20 Facts About Jane Alexander

1.

Jane Alexander is an American actress and author.

2.

Jane Alexander is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and nominations for four Academy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.

3.

From 1993 to 1997, Alexander served as the chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

4.

Jane Alexander won the 1969 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in the Broadway production of The Great White Hope.

5.

Jane Alexander has received a total of eight Tony Award nominations and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994.

6.

Jane Alexander has won two Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Playing for Time and Warm Springs.

7.

Jane Alexander graduated from Beaver Country Day School, an all-girls school in Chestnut Hill outside of Boston, where she discovered her love of acting.

8.

Jane Alexander spent her junior year studying at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland where she participated in the Edinburgh University Dramatic Society.

9.

Jane Alexander made her Broadway debut in 1963, replacing Phyllis Wynn as Sandy Dennis' standby in A Thousand Clowns.

10.

Jane Alexander reportedly performed the role a handful of times.

11.

Jane Alexander portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt in two television productions, Eleanor and Franklin and Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years ; she 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.

12.

Jane 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.

13.

Jane Alexander starred in its sequel, Lovey: A Circle of Children, Part II.

14.

Jane Alexander had a minor role as Dr Graznik in The Ring.

15.

Jane Alexander moved to Washington, DC, and served as chair of the NEA until 1997.

16.

Jane Alexander was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999.

17.

Jane Alexander 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.

18.

In 2009 Jane 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.

19.

Jane Alexander met her first husband, Robert Jane Alexander, in the early 1960s in New York City, where both were pursuing acting careers.

20.

Jane 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.