RIP: Jean Stapleton (1923-2013)
Jean Stapleton dies at 90; was Edith Bunker in 'All in the Family'
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-jean-stapleton-20130602,0,1214208.story
Jean Stapleton, the actress who endeared herself to viewers in the 1970s as Edith Bunker, whose sudden bursts of truth regularly cut through her husband Archie's bluster on the groundbreaking television series "All in the Family," has died. She was 90.
Stapleton died Friday of natural causes at her New York City home, her family announced.
She earned three Emmy Awards starring as the wife of Carroll O'Connor's loud-mouthed, bigoted Archie Bunker on the show, which marked the beginning of sitcoms as a forum for political — albeit often comical — family warfare.
As Edith, Stapleton became a role model for other women who had to deal with their own hot-headed Archies, a fact that O'Connor relished.
"Before Edith ... women who lived with fellows like Archie were usually submissive and suffering in the face of roaring nonthink," O'Connor later wrote of his on-camera wife. "After Edith, they confronted nonthink a little more sternly and stiffly and gave hint of a serious readiness to rebel, just as Edith rebelled from time to time."
On Saturday, series creator Norman Lear said in a statement: "No one gave more profound 'How to be a Human Being' lessons than Jean Stapleton. Goodbye Edith, darling."
Jean Stapleton dies at 90; was Edith Bunker in 'All in the Family'
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-jean-stapleton-20130602,0,1214208.story
Jean Stapleton, the actress who endeared herself to viewers in the 1970s as Edith Bunker, whose sudden bursts of truth regularly cut through her husband Archie's bluster on the groundbreaking television series "All in the Family," has died. She was 90.
Stapleton died Friday of natural causes at her New York City home, her family announced.
She earned three Emmy Awards starring as the wife of Carroll O'Connor's loud-mouthed, bigoted Archie Bunker on the show, which marked the beginning of sitcoms as a forum for political — albeit often comical — family warfare.
As Edith, Stapleton became a role model for other women who had to deal with their own hot-headed Archies, a fact that O'Connor relished.
"Before Edith ... women who lived with fellows like Archie were usually submissive and suffering in the face of roaring nonthink," O'Connor later wrote of his on-camera wife. "After Edith, they confronted nonthink a little more sternly and stiffly and gave hint of a serious readiness to rebel, just as Edith rebelled from time to time."
On Saturday, series creator Norman Lear said in a statement: "No one gave more profound 'How to be a Human Being' lessons than Jean Stapleton. Goodbye Edith, darling."
