Jane Alexander


Jane Alexander is an American author, actress, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a Tony Award winner and two-time Emmy Award winner.
Alexander made her Broadway debut in 1968 in The Great White Hope and won the 1969 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Other Broadway credits include, 6 Rms Riv Vu, The Night of the Iguana, The Sisters Rosensweig and Honour. She has received a total of seven Tony Award nominations and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994.
She went on to star in the film version of The Great White Hope in 1970 and received the first of four Academy Award nominations for her performance. Her subsequent Oscar nominations were for All the President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Testament. An eight-time Emmy nominee, she received her first nomination for playing Eleanor Roosevelt in Eleanor and Franklin, a role that required her to age from 18 to 60. She has won two Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Playing for Time and Warm Springs.

Early life

Alexander was born Jane Quigley in Boston, Massachusetts, daughter of Ruth Elizabeth, a nurse, and Thomas B. Quigley, an orthopedic surgeon. She graduated from Beaver Country Day School, an all-girls school in Chestnut Hill outside of Boston, where she discovered her love of acting.
Encouraged by her father to go to college before embarking on an acting career, Alexander attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she concentrated on theater, but also studied mathematics with an eye toward computer programming, in the event that she failed as an actress. Also while at Sarah Lawrence, she shared an apartment with Hope Cooke, who would become Queen Consort of Sikkim. Alexander spent her junior year studying at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where she participated in the Edinburgh University Dramatic Society. The experience solidified her determination to continue acting.

Career

Alexander's major break in acting came in 1967 when she played Eleanor Backman in the original production of Howard Sackler's The Great White Hope at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. Like her co-star, James Earl Jones, she went on to play the part both on Broadway, winning a Tony Award for her performance, and in the film version, which earned her an Oscar nomination. Alexander's additional screen credits include All the President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Testament, all of which earned her Oscar nods, Brubaker, The Cider House Rules, and Fur, in which she played Gertrude Nemerov, mother of Diane Arbus, played in the film by Nicole Kidman.
The play The Time of Your Life was revived on March 17, 1972, at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles with Alexander, Henry Fonda, Gloria Grahame, Lewis J. Stadlen, Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Thompson, Strother Martin, Richard X. Slattery, and Pepper Martin among the cast with Edwin Sherin directing.
Alexander portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt in two television productions, Eleanor and Franklin and ; she also played FDR's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, in HBO's Warm Springs with Kenneth Branagh and Cynthia Nixon, a role which garnered her an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Alexander co-starred with Rachel Roberts in Steven Gether's teleplay and production of A Circle of Children, based on Mary MacCracken's autobiographical book about emotionally disturbed children, which won Gether an Emmy. Alexander also starred in its sequel, Lovey: A Circle of Children, Part II.
In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Alexander's name and picture.
Alexander's other television films include Arthur Miller's Playing for Time, co-starring Vanessa Redgrave, for which Alexander won another Emmy Award; Malice in Wonderland ; Blood & Orchids; and In Love and War co-starring James Woods, which tells the story of James and Sybil Stockdale during Stockdale's eight years as a US prisoner of war in Vietnam. Alexander also played the protagonist, Dr. May Foster, in the HBO drama series Tell Me You Love Me. Her character, a psychotherapist, serves as the connecting link between three couples coping with relational and sexual difficulties. The show's frank portrayal of "senior" sexuality and explicit sex scenes generated controversy, although it won a rare endorsement by the AARP. She also had a minor role as Dr. Graznik in The Ring.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Alexander chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, the organization that had provided partial funding for The Great White Hope at Arena Stage. Alexander moved to Washington, DC, and served as chair of the NEA until 1997. Her book, Command Performance: an Actress in the Theater of Politics, describes the challenges she faced heading the NEA at a time when the 104th U.S. Congress, headed by Newt Gingrich, unsuccessfully strove to shut it down. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999.
In 2004, Alexander, together with her husband, Edwin Sherin, joined the theater faculty at Florida State University. She serves on various boards, including the Wildlife Conservation Society, the National Audubon Society, Project Greenhope, the National Stroke Association, and Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament, and she has received the Israel Cultural Award and the Helen Caldicott Leadership Award. Alexander is also a fellow of the International Leadership Forum. In 2009 Alexander starred in Thom Thomas's play A Moon to Dance By at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was directed by her husband, Edwin Sherin.
In 2016, Alexander voiced a role in the play New York Story by Mike Reiss, for Playing On Air, a nonprofit organization that records short plays written by top playwrights and performed by outstanding actors.

Personal life

Alexander met her first husband, Robert Alexander, in the early 1960s in New York City, where both were pursuing acting careers. They had one son, Jace Alexander, in 1964, and the couple divorced a decade later. Alexander had been acting regularly in various regional theaters when she met producer/director Edwin Sherin in Washington, DC, where he was artistic director at Arena Stage. Alexander starred in the original theatrical production of The Great White Hope under Sherin's direction at Arena Stage prior to the play's Broadway debut. The two became good friends and, once divorced from their respective spouses, became romantically involved, marrying in 1975. Between the two, they have four children, Alexander's son Jace and Sherin's three sons, Tony, Geoffrey, and Jon. Edwin Sherin died at the age of 87, on May 4, 2017.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1969N.Y.P.D.Episode "The Night Watch"
1969Adam-12Flo the Records ClerkEpisode "Log 112: You Blew It"
1972Welcome Home, Johnny BristolAnne Palmer
1973Miracle on 34th StreetKaren Walker
1974This Is the West That WasSarah Shaw
1975Death Be Not ProudFrances Gunther
1976Eleanor and FranklinEleanor Roosevelt, age 18–60Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
1977A Circle of ChildrenMary MacCrackenCBS two night mini-series adapted from Mary MacCracken's autobiographical book.
1977'Eleanor RooseveltNominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
1978'Barbara Morelanda.k.a. A Purely Legal Matter
1978Lovey: A Circle of Children, Part IIMary MacCrackenTwo night mini-series adapted from Mary MacCracken's second autobiographical book.
1980Playing for TimeAlma RosePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
1981Dear LiarMrs. Patrick Campbell
1982In the Custody of StrangersSandy Caldwell
1984When She Says NoNora Strangis
1984Calamity JaneMartha Jane "Calamity Jane" CanaryBronze Wrangler Award for Fictional Television Drama
Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
1985Malice in WonderlandHedda Hoppera.k.a. The Rumor Mill
Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
1986Blood & OrchidsDoris Ashley
1987In Love and WarSybil Stockdale
1988A Friendship in ViennaHannah DournenvaldNominated—CableACE Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
1988Open AdmissionsGinny Carlsen
1990Daughter of the StreetsPeggy Ryan
1991'Georgia O'Keeffe
1992Stay the NightBlanche Kettman
1993New YearElsie Robertson
2000'Regina MulroneyEpisode: "Entitled"
Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress – Drama Series
2000Law & OrderRegina MulroneyEpisode: "Entitled: Part 2"
2001JeniferMarilyn Estess
2001Bitter Winter
2004Freedom: A History of UsJane AddamsEpisode: "Yearning to Breathe Free"
2004Carry Me HomeMrs. GortimerNominated—Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in a Children/Youth/Family Special
2005Warm SpringsSara Delano RooseveltPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2006The WayHelen Warden
2007Tell Me You Love MeDr. May Foster10 episodes
2008Louisa May AlcottEdnah Cheney
2011Deck the HallsNora Regan Reilly
2011–2015The Good WifeJudge Suzanne Morris5 episodes
2011'Queen Elizabeth II
2013–2014The BlacklistDiane Fowler4 episodes
2013Forgive MeBookie5 episodes
2014The DivideElizabeth2 episodes
2014–2016ElementaryC.2 episodes
2015The Book of NegroesMaria WitherspoonEpisode #1.5
2015ForeverNora MorganEpisode: "Social Engineering"
2017–2018The Good FightJudge Suzanne Morris2 episodes
2019Modern LoveMargotEpisode: "The Race Grows Sweeter Near Its Final Lap"
2020Tales From The LoopKlara3 episodes

DateProductionRoleNotes
– January 31, 1970'Eleanor BachmanDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play
Theatre World Award
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
– May 19, 19736 Rms Riv VuAnne MillerNominated—Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
– May 4, 1974Find Your Way HomeJacqueline HarrisonNominated—Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
– January 25, 1976HamletGertrude
– May 9, 1976'Catherine Sloper
– December 9, 1978First Monday in OctoberJudge Ruth LoomisNominated—Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
– April 26, 1980Goodbye FidelNatalia
– December 18, 1982Monday After the MiracleAnnie
– September 4, 1988'Maxine Faulk
– April 7, 1991ShadowlandsJoy Davidman
– March 1, 1992'Claire ZachanassianNominated—Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play
Nominated—Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
– July 16, 1994'Sara GoodeDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play
Nominated—Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
– June 14, 1998HonourHonorNominated—Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
– March 1, 2020Grand HorizonsNancy