Met her future husband at age 12 on the Warner Brothers lot of "Now Voyager".
Promising American juvenile actress who started quite big in a couple of
Bette Davis' critically acclaimed tearjerkers of the early
1940s. After making her debut as Tina, an emotionally depressed child,
who becomes the object of Davis' affection in
Now, Voyager (1942), she moved directly in the role of Babette
in the Lillian Hellman classic Watch on the Rhine (1943),
as Davis' daughter. She retired from acting while still a teenager.
Later became a pianist, organist and choir director.
Wilson claimed that, after filming The Creeper (1948) at the age of 18, she abandoned her acting career because she didn't photograph well.
Janis Wilson passed on November 17, 2003 of a stroke in Spokane, Washington, where she lived with her husband, Sidney Peteryl. He passed away on June 6, 2007 in Spokane.
She and her husband moved to Spokane, Washington in 1994.
Her husband Sidney was an inventor who designed high-contrast, flat-screen navigation display systems for airplanes and spacecraft. He also held patents for ceramics and firefighting products.