Jane Kean
| Jane Kean | |
|---|---|
Kean in 1973
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| Born |
April 10, 1923 Hartford, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | November 26, 2013 (aged 90) Burbank, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, singer |
| Years active | 1941–2013 |
| Spouse(s) |
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Jane Kean (April 10, 1923 – November 26, 2013) was an American actress and singer, whose career in show business spanned seven decades and included appearing in nightclubs, on recordings, and in radio, television, Broadway and films. Among her most famous roles were as Trixie Norton on The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason, and as the voice of Belle in the perennial favorite Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol.
Kean and her older sister, Betty (1914–1986), formed a comedy duo that worked the nightclub circuit throughout the 1940s/50s, and the two appeared on Broadway as sisters in the short-lived 1955 musical, Ankles Aweigh. Jane Kean was the sister-in-law of actor Lew Parker, best known as Lou Marie, the father of Marlo Thomas's character, Ann Marie, on That Girl. She was also the sister-in-law of Jim Backus, with whom she co-starred in Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol. Parker and Backus were two of Betty Kean's husbands.
She studied acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. She appeared in starring roles on Broadway in the 1950s in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, in which she succeeded Jayne Mansfield. Other credits include Fats Waller's 1943 Broadway musical Early to Bed, Call Me Mister (in which she succeeded Betty Garrett), The Pajama Game, and Carnival! (succeeding Kaye Ballard). She had a featured role in Take Me Along which starred Jackie Gleason, who would remember her a few years later when casting his weekly hour television program. She co-starred with Charlotte Rae in the 2002 Los Angeles production of the Kander and Ebb musical 70, Girls, 70 at the El Portal Theatre.
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