Jane Kean (April 10, 1923 – November 26, 2013) was an American actress and singer whose career in show business spanned seven decades and included appearing in nightclubs, on recordings, and in radio, television, Broadway and films. Among her most famous roles were as Trixie Norton on The Jackie Gleason Show, and as the voice of Belle in the perennial favorite Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol.[1]
Career
Kean and her older sister Betty Kean,[2] formed a comedy duo that worked the nightclub circuit throughout the 1940s/50s, and the two appeared on Broadway as sisters in the short-lived 1955 musical, Ankles Aweigh.[1] Jane Kean was the sister-in-law of actor Lew Parker, best known as Lou Marie, the father of Marlo Thomas's character, Ann Marie, on That Girl. She was also the sister-in-law of Jim Backus, with whom she co-starred in Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol. Parker and Backus were two of Betty Kean's husbands.
In 2003, she wrote a memoir, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Honeymooners ... I Had a Life.[6]
She appeared in The Phil Silvers Show (Sergeant Bilko) episode Doberman, Missing Heir.
Personal life
Kean was married to director and producer Dick Linkroum from 1962 to 1969 and to actor/producer Joe Hecht from 1970 until his death in 2005. Kean had no children.[3]