Who is Jean Maitland from Stage Door. and what is their importance?

Jean Maitland is a young woman who lives at the Footlights Club with at least a dozen other girls who are all aspiring Broadway actresses. Jean is blond and beautiful and gets more attention for her looks than for her acting skills which are not considered very good. Jean has a dinner date with an older man, David Kingsley, who is a big shot with at the Globe Picture Show Company. When Kingsley comes to pick Jean up, she introduces him to Terry Randall who is her friend and roommate.

Kingsley asks both Jean and Terry to do a screen test. After their work is reviewed, they are both offered standard seven-year contracts to move to Hollywood and act in movies. Terry turns down the offer because she is dedicated to the stage. Jean, however, accepts without hesitation. She wants the security of a weekly paycheck and she figures acting is acting.

Jean becomes a huge success and a big movie star. Her photographs appear in Photoplay and other fan magazines. She returns to New York to star in a play that Kingsley is producing. She visits her old friends at the Footlights Club and brings them a gift for the house—a huge portrait of herself! Kingsley can see that Jean does not have the acting skills for the play and wants to replace her with Terry. Kingsley is fired and takes over the play and hires Terry. But Jean is probably not troubled. She is a huge movie star and acting is acting.