Jane Connell

Connell was born in Berkeley, California, to Louis Wesley and Mary (née Sperry) Bennett.[https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/2190/?name=Jane_Bennet&name_x=s&spouse=James_Jamieson&fh=20&fsk=MDsxOTsyMA-61--61- 1847-Current results for Jane Bennet] © 2006-2021 Ancestry. Retrieved January 14, 2021 She majored in drama at the University of California, where she met her future husband.{{cite news |last1=Lewis |first1=Emory |title=The petite clown is a big success |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30763800/jane_connell/ |accessdate=19 April 2019 |work=The Record |date=January 19, 1975 |location=New Jersey, Hackensack |page=B-17|via = Newspapers.com}}

Connell began her career with her husband Gordon, entertaining in San Francisco night clubs such as The Purple Onion and the Hungry I. Eventually the couple moved to New York City, where Connell made her Off-Broadway debut in the 1955 revival of The Threepenny Opera, a long-running hit at the Theatre de Lys. In the London production of Once Upon a Mattress, Connell starred as Winifred, the role that Carol Burnett had originated in New York.{{cite web |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/broadway-jane-connell-dies-mame-635489 |title=Broadway Star Jane Connell Dies at 87 |last=Barnes |first=Mike |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=2013-09-24 |accessdate=2019-06-22 |quote=For a London production of Once Upon a Mattress in 1960, Connell starred as the wacky Princess Winifred, the role that brought Burnett stardom on Broadway. }} Her Broadway debut came in the role of Mrs. Peachum in Threepenny Opera (1955).{{cite web |title=Jane Connell |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/jane-connell-72236 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |accessdate=19 April 2019 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419200628/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/jane-connell-72236 |archivedate=19 April 2019}}

Connell's most prominent success came in 1966 when she was cast as Agnes Gooch in the original Broadway production of Jerry Herman's Mame. She recreated the role in the 1974 screen adaptation after Lucille Ball, the film's star, became dissatisfied with Madeline Kahn, who originally had been signed to play Gooch.{{citation|title=Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia|author=Michael Karol|year=2004|publisher=iUniverse|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQTCAOPyYYUC&q=%22Jane+Connell%22&pg=RA1-PA77|isbn=978-0-595-29761-0}}

Only four-foot-eleven, Connell was described as a master of the large comic gesture in The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, which described her as "a tiny woman with a giant, squeaking voice".[http://www.playbill.com/news/article/182475-Jane-Connell-Character-Actress-Known-for-Mame-Dies-at-87 Jane Connell obituary in playbill.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223025500/http://playbill.com/news/article/182475-Jane-Connell-Character-Actress-Known-for-Mame-Dies-at-87|date=2014-02-23}}; accessed December 11, 2013.

Connell was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in Me and My Girl (1986).{{cite news |last1=Albrecht |first1=Ernest |title=Nomination surprises Jane Connell, who'd like to go home with 'Tony' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30762309/jane_connell/ |accessdate=19 April 2019 |work=The Central New Jersey Home News |date=May 31, 1987 |location=New Jersey, New Brunswick |page=G 5|via = Newspapers.com}} Additional Broadway credits include New Faces of 1956 (1956); Drat! The Cat! (1965); Dear World (1969), once again supporting Angela Lansbury; the short-lived 1983 revival of Mame, in which Lansbury reprised her 1966 lead role; Lend Me a Tenor (1989); Crazy for You (1992); and Moon Over Buffalo (1995), starring Carol Burnett; The Full Monty (2000), succeeding Kathleen Freeman, who died during her run in the show, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2001).

Jane and Gordon Connell enjoyed extensive theatre careers. They appeared together on Broadway in Lysistrata (November 1972), starring Melina Mercouri in the title role. She appeared in New York City Center Encores! production of Call Me Madam (February 1995), and the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall concert presentation of Noël Coward's Sail Away (November 1999).

Jane Connell's film roles included Ladybug Ladybug (1963), Trilogy (1969), Kotch (1971), Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976), House Calls (1978), Rabbit Test (1978), Robot in the Family (1994) and Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde (1995).{{cite web |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/broadway-jane-connell-dies-mame-635489 |title=Broadway Star Jane Connell Dies at 87 |last=Barnew |first=Mike |work=Hollywood Reporter |date=2013-09-24 |accessdate=2020-04-06 |quote=She starred in director Frank Perry’s Cold War drama Ladybug Ladybug (1963) and also appeared in such films as Kotch (1971), Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood, House Calls (1978), the Joan Rivers-scripted and directed Rabbit Test (1978) and Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde (1995). }} Her decades of television work included six appearances on Bewitched, where she variously played Mother Goose, Martha Washington, Queen Hepzibah and, in a memorable turn as Queen Victoria, often uttered the phrase "We are not amused." She also appeared on Green Acres, All in the Family, Love, American Style, M*A*S*H, Maude, Good Times, Law & Order and many more.[https://masterworksbroadway.com/artist/jane-connell/ JANE CONNELL] Masterworks Broadway. Sony Music Entertainment 2021. Retrieved January 14, 2021[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/26/theater/jane-connell-agnes-gooch-of-mame-is-dead-at-87.html Jane Connell, Agnes Gooch of ‘Mame,’ Is Dead at 87] John Schwartz. New York Times. September 25, 2012. Retrieved January 14, 2021

Connell portrayed Jane in the comedy series Stanley (1956).{{r|etvs|page1=1009}} She was a regular on the children's series Mr. Mayor (1964){{r|etvs|page1=701}} and the situation comedy The Dumplings.{{r|etvs|page1=292}} From 1991 to 1994, she had the recurring role of social worker Roberta Domedian on the sitcom Big Brother Jake.{{cite book|last1=Terrace|first1=Vincent|title=Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010|date=2011|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=978-0-7864-6477-7|page=99|edition=2nd}}

She married Gordon Connell, an actor and musician, in 1948. They remained married until her death in 2013. The couple had two daughters.

Jane Connell died on September 22, 2013, aged 87, at the Lillian Booth Actors Home of the Actors Fund in Englewood, New Jersey from undisclosed causes.[http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Tony-Nominee-Jane-Connell-Broadway-Great-Known-for-MAME-and-More-Passes-Away-20130923 Notice of death of Jane Connell], broadwayworld.com, September 23, 2013. She was survived by her husband (who died in 2016) and two daughters, Melissa and Maggie.[http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/09/26/theater/jane-connell-agnes-gooch-of-mame-is-dead-at-87.html?_r=0 Jane Connell obituary], New York Times, September 26, 2013; accessed December 11, 2013.

• Ladybug Ladybug (1963) - Mrs. Maxton
• Trilogy (1969) - Mrs. Connolly
• Kotch (1971) - Miss Roberts
• Mame (1974) - Agnes Gooch
• Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) - Waitress
• The Magnificent Magical Magnet of Santa Mesa (1977) - Ida Griffith
• House Calls (1978) - Mrs. Conway
• Rabbit Test (1978) - Anthropologist
• Getting There (1980) - Grandma
• See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) - Woman
• Robot in the Family (1994) - Mrs. Miller
• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde (1995) - Aunt Agatha

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|0174991}}
• {{IBDB name}}
• {{iobdb name|2156}}
• {{playbill person}}
• [http://archives.nypl.org/the/23135 Jane and Gordon Connell papers, 1923-2015], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Connell, Jane}}

Category:1925 births

Category:2013 deaths

Category:American women singers

Category:American musical theatre actresses

Category:American stage actresses

Category:American film actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:Actresses from Berkeley, California

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American actresses

Category:University of California alumni