- Home
- Jean Stapleton
Jean Stapleton
Known for: ActingJean 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 20
All in the Family
as Edith Bunker 
You've Got Mail
+6
as Birdie Conrad 
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World
+1
as Mrs. Jenkins (voice) 
Klute
+2
as Goldfarb's Secretary 
Michael
+1
as Pansy Milbank 
Dead Man's Folly
as Ariadne Oliver 
Aunt Mary
+1
as Mary Dobkin 
Cold Turkey
as Mrs. Wappler 
Up the Down Staircase
as Sadie Finch 
Bells Are Ringing
+1
as Sue 
Something Wild
as Shirley Johnson 
Damn Yankees
+2
as Sister Miller 
Like Mother Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes
as Irene Silverman 
You Can't Take it With You
as Penny Sycamore 
Fire in the Dark
+2
as Henry Dutton 
Bury Me in Niagara
as Mildred 
Lily Dale
as Mrs. Coons 
Eleanor, First Lady of the World
as Eleanor Roosevelt 
A Matter of Sex
as Irene Wallin 
Baby
as Byrd