Jayne Meadows, an actress who worked on Broadway, television and in movies, has died. She was 95 years old.
Meadows’ son Bill Allen confirmed the sad news to Entertainment Tonight. She died peacefully of natural causes at her Encino, California home Sunday night.
“She was the most loving mother and grandmother I could ever imagine,” Bill said in a statement to ET. “Seeing only the best in all her family members and giving us all confidence that we had value to offer the world and should take risks because we could do no wrong in her eyes.”
Meadows was born in China in 1919, as her parents were Episcopal missionaries. They moved to the U.S. in 1927, settling in Connecticut before she decided to head for New York to be an actress. As the New York Times notes, she made her BRoadway debut in 1941 with Spring again.
She originally went by her given last name, Cotter, but she went with Meadows when she signed with MGM. Her first film appearance came in the 1946 noir Undercurrent with Katharine Hepburn. Her other film appearances included Lady in the Lake, Song of the Thin Man and David and Bathsheba.
But as television came around in the early 1950s, she began doing more and more work for the small screen. She continued making appearances on television through the late ‘90s. Her TV credits included Medical Center, Meeting of the Minds, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat and High Society. She was also a regular guest on game shows.
However, she is best known for her work with Steve Allen, whom she married in 1954. Allen was the creator of the original Tonight Show and she appeared on every one of his shows. Allen died in 2000.
“She was not only an extraordinarily gifted actress who could move audiences from laughter to tears and back again all in one scene, but she was the greatest story teller I have ever known and I will miss her endlessly fascinating and frequently hilarious anecdotes about her life and the many brilliantly talented people she worked with and befriended along the way,” her son Bill said in his statement to ET. “She will be sorely missed and never forgotten.”
She is also survived by three stepsons, three grandchildren, eight step-grandchildren and her great-grandchildren.
image courtesy of Carlos Diaz/INFGoff.com