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Jane Withers, child actor turned commercial star, dies at 95

Obit Jane Withers
Posted at 10:14 AM, Aug 09, 2021
and last updated 2021-08-09 12:14:41-04

The former child actor Jane Withers, who bedeviled Shirley Temple on the screen and went on to star in a series of B movies that made her a box-office champion, has died. She was 95.

Withers' daughter, Kendall Errair, says her mother died on Saturday, surrounded by loved ones in Burbank, California, Deadline reports.

Withers’ official cause of death has not yet been revealed.

Withers was one of the last remaining stars from the 1930s and 1940s, the height of Hollywood studio dominance.

After a series of minor roles as a child actress, Withers was cast by Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1934 “Bright Eyes,” as the nemesis of lovable Temple, then Hollywood’s most popular star.

After appearing in several films, Withers went on to star in TV commercials for Comet cleanser. Her character’s name in those ads was Josephine the Plumber.