Talk:Jessie Royce Landis

Latest comment: 12 years ago by FullnessOfTime in topic Disputed birthyear

Disputed birthyear

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While most sites I've checked report her year of birth as 1904, IMDB gives it as 1896, specifically mentioning in the mini bio that while she claimed to have been born the same year as Cary Grant, she was actually over seven years older, so I'm going to change this article accordingly. Clarityfiend 19:08, 15 August 2006 (UTC)Reply

Clarityfiend: Do you have any source besides IMDB? I've read the minibio on IMDB and I'm not sure if it's authoritative. Another source would cinch it for me. --SeanO 00:26, 16 August 2006 (UTC)Reply

No. But it is IMDB's business and the way they phrase it indicates they're sure about it. Plus it is plausible for an actress to conveniently "lose" a few years. Clarityfiend 04:59, 16 August 2006 (UTC)Reply

I've emailed the author of the minibio and asked him for his source. I agree with you she probably shaved it, but I want to hunt it down. Once confirmed, the discrepency is probably worth noting in the article (cf: birthdates for Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong) --SeanO 23:47, 16 August 2006 (UTC)Reply
If I'm wrong, could you also fix the trivia item in North by Northwest about the Grant-Landis age difference? Thanks. Clarityfiend 06:07, 17 August 2006 (UTC)Reply

I opened up this cold case. The census records are definitive. The 1900 Census lists her as a three-year-old born in November 1896. She's 13 in the 1910 census and 23 in the 1920 census, already married to Lester P. Landis. (He later appears as Perry L. Landis in the Evanston city directories). This means that the year of marriage (1923) given in the infobox is wrong, probably to disguise the eight years she shaved off her age, but I do not know what the correct date is. Perhaps the next researcher can nail that down. FullnessOfTime (talk) 02:13, 14 May 2012 (UTC)Reply

As a final note I see that in the 1920 census the couple has a 3 1/2 year old son named Medbury Landis. That doesn't speak directly to the date of their marriage, but my guess is it was probably 1915 or 1916. FullnessOfTime (talk) 12:07, 14 May 2012 (UTC)Reply