The 90-year-old died of complications from a fall, according to her niece, Deidre Wolpert, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Kean, who had a four-decade-long career that included performing on Broadway and singing with her sister, Betty, in a nightclub act, played Art Carney's wife in the 1960s TV revival of the Jackie Gleason hit. (The role of Trixie was originally played by Joyce Randolph.)
Born in Hartford, Conn., Kean's career began on stage in the 1940s, and she first started working with Gleason when they both appeared on the vaudeville circuit. In the '50s she appeared on Broadway in shows including The Pajama Game. In 1991 she wrote and performed in a two-woman musical, We, in which she performed a tribute to Gleason (who died in 1987) titled "How Sweet It Was."
"There's something about the show – people related to it," she said in a 1991 interview with the Times, discussing the enduring love for The Honeymooners. "People believed the show was real, and that we really were the characters we played."
No comments:
Post a Comment