Jan Clayton Biography

Fast Facts

• In 2012, she was posthumously inducted into the New Mexico Entertainment Hall of Fame
• Volunteered as a receptionist at the Alcoholism Council of Greater Los Angeles in the 1970s
• Studied music and drama at Gulf Park College for Women in Gulfport, Miss
• One of her notable early roles was as an unbilled singing inmate in "The Snake Pit․"
• Best known to television audiences for playing mother Ellen Miller on "Lassie" from 1954-1957
• A premiere musical star, she toured with national revival companies of "Show Boat," "South Pacific" and "The King and I․"
• Drove a Rolls Royce with personalized license plates that read "Jan Who․"
• In the 1970s, she was the spokesperson for the "Schick" campaign to stop smoking and promote weight loss
• Starred in several unsold pilots, one in which she played a college English teacher, another in which she was trying to put her daughter through college by working in a restaurant and a third based on the book "Cheers for Miss Bishop․"
• Christened a Goodyear blimp the Volunteer VI because of her role in the film about Navy blimps "This Man's Navy․"