Jane Connell

Jane Connell (born October 27, 1925) is an American character actress. She was born as Jane Sperry Bennett in Berkeley, California to Louis Wesley and Mary (née Sperry) Bennett. She married William Gordon Connell, known professionally as Gordon Connell, an actor and musician,[when?]; they have two daughters, Melissa and Margaret. She began her career with her husband, working in such San Francisco night clubs as The Purple Onion and The Hungry I. Eventually the couple moved to New York City, where Connell made her Off-Broadway debut in the 1955 revival of Threepenny Opera, a long-running hit at the Theatre de Lys. In the London production of Once Upon a Mattress, Connell starred as Winifred, the role that made Carol Burnett a Broadway star. Connell had a big success in 1966 when she was cast as Agnes Gooch in Jerry Herman's Mame. She recreated the role in the 1974 screen adaptation after the film's star, Lucille Ball, became dissatisfied with Madeline Kahn, who had been signed originally to play Gooch.

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