“Forgotten Hollywood”- A Honeymooner Has Died…
Manny P. here…
Jane Kean was a singer and actress whose career in show business spanned seven decades, and included nightclubs, recordings, radio and television, theatre and films. Among her most famous roles were as Art Carney’s wife on The Honeymooners; and the voice of Belle in the perennial favorite, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol.
Jane, and her older sister, Betty, formed a comedy duo that worked the nightclub circuit throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The two appeared on Broadway in the short-lived 1955 musical Ankles Aweigh. She had roles in Fats Waller’s Early to Bed in 1943, Call Me Mister (she replaced Betty Garrett), The Pajama Game, and Carnival! (replacing Kaye Ballard). Kean additionally had scenes in Take Me Along that starred Jackie Gleason. He remembered her years later when casting his weekly hour-long television program.
Small screen audiences recall Kean was Trixie Norton in a series of Honeymooners episodes—in color and with music—on The Jackie Gleason Show from 1966–70. She succeeded Joyce Randolph, who played the part in earlier sketches, and on the 1955–56 sitcom. Kean played the role for more years than her predecessor. A memoir followed, entitled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Honeymooners… I Had a Life.
Other credits include The Phil Silvers Show, Make Room for Daddy, Love American Style, The Lucy Show, The Love Boat, The Facts of Life, and Dallas. A feature film highlight was the character of Miss Taylor in Walt Disney’s live-action musical with animation Pete’s Dragon. More recently, she co-starred with Charlotte Rae in the 2002 Los Angeles production of Kander and Ebb’s 70, Girls, 70 at the El Portal Theatre.
The perky Jane Kean was 90.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Friday, November 29th, 2013 at 12:01 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
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