Jane Alexander

Jane Alexander (née Quigley; born October 28, 1939) is an American-Canadian actress and author. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and nominations for four Academy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. From 1993 to 1997, Alexander served as the chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

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. Other Broadway credits include 6 Rms Riv Vu (1972), The Night of the Iguana (1988), The Sisters Rosensweig (1993) and Honour (1998). She has received a total of eight Tony Award nominations and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994.

Her film breakthrough came with the romantic drama The Great White Hope (1970), which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her subsequent Oscar nominations were for her roles in All the President's Men (1976), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), and Testament (1983). An eight-time Emmy nominee, she received her first nomination for playing Eleanor Roosevelt in Eleanor and Franklin (1976), a role that required her to age from 18 to 60. She has won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Playing for Time (1980) and Warm Springs (2005).

Early life and education Alexander was born Jane Quigley in Boston, Massachusetts, daughter of Ruth Elizabeth (née Pearson), a nurse, and Thomas B. Quigley, an orthopaedic surgeon. She graduated from Beaver Country Day School, an all-girls school in Chestnut Hill outside of Boston, where she discovered her love of acting.

Encouraged by her father to go to college before embarking on an acting career, Alexander attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she concentrated on theater but also studied mathematics with an eye toward computer programming in the event that she failed as an actress. Also while at Sarah Lawrence, she shared an apartment with Hope Cooke, who would become Queen Consort of the last king of Sikkim. Alexander spent her junior year studying at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland where she participated in the Edinburgh University Dramatic Society. The experience solidified her determination to continue acting. Alexander's major break in acting came in 1967 when she played Eleanor Backman in the original production of Howard Sackler's The Great White Hope at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. Like her co-star, James Earl Jones, she went on to play the part both on Broadway (1968), winning a Tony Award for her performance, and in the film version (1970), which earned her an Oscar nomination. Alexander's additional screen credits include All the President's Men (1976), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), and Testament (1983), all of which earned her Oscar nods, Brubaker (1980), The Cider House Rules (1999), and Fur (2006), in which she played Gertrude Nemerov, mother of Diane Arbus, played in the film by Nicole Kidman.

The play The Time of Your Life was revived on March 17, 1972, at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles with Alexander, Henry Fonda, Gloria Grahame, Lewis J. Stadlen, Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Thompson, Strother Martin, Richard X. Slattery, and Pepper Martin among the cast with Edwin Sherin directing.

Alexander portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt in two television productions, Eleanor and Franklin (1976) and Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977); she also played FDR's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, in HBO's Warm Springs (2005) with Kenneth Branagh and Cynthia Nixon, a role which garnered her an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Alexander co-starred with Rachel Roberts in Steven Gether's teleplay and production of A Circle of Children (1977), based on Mary MacCracken's autobiographical book about emotionally disturbed children (with an emphasis on autism), which won Gether an Emmy. Alexander also starred in its sequel, Lovey: A Circle of Children, Part II (1978).

In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Alexander's name and picture.

Alexander's other television films include Arthur Miller's Playing for Time, co-starring Vanessa Redgrave, for which Alexander won another Emmy Award; Malice in Wonderland (as famed gossip-monger Hedda Hopper); Blood & Orchids; and In Love and War (1987) co-starring James Woods, which tells the story of James and Sybil Stockdale during Stockdale's eight years as a US prisoner of war in Vietnam. Alexander also played the protagonist, Dr. May Foster, in the HBO drama series Tell Me You Love Me. Her character, a psychotherapist, serves as the connecting link between three couples coping with relational and sexual difficulties. The show's frank portrayal of "senior" sexuality and explicit sex scenes generated controversy, although it won a rare endorsement by the AARP. She also had a minor role as Dr. Graznik in The Ring.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Alexander chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, the organization that had provided partial funding for The Great White Hope at Arena Stage. Alexander moved to Washington, DC, and served as chair of the NEA until 1997. Her book, Command Performance: an Actress in the Theater of Politics (2000), describes the challenges she faced heading the NEA at a time when the 104th U.S. Congress, headed by Newt Gingrich, unsuccessfully strove to shut it down.

In 2004, Alexander, together with her husband, Edwin Sherin, joined the theater faculty at Florida State University. She 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. Alexander is also a fellow of the International Leadership Forum. In 2009 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. It was directed by her husband, Edwin Sherin.

In 2026, it was announced that Jane Alexander would star as the lead in the comedy drama film Lillian, Next Door, produced by Wild at Heart Films, Emotion Pictures, and Snarky Elephant Productions

Personal life Alexander met her first husband, Robert Alexander, in the early 1960s in New York City, where both were pursuing acting careers. They had one son, Jace Alexander, in 1964, and the couple divorced a decade later. Alexander had been acting regularly in various regional theaters when she met producer/director Edwin Sherin in Washington, DC, where he was artistic director at Arena Stage. 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. The two became good friends and, once divorced from their respective spouses, became romantically involved, marrying in 1975. Between the two, they have four children, Alexander's son Jace and Sherin's three sons, Tony, Geoffrey, and Jon. Edwin Sherin died at the age of 87, in Nova Scotia, on May 4, 2017.

Acting credits

Film Year Title Role Notes 1970 Eleanor Bachman Nominated—Academy Award for Best ActressNominated—Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – FemaleNominated—Golden Laurel Award for Star of Tomorrow – Female 1971 Nora Tenneray USA title Gunfight 1972 Dorothy Fehler a.k.a. Precinct 45: Los Angeles Police 1976 All the President's Men Judy Hoback Miller Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 1978 Alicia Hardeman a.k.a. Harold Robbins' The Betsy 1979 Kramer vs. Kramer Margaret Phelps Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureNominated—National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress 1980 Brubaker Lillian Gray 1982 Night Crossing Doris Strelzyk 1983 Testament Carol Wetherly Nominated—Academy Award for Best ActressNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – DramaNominated—Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress 1984 City Heat Addy 1987 Sweet Country Anna a.k.a. Glykeia patrida (Greece) Square Dance Juanelle King a.k.a. Home Is Where the Heart Is (USA: TV title) 1989 Glory Sarah Blake Sturgis Shaw (uncredited) 1999 Nurse Edna Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture 2002 Sunshine State Delia Temple Dr. Grasnik 2006 Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus Gertrude Nemerov 2007 Feast of Love Esther Stevenson 2008 Gigantic Mrs. Weathersby 2009 Sofi Kozma Terminator Salvation Virginia 2011 Dream House Dr. Greeley 2013 Mr. Morgan's Last Love Joan Morgan 2017 Three Christs Dr. Abraham 2027Lillian, Next DoorLillian

Television Year Title Role Notes 1969 N.Y.P.D. Episode "The Night Watch" Adam-12 Flo the Records Clerk Episode "Log 112: You Blew It" (uncredited) 1972 Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol Anne Palmer 1973 Miracle on 34th Street Karen Walker 1974 This Is the West That Was Sarah Shaw 1975 Death Be Not Proud Frances Gunther 1976 Eleanor and Franklin Eleanor Roosevelt, age 18–60 Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama or Comedy Special 1977 A Circle of Children Mary MacCracken CBS two night mini-series adapted from Mary MacCracken's autobiographical book. Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years Eleanor Roosevelt Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama or Comedy Special 1978 A Question of Love Barbara Moreland a.k.a. A Purely Legal Matter Lovey: A Circle of Children, Part II Mary MacCracken Two night mini-series adapted from Mary MacCracken's second autobiographical book. 1980 Playing for Time Alma Rose Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special 1981 Dear Liar Mrs. Patrick Campbell 1982 In the Custody of Strangers Sandy Caldwell 1984 When She Says No Nora Strangis Calamity Jane Martha Jane "Calamity Jane" Canary Bronze Wrangler Award for Fictional Television DramaNominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special 1985 Malice in Wonderland Hedda Hopper a.k.a. The Rumor MillNominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special 1986 Blood & Orchids Doris Ashley 1987 In Love and War Sybil Stockdale 1988 A Friendship in Vienna Hannah Dournenvald Nominated—CableACE Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Open Admissions Ginny Carlsen 1990 Daughter of the Streets Peggy Ryan 1991 Georgia O'Keeffe 1992 Stay the Night Blanche Kettman 1993 New Year Elsie Robertson 2000 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Regina Mulroney Episode: "Entitled" Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Law & Order Regina Mulroney Episode: "Entitled: Part 2" 2001 Jenifer Marilyn Estess Bitter Winter 2004 Freedom: A History of Us Jane Addams Episode: "Yearning to Breathe Free" Carry Me Home Mrs. Gortimer Nominated—Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in a Children/Youth/Family Special 2005 Warm Springs Sara Delano Roosevelt Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a MovieNominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film 2006 The Way Helen Warden 2007 Tell Me You Love Me Dr. May Foster 10 episodes 2008 Louisa May Alcott Ednah Cheney 2011 Deck the Halls Nora Regan Reilly 2011–2015 The Good Wife Judge Suzanne Morris 5 episodes 2011 William & Catherine: A Royal Romance Queen Elizabeth II 2013–2014 The Blacklist Diane Fowler 4 episodes 2013 Forgive Me Bookie 5 episodes 2014 The Divide Elizabeth 2 episodes 2014–2016 Elementary C. 2 episodes 2015 The Book of Negroes Maria Witherspoon Episode #1.5 Forever Nora Morgan Episode: "Social Engineering" 2017–2018 The Good Fight Judge Suzanne Morris 2 episodes 2019 Modern Love Margot Episode: "The Race Grows Sweeter Near Its Final Lap" 2020 Tales From The Loop Klara 3 episodes 2025 Severance Celestine "Sissy" Cobel Episode: "Sweet Vitriol"Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series

Theater

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Nominated work Results Ref. 1971 Academy Awards Best Actress The Great White Hope 1977 Best Supporting Actress All the President's Men 1980 Kramer vs. Kramer 1984 Best Actress Testament 2013 ACTRA Awards Outstanding Performance by a Female in TV or Feature Forgive Me 1989 CableACE Awards Supporting Actress in a Movie or Miniseries A Friendship in Vienna 2014 Canadian Screen Awards Best Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Series Forgive Me 2005 Daytime Emmy Awards Outstanding Performer in a Children/Youth/Family Special Carry Me Home 1969 Drama Desk Awards Outstanding Performance The Great White Hope 1992 Outstanding Actress in a Play The Visit 1993 The Sisters Rosensweig 2009 Drama League Awards Distinguished Performance Award Chasing Manet 2012 The Lady from Dubuque 1971 Golden Globe Awards Most Promising Newcomer – Female The Great White Hope 1980 Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Kramer vs. Kramer 1984 Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama Testament 2005 High Falls Film Festival The Faith Hubley "Web of Life" Award 1970 Laurel Awards Star of Tomorrow – Female The Great White Hope 1983 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Best Actress Testament 1979 National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Supporting Actress Kramer vs. Kramer 1979 New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Supporting Actress 1993 New York Women in Film & Television Muse Award 2000 Online Film & Television Association Awards Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series Law & Order / Law & Order: Special Victims Unit 2005 Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Warm Springs 2014 Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series The Blacklist 1976 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama or Comedy Special Eleanor and Franklin 1977 Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years 1981 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special Playing for Time 1984 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special Calamity Jane 1985 Malice in Wonderland 2000 Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit 2005 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie Warm Springs 2025 Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Severance 2017 RiverRun International Film Festival Master of Cinema Award 2005 Satellite Awards Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television Warm Springs 1999 Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture The Cider House Rules 1969 Theatre World Awards The Great White Hope 1969 Tony Awards Best Supporting or Featured Actress in a Play 1973 Best Leading Actress in a Play 6 Rms Riv Vu 1974 Find Your Way Home 1979 First Monday in October 1992 The Visit 1993 The Sisters Rosensweig 1998 Honour 2020 Best Featured Actress in a Play Grand Horizons 1985 Western Heritage Awards Fictional Television Drama Calamity Jane 1996 Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards Norma Zarky Humanitarian Award