Jane Curtin

Jane Therese Curtin (born September 6, 1947) is an American actress and comedian. First coming to prominence she is well known for being one of the The Not Ready for Prime Time Players as an original cast member on the hit TV comedy series Saturday Night Live in 1975, she went on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series on the 1980s sitcom Kate & Allie portraying the role of Allison "Allie" Lowell. Curtin later starred in the hit series 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996–2001), playing the role of Dr. Mary Albright.

Curtin has also appeared in many movie roles, including Charlene in The Librarian series of movies (2004–2008). She reprised one of her Saturday Night Live characters, Prymaat (Clorhone) Conehead, in the 1993 film Coneheads. She is sometimes referred to as the "Queen of Deadpan". The Philadelphia Inquirer once called her a "refreshing drop of acid". She was included on a 1986 list of the "Top Prime Time Actors and Actresses of All Time".

Biography[]

Career[]

She holds an associate degree from Elizabeth Seton Junior College in New York City. Curtin lives in Connecticut with her husband, Patrick Lynch. The couple have one daughter, Tess Lynch. She has served as a U.S. Committee National Ambassador for UNICEF.

In 1968, Curtin decided to pursue comedy as a career and dropped out of college. She joined a comedy group, "The Proposition", and performed with them until 1972. She starred in Pretzels, an off-Broadway play written by Curtin and Fred Grandy, in 1974.

One of the original "Not Ready For Prime Time Players" for NBC's Saturday Night Live (1975), Curtin remained on the show through the 1979–1980 season. As she was a practicing Catholic at the time and married, she did not participate in SNL's notorious backstage party scene.

Saturday Night Live[]

Jane Curtin is famous as one of the original cast members of SNL. On this show, and mirroring her own low-key real life, she often played straight-woman characters, seemingly driven to frustration by the antics of her wackier castmates including John Belushi and Gilda Radner.

Curtin anchored SNL's "Weekend Update" segment in 1976–77, and was paired with Dan Aykroyd in 1977–78 and Bill Murray in 1978-80.

As a TV anchorwoman, Jane played as a foil to John Belushi, who would often give a rambling and out of control "commentary" on events of the day. During these sketches, Jane would timidly try to get Belushi to come to the point which would only make him angrier. In the most noted sketch, Belushi gave a rambling account of his Irish friend's troubles to demonstrate that there was no such thing as "the luck of the Irish".

Gilda Radner, in her persona of Roseanne Roseannadanna, would present an ethnic face to Jane's Anglo-Saxon self-control and as such annoy Jane with personal remarks. In one famous sketch, the ever-earthy Roseanne asked Jane (in her newscaster role) whether her breasts were of identical size. Jane's newscaster character lost control and exposed her bra to Roseanne, spouting "Check for yourself, Roseanne!"

Jane's newscaster would also introduce baseball expert Chico Escuela (Garrett Morris), a heavily-accented Dominican, who would start his sketches by saying, "Thank you, Hane", before repeating his famous catchphrase, "Baseball been bery, bery good to me!"

In a parody of the "Point-Counterpoint" segment of the news program 60 Minutes, Curtin portrayed a controlled "liberal", Politically Correct viewpoint (referencing Shana Alexander) vs. Dan Aykroyd, who (referencing James J. Kilpatrick) prototyped the right-wing view, albeit with an over the top "attack" journalist slant. Curtin would present the liberal "Point" portion first, then Aykroyd would present the "Counterpoint" portion, sometimes beginning with the statement, "Jane, you ignorant slut."

Curtin is also well known for her role in the Conehead sketches as "Prymaat Conehead" (mother of the Conehead family), and as "Enid Loopner" (in sketches with Gilda Radner and Bill Murray).

Later television career[]

Unlike many of her SNL cast members who ventured often successfully into film, Curtin chose to stay in television. Her film appearances have been sporadic. To date, she has starred in two long-running television sitcoms. First, in Kate & Allie, with Susan Saint James (1984–89), she played a single mother named "Allie Lowell."

In 1993, Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd were reunited in Coneheads, a full-length motion picture based on their popular SNL characters. They also appeared together as the voices of a pair of wasps (a reference to W.A.S.P.s, hence the choice of actors) in the film Antz.

In 1994, Curtin narrated the documentary television series Understanding.

She later joined the cast of 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001) playing a human, "Dr. Mary Albright," opposite the alien family, composed of John Lithgow, Kristen Johnston, French Stewart, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. As with SNL, her mostly–strait-laced character was often confounded by the zany and whimsical antics of the Solomon family.

Curtin starred with Fred Savage in the ABC sitcom Crumbs, which debuted in January 2006 and was canceled in May of that year.

Broadway[]

Curtin has also performed on Broadway on occasion. She first appeared on the Great White Way as Miss Prosperine Garrett in the play "Candida" in 1981. She later went on to be a replacement actress in two other plays: "Love Letters" and "Noises Off", and was in the 2002 revival of "Our Town," which received huge press attention as Paul Newman returned to the Broadway stage after several decades away.

Curtin has a cousin in the industry, actress and writer Valerie Curtin.