Jean Stapleton
Actor
Biography
Jean Stapleton was born Jeanne Murray in Manhattan, New York City, to Marie A. (Stapleton), an opera singer, and Joseph Edward Murray, a billboard advertising salesman. Her paternal grandparents were Irish. She was a cousin of actress Betty Jane Watson. Other relatives in show business were her uncle, Joseph E. Deming, a vaudevillian; and her brother Jack Stapleton, a stage actor. She graduated from Wadleigh High School, NYC, in 1939, and attended Hunter College. She worked as a secretary before becoming an actress. Stapleton made her stage debut at the Greenwood Playhouse, Peaks Island, Maine, in the summer of 1941, and her New York stage debut in "The Corn Is Green" (1948). She appeared on Broadway in the musicals "Damn Yankees" (1955) and "Bells Are Ringing" (1956), and later repeated her roles in the movie versions (Damn Yankees (1958) and Bells Are Ringing (1960)). Her other Broadway roles included the original companies of "Rhinoceros" (1961) and "Funny Girl" (1964). Stapleton also played Abby Brewster in the 1986-87 revival of "Arsenic and Old Lace".
Filmography
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World
as Mrs. Jenkins (voice) 1998
Michael
as Pansy Milbank 1996
Klute
as Goldfarb’s Secretary 1971
Dead Man's Folly
as Ariadne Oliver 1986
Bells Are Ringing
as Sue 1960
Damn Yankees
as Sister Miller 1958
Something Wild
as Shirley Johnson 1961
The Trial
as Landlady (uncredited) 1993
Cold Turkey
as Mrs. Wappler 1971
Up the Down Staircase
as Sadie Finch 1967
The Muppets Go Hollywood
as Self 1979
The Last Laugh
as Self 2016
Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme
as Mother Goose 1990
The Buddy System
as Mrs. Price 1984
Cinderella
as Fairy Godmother 1985
Pursuit of Happiness
as Lorraine 2001