Obituaries

Anne Jackson, Legendary Actress and Veteran of 28 Broadway Shows, Dies at 90

Jackson’s career in theater spanned more than five decades.

Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson pose for a photo in 2008.
Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson pose for a photo in 2008.
(© Tristan Fuge)

Anne Jackson, whose unparalleled acting career included 28 appearances on Broadway, has died at the age of 90.

The youngest of three sisters, Jackson was born September 3, 1926, in Millvale, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a Croatian barber. When she was 7, the family moved to Brooklyn, and she would go on to attend Franklin K. Lane High School. After graduating in 1943, she studied at the New School for Social Research, and made her Broadway debut a year later in the musical The New Moon.

In 1946, she met her future husband and longtime acting partner, Eli Wallach, when they were cast in Tennessee Williams' This Property Is Condemned. They married in 1948 after joining Eva La Gallienne's American Repertory Theater on Broadway, appearing in several classical works including Androcles and the Lion and Henry VIII.

Wallach and Jackson appeared in 13 Broadway shows together from 1946-1994. Highlights also included a longtime collaboration with the playwright Murray Schisgal, which included the plays Luv, Twice Around the Park, and the off-Broadway double bill of The Typists and The Tiger, which won the pair Obie Awards in 1963. On her own, Jackson's stage career included Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends and Paddy Chayefsky's Middle of the Night, which earned her a Tony Award nomination.

Her many television credits include Gunsmoke, Rhoda, E.R., Law & Order, and narrating the story Stellaluna on the PBS series Reading Rainbow. Among her notable films are Sticks and Bones and The Shining.

Jackson is predeceased by Wallach, who died in 2014. She is survived by their children, Peter, Katherine, Roberta, as well as grandchildren.