1930 - 1942 |
| Children: | 1 |
Jan Duggan (born Genevieve Hussey; November 6, 1881 - March 10, 1977)[1] was an American film and stage actress.[2]
Duggan was born Genevieve Hussey in St. Louis, Missouri.[3] She was the daughter of George W. Hussey Sr. and Mary E. Flynn, she had three siblings. Her father died from a gunshot wound in 1894 in an act that was considered a homicide.
Voice lessons and breathing exercises that were administered for her frailty in childhood helped to prepare her for her career. She sang in light opera and in concerts in St. Louis and taught voice lessons after she moved to Dallas.
Duggan started her theatrical career in 1933 after she was cast as the "Bowery Nightingale" in the revival of The Drunkard in the Los Angeles Theatre Mart. Her film career started in 1934, when W. C. Fields interpolated The Drunkard into his 1934 film comedy The Old Fashioned Way. Fields worked well with Duggan, and she became one of the comedian's favorites; he cast her in several of his films. Some of her other films of the 1930s include Wagon Wheels, The County Chairman, A Damsel in Distress, and Mountain Music during the 1930s. During the 1940s she appeared in Manhattan Heartbeat, The Big Store, and Dudes Are Pretty People, among others.
For 20 of the 24 years from 1933 through 1957, Duggan sang between the second and third acts of The Drunkard at the Theater Mart in Los Angeles. She estimated that the number of performances exceeded 7,300.[4]
Duggan died on March 10, 1977,[1] in Anaheim, California, aged 95.[5] She was buried in Grove Hill Memorial Park in Dallas, Texas.[6]