Jean Stapleton

Having caterwauled her way into American livings rooms with her weekly rendition of "Those Were the Days" and her TV chair winding up residing in the Smithsonian along with her bigoted TV husband's, Jean Stapleton defied all Hollywood convention and played no small part in changing America's very culture with her integral role on the groundbreaking Norman Lear sitcom, "All in the Family" (CBS, 1971-79). A lifelong character actress who achieved household-name status weathering the baleful verbal assaults of her linear-thinking TV husband Archie Bunker, Stapleton played the shrill-voiced Edith with such comic yet empathetic aplomb that she became an almost ironic light in the women's rights movement. She would build upon her social-minded legacy after the show ended by way of a 20-year, off-and-on succession of jobs playing the social activist and diplomat Eleanor Roosevelt on stage and screen. Far from a typical leading-lady type, she nevertheless earned unqualified primacy as a television actress, garnering three Emmy Awards during her "All in the Family" run and endearing Edith in American households as a symbol of simple common decency steadfast amid troubled times and ignorant bluster. She effectively retired from screen acting in 2001 and died in May 2013 at the age of 90.