Angular in features, reserved in demeanor and more-or-less plaintive in
appearance, actress Jane Alexander has played down the glamour card
for the most part. Her true brilliance has come from the remarkable
range and depth of her talent. Heralded as one of the finest 70s
actresses to arrive in films following a towering Broadway success,
Jane went on to earn an Oscar nomination for her film debut, an
acknowledgment given to very few of her acting peers.She was born Jane Quigley in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 28,
1939, the daughter of Thomas, an orthopedic surgeon, and Ruth Elizabeth
(née Pearson) Quigley, a nurse. Jane attended Beaver Country Day
School, an all-girls facility, just outside of Boston. Here is where
she first aspired to acting and made her stage debut as an adolescent
in a production of "Treasure Island". Urged on by her father to find
stability in her life, she first attended college before embarking on
an acting career. She studied math as well as theater at Sarah Lawrence
College in Bronxville, New York, where she thought computer programming
might be a convenient alternative in case her acting dreams fell
through. However, a chance to study at the University of Edinburgh in
Scotland, wherein she became a member of the Edinburgh University
Dramatic Society, dissolved any other career interests but acting.Following theater roles in "The Inspector General" and "Look Back in
Anger", Jane found critical success in 1967 when chosen to play the
mistress of black boxer Jack Jefferson in the landmark production of
"The Great White Hope" at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC. opposite
James Earl Jones. She and Jones both
won Tony and Drama Desk Awards for their performances when the play
went to Broadway the following year. Both also earned Academy Award
nominations after making the transition to film.
Wielka nadzieja białych (1970)
would mark the first of four nominations for Jane. Although singled out
for her supporting roles in
Wszyscy ludzie prezydenta (1976),
Sprawa... Kramerów (1979) and
her heartfelt leading role in
Testament (1983) as a small town wife
whose family is threatened by radioactive fallout, the Oscar trophy has
remained elusive.On stage, she received a plethora of Tony nominations
over the years for such sterling work in "6 Rms Riv Vu" (1972), "Find
Your Way Home" (1974), "First Monday in October" (1978), "The Visit"
(1991), "The Sisters Rosenzweig" (1993), and "Honour" (1998). Other
telling parts came as Gertrude in "Hamlet", Hedda in "Hedda Gabler",
Cleopatra in "Antony and Cleopatra", Annie Sullivan in "Monday After
the Miracle" and Maxine in "The Night of the Iguana".Jane has triumphed just as notably on TV. She perfectly embodied the
non-glamorous role of Eleanor Roosevelt
opposite Edward Herrmann's FDR in the TV
movies
Eleonora i Franklin (1976)
and
Eleonora i Franklin w Białym Domu (1977)
and was Emmy-nominated both times for her efforts. Decades later she
would portray FDR's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, in HBO's
Warm Springs (2005)
starring Kenneth Branagh and
Cynthia Nixon and won the coveted award
for 'Best Supporting Actress'. Throughout the years she would play a
myriad of quality leads in such TV-movies as
A Circle of Children (1977);
Arthur Miller's
Playing for Time (1980);
which earned her a second Emmy, the title role in
Calamity Jane (1984);
Malice in Wonderland (1985),
in which she portrayed notorious gossip maven
Hedda Hopper;
Krew i orchidee (1986),
and;
Jeniec wojenny (1987).Alexander met and married her first husband, Robert Alexander, in the
early 1960s in New York City, when both were attempting to jump-start
their acting careers. They had one son,
Jace Alexander in 1964, an actor/director
in his own right who co-founded the avant garde NYC theater company
Naked Angels. Her marriage to Alexander, who was also a director, ended
in divorce. She later met producer/director
Edwin Sherin in Washington, DC, while he
was serving as artistic director at the Arena Stage. He has three sons
from his previous marriage. They married in 1975 and reside in New York
City.In 1993, Jane took a sabbatical from acting when President Clinton
appointed her as the first chairman of the National Endowment for the
Arts. Relocating to Washington, DC, she showed strong leadership and
served for four years. Her 2000 book, "Command Performance: an Actress
in the Theater of Politics" chronicles the challenges she faced heading
up the organization when the Republican Congress unsuccessfully tried
to shut it down. The agency survived but with a 45% cut in funding.In 2004, Alexander, together with her second husband, joined the
theater faculty at Florida State University (FSU). She holds honorary
doctorates from 11 colleges and universities in the U.S. In addition,
Jane has been active on many boards, including the Wildlife
Conservation Society, Project Greenhope, the National Stroke
Association, and Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament. She has also
received the Israel Cultural Award and the Helen Caldicott Leadership
Award.Returning to acting into the millennium, Jane has appeared, often as professional types (judges, doctors), in such films as The Ring (2002), Smaki miłości (2007), Gigantyczny (2008), Nienarodzony (2009), Terminator - Ocalenie (2009), Ostatnia miłość pana Morgana (2013) and Trzech Chrystusów (2017). She has also graced such TV programs as "Law & Order," "Forgive Me," "The Black List," "The Good Wife," "Elementary," "The Good Fight," "Modern Love," and a steady role on the short-lived series Tell Me You Love Me (2007).show more
