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Jane Novak (January 12, 1896 – February 3, 1990) was a silent film actress. Jane Novak was born in St. Louis, Missouri was born Johana B. Novak, daughter of Joseph, an immigrant from Bohemia, and Barbara Novak. Her father died when she was a child and her mother was left to raise 5 children. Novak attended convent school but ran away with a friend with whom she created a vaudeville act. Although she returned home, an aunt invited her to California where she began acting in motion pictures in 1913 at the age of 17. The actress began in a stage stock company with her uncle in St. Louis.... MORE

Jane Novak (January 12, 1896 – February 3, 1990) was a silent film actress. Jane Novak was born in St. Louis, Missouri was born Johana B. Novak, daughter of Joseph, an immigrant from Bohemia, and Barbara Novak. Her father died when she was a child and her mother was left to raise 5 children. Novak attended convent school but ran away with a friend with whom she created a vaudeville act. Although she returned home, an aunt invited her to California where she began acting in motion pictures in 1913 at the age of 17. The actress began in a stage stock company with her uncle in St. Louis. Novak's career extended into the sound film medium, appeared in a total of 115 movies in her career. She appeared in a movie on her very first day in southern California, before there was a film studio in Hollywood. There she met Frank Newburg, who was, at the time, leading man to Ruth Roland at the Kalem and American Mutoscope and Biograph companies. Newburg took her to a studio in Santa Monica, California, where her aunt, Anne Schafer, was a popular star. Newburg and Novak later married in 1915 and had one daughter. However, the marriage was short lived and the couple divorced in 1918. Novak endured LESS