Jean Stapleton

Stapleton, Jean [neé Jeanne Murray] (b. 1923), character actress. The bony, precise performer, forever remembered for her years on television, enjoyed a busy theatre career before, during, and after her glory days on the tube. She was born in New York and educated at Hunter College, after which she worked as a secretary while studying acting at the American Apprentice Theatre, the American Actors Company, and the American Theatre Wing. Stapleton was featured as the baseball fan Sister in Damn Yankees (1955) and as the answering service owner Sue in Bells Are Ringing (1956). While she played supporting roles on Broadway in the 1960s, Stapleton performed a variety of major characters in stock, particularly at the Totem Pole Playhouse in Pennsylvania. She returned there for many summers even after she became famous on television. When Stapleton reappeared on Broadway in 1986, she was a bona fide stage star in Arsenic and Old Lace (1986), though later she preferred the more intimate Off‐Broadway venue, where she acted in several dramas by Horton Foote.

• Genres: Soundtrack
• Instrument: Vocals, Performer, Cast

Biography

"Those were the days..." Jean Stapleton is most remembered for and recognized as the beloved "dingbat" and grandmotherly Edith Bunker from the hit '70s television series All in the Family (1971-1979). Her character's hitch: a sweet soul adjusting to a changing world a whole lot better than her bigot husband, Archie. Both characters became pop icons and props from the show have been retired to the Smithsonian Museum. After winning three Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy and three Golden Globes for Best Actress in a Television Series during the run of the show, the character Edith also appeared on the first season of the spin-off, entitled Archie's Place.

Relatively unknown until her stint on the series, Stapleton, typically a character actor, had quite a stage career. Even with her television success, continues to favor the stage today. She appeared in the original casts of Funny Girl and Damn Yankees early in her career. In 1989, she won the Obie Award for both The Birthday Party and Mountain Language. In the later part of the 20th century, she appeared in revivals of Arsenic and Old Lace, The Cherry Orchard, and The Matchmaker.

Stapleton never did another successful network television series; there was a brief attempt with Baghdad Café, co-starring Whoopi Goldberg, and she also turned down an offer for the lead part in Murder, She Wrote. But in the 20 years after All in the Family, Stapleton continued to make a number of made-for-TV movies such as Eleanor: Woman of the World (playing the part of Eleanor Roosevelt) as well as several features. She undertook the role of Eleanor a second time in the solo stage show Eleanor: Her Secret Journey. She also made memorable guest appearances on sitcoms like Grace Under Fire (for which she received an Emmy nomination), Murphy Brown, and Everybody Loves Raymond. She also received a Cable Ace Award nomination for the mini-series Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, in which she played the title role (from the children's books) and did many movies, including Up the Down Staircase, The Buddy System, and Michael. Stapleton's unique voice has been heard in the Disney feature Pocahontas and the family film Dr. DoLittle.

She got her start on-stage in the '40s and made her first appearance on television in the 1954 series Woman With a Past. Norman Lear then cast her in the movie Cold Turkey in the early '70s and then, ultimately, as Edith. She studied at Hunter College in New York as well as the American Apprentice Theater, the American Actor's Company, and American Theater Wing. Married to producer and director William H. Putch from 1957 until his death in 1983, they had a daughter, Pamela, who is a producer, and a son, John, who is an actor and director. ~ Sandy Lawson, All Music Guide

• Born: Jan 19, 1923 in New York City, New York
• Occupation: Actor
• Active: '70s
• Major Genres: Comedy
• Career Highlights: Bells Are Ringing, You've Got Mail, Cold Turkey
• First Major Screen Credit: Bells Are Ringing (1960)

Biography

Each and every week from 1971 to 1980, the popular TV sitcom All in the Family was heralded by the glass-shattering offkey singing of Edith Bunker, aka "Dingbat." This tended to obscure the fact that Jean Stapleton, the woman who so brilliantly portrayed Edith not only possessed a lilting, well-modulated singing voice, but also was as far removed as possible from a "dingbat" in real life. While attending Hunter College, Stapleton began her performing career as a member of the Robert Shaw Chorale. She made her professional stage debut in 1941, then went on to fruitful work-study associations with the American Apprentice Theater, the American Actors Company, the American Theater Wing, and director-acting coach Harold Clurman. Her first Broadway appearance was in the 1953 production In the Summer House; the following year, she made her TV bow as a semi-regular on the daytime drama Woman With a Past. She endeared herself to Broadwayites with her wistfully funny characterizations in the SRO musicals Damn Yankees, Bells Are Ringing, and Funny Girl, roles that she would carry over into the film versions of these hits. In 1958, she made her first appearance at the Totem Pole Playhouse in Fayetteville, PA, a summer-stock operation managed by her husband, Bill Putch.

Most of Stapleton's onscreen work in the 1960s and 1970s could be found in New York-based movies (Something Wild, Up the Down Staircase, Klute) and TV series (Car 54, Where Are You, The Defenders, The Patty Duke Show). Her earliest association with producer-director Norman Lear occurred in the 1969 theatrical feature Cold Turkey, in which she played a neurotic housewife named Edith. When Lear began assembling the cast for his upcoming TV sitcom All in the Family, he immediately thought of Stapleton for the role of slow-witted, strident, essentially kindhearted Bronx housewife Edith Bunker. Before leaving the series in 1980, Stapleton earned three Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Edith -- not to mention the undying affection of millions.

Once free of All in the Family, she sought out roles that she hoped would demonstrate her versatility: She played the distraught mother of a drug-addicted teenager (enacted by her real-life son, John Putch) in the made-for-TV Angel Dusted (1981), and effectively portrayed Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1982 TV biopic Eleanor: First Lady of the World. Stapleton kept her comic skills sharpened by appearing in the made-for-cable productions of Shelley Duvall: She was terrific as a no-nonsense Fairy Godmother ("Trust me. This is important.") in Duvall's Faerie Tale Theater adaptation of Cinderella, and even better as the title characters in Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. In 1990, she briefly returned to weekly television as co-star (with Whoopi Goldberg) of the offbeat sitcom Bagdad Café. Jean Stapleton was then an infrequent but always welcome TV guest-star presence; in 1995, she startled (and delighted) her Edith Bunker fans with her con brio portrayal of Lea Thompson's sex-starved aunt in an episode of Caroline in the City. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide