Jean Stapleton, Actress Who Played Edith Bunker in ‘All in the Family,’ Dies at 90
Jean Stapleton, a character actress whose portrayal of a slow-witted, big-hearted and submissive — up to a point — housewife on the groundbreaking series “All in the Family” made her, along with Mary Tyler Moore and Bea Arthur, not only one of the foremost women in television comedy in the 1970s but a symbol of emergent feminism in American popular culture, died Friday at her home in New York City. She was 90.
Her death was confirmed by her agent, David Shaul.
Ms. Stapleton, though never an ingénue or a leading lady, was an accomplished theater actress with a handful of television credits when the producer Norman Lear, who had seen her in the musical “Damn Yankees” on Broadway, asked her to audition for a new series. The audition, for a character named Edith Bunker, changed her life.
“All in the Family,” Mr. Lear’s adaptation of an English series, became one of the most popular shows of all time, finishing first in the Nielsen ratings for five consecutive seasons and winning four consecutive Emmy awards for outstanding comedy series. Ms. Stapleton won three Emmys of her own, in 1971, 1972 and 1978.
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