Bonnie Lenora "Jane" Nigh[2] (February 25, 1925 – October 5, 1993)[citation needed] was an American actress who appeared in more than 40 films and television shows.[3]
Her sister Nancy was also an actress, and her mother worked in research at a film studio.[4] Nigh worked as a stenographer at a Sears Roebuck store before she became an actress.[2]
She was discovered in 1944 by Arthur Wenzler while working in a defense plant. (Another source identifies Ivan Kahn as the 20th Century Fox talent scout.)[5] That same year she signed a five-year contract with Fox, and joined the studio's stock company. Her first screen appearance was in the major motion picture Laura. She continued to play incidental roles in Fox features, including State Fair (1945), Dragonwyck (1946), and Give My Regards to Broadway (1948, as June Nigh).
When her Fox contract lapsed, she began freelancing and appeared in minor features for Columbia, RKO, and Robert L. Lippert. In 1949, she participated in a Life magazine photo layout, in which she posed with up-and-coming actresses Marilyn Monroe, Lois Maxwell, Cathy Downs, Suzanne Dalbert, Enrica Soma, and Laurette Luez. This led to a contract with Monogram Pictures, where at last Jane Nigh received starring roles. She was usually cast in wholesome outdoor features filmed in Cinecolor, including County Fair (1950), Blue Grass of Kentucky (1950), and Rodeo (1952).
In 1952 Nigh joined the cast of the TV series Big Town, with Patrick McVey as the city editor of a newspaper, and Nigh as his secretary Lorelei Kilbourne. She played the role for two seasons.[6] She remained a working actress in television through 1961, returning to the motion-picture screen only once, back at Monogram (renamed Allied Artists); she was featured as a dumb blonde in Hold That Hypnotist (1957) with The Bowery Boys.
Nigh was married four times, to three men, all ending in divorce. Her longest marriage was to her second husband, Navy lieutenant John Baker,[5] while she was married twice to Norman Davidson Jr.[citation needed]
She had four children, three girls and a boy, though her first, a girl, died very soon after birth in 1952.[7]
