BERKELEY.- The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive presents the exhibit Janet Gaynor: A Centennial Celebration . Vulnerable yet strong, demure yet vivacious and piquant, actress Janet Gaynor (1906–1984) had the rare ability to project real emotions in a naturalistic, down-to-earth style. Gaynor earned her first break with a small but crucial part in The Johnstown Flood (1926); a long-term contract with Fox led to starring roles in several more studio movies that brought her to the attention of the great directors F. W. Murnau and Frank Borzage. (Borzage is a featured director at PFA this season: see our series Frank Borzage's Philosophy of Desire.) Her powerful work in Murnau's Sunrise (1927) together with radiant performances in Borzage's 7th Heaven (1927) and Street Angel (1928) won her the first-ever Academy Award for Best Actress. 7th Heaven was the first pairing of delicate Gaynor with gawky leading man Charles Farrell; they were an unlikely but irresistible team that stayed together through twelve movies, successfully making the transition from silents to sound. Gaynor remained a top box-office draw well into the 1930s; her career in talkies peaked with an Oscar-nominated performance in A Star Is Born (1937), and she retired from show business shortly thereafter. This series of archival gems and sparkling new prints will show you why Gaynor was a perennial favorite of the American public—she charmed, she appealed, and she endured.

A free souvenir program guide accompanying the series, published by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, will be available at the box office.