Janis Carter; Actress Hosted TV Quiz Show

Janis Carter, Broadway and movie actress who later became co-host of the 1950s quiz show “Feather Your Nest,” has died. She was believed to be 80, although various references indicate she may have been 73 or 77.

She died at her Durham home of a heart attack Saturday, her husband, Julius Stulman, said Tuesday.

Born in Cleveland, Miss Carter earned bachelor’s degrees in English and music at Western Reserve University, now Case Western Reserve University. She later moved to New York to train as an opera singer.

But she quickly moved into show business instead, at first writing radio scripts for “Gangbusters” and supporting herself as a saleswoman at Bloomingdale’s.

Miss Carter appeared in Broadway musicals that included “DuBarry Was a Lady,” starring Bert Lahr and Ethel Merman, and “Panama Hattie.”

Those roles led to a contract with 20th Century Fox, where producer Darryl F. Zanuck had her change her name from Dremann to Carter.

She appeared in several B pictures of the 1940s, often cast as the other woman. Among about 30 films she made for Fox, RKO and Columbia in the 1940s and into the 1950s were “Cadet Girl” in 1941, “Lady of Burlesque” in 1943, “Framed” in 1947, the Lucille Ball comedy “Miss Grant Takes Richmond” in 1949, and the John Wayne-Robert Ryan war story “Flying Leathernecks” in 1951.

In the mid-1950s, Miss Carter appeared with Bud Collyer as host on “Feather Your Nest,” a daytime game show in which couples got the chance to win home furnishings.