Jane Alexander

A much-lauded Broadway performer whose Tony Award-winning performance in "The Great White Hope" led to an Academy Award-nominated reprisal of her role on the big screen in 1970, Jane Alexander established herself as one of the most respected actresses across all media during the 1970s. In a career that stretched ahead more than three decades, the fresh-scrubbed New Englander was often cast as forthright, sympathetic characters, and was noted for the seemingly effortless simplicity and unmannered honesty of her work. Alexander never strayed far from the Broadway stage, earning multiple Tony nominations for dramas including "The Visit" and "First Monday in October," and taking home an award for "The Sisters Rosensweig." Onscreen, Alexander earned Oscar nominations for dramas including "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979) and the gripping nuclear holocaust story "Testament" (1983). Throughout her career, Alexander also showed an affinity for biographical and historical material, like the Watergate tell-all "All the President's Men" (1977), for which she was Oscar-nominated as Best Supporting Actress; her work in several biographical films about the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, portraying first lady and Civil Rights advocate Eleanor Roosevelt in "Eleanor and Franklin" (ABC, 1976) and "Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years" (ABC, 1977) as well as the president's overbearing mother Sara in the HBO film "Warm Springs" (2005). Respected by the arts community for her valuable work as head of the National Endowment for the Arts during the 1990s, Alexander remained one of the most respected actresses well into the new millennium.