Jane Curtin

Jane Curtin
at the 41st Emmy Awards, September 1989
Born	Jane Therese Curtin (1947-09-06) September 6, 1947 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater	Elizabeth Seton Junior College (A.A., 1967)
Occupation	Actress/Comedian
Years active	1975–present
Spouse(s)	Patrick Lynch (m. 1975)
Children	Tess Lynch (b. 1983)
Parent(s)	John Joseph Curtin Mary Constance (née Farrell) Curtin

Jane Therese Curtin (born September 6, 1947) is an American actress and comedian. She is sometimes referred to as "Queen of the 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."

First coming to prominence 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 The Librarian series of movies (2004–2008). She also reprised one of her Saturday Night Live characters, Prymaat (Clorhone) Conehead, in the 1993 film Coneheads.

Personal life

Curtin was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the daughter of Mary Constance (née Farrell) and John Joseph Curtin, who owned an insurance agency.

She grew up in Wellesley, Massachusetts and graduated from Convent of the Sacred Heart, Elmhurst Academy in Portsmouth, Rhode Island in 1965.

She married Patrick Francis Lynch (a television producer) on April 2, 1975; they have one daughter, Tess Curtin Lynch. They live in Sharon, Connecticut.

She has a brother, Larry Curtin, who lives in South Florida; their older brother, John J. "Jack" Curtin, died in 2008. She was raised a Catholic. Curtin is a cousin of actress and writer Valerie Curtin. Her uncle was the radio personality Joseph Curtin.

Career

Curtin holds an associate degree from Elizabeth Seton Junior College in New York City, class of 1967. She then attended Northeastern University from 1967 to 1968.

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, John Forster, Judith Kahan and Fred Grandy, in 1974.

Saturday Night Live

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. Guest host Eric Idle said that Curtin was "very much a 'Let's come in, let's know our lines, let's do it properly, and go' ... She was very sensible, very focused", and disliked the drug culture that many of the cast participated in. Show writer Al Franken stated that she "was so steady. Had a really strong moral center, and as such was disgusted by much of the show and the people around it".

On this show, and mirroring her own low-key real life, she frequently played straight-woman characters, often as a foil to 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. Playing a foil to John Belushi, who often gave a rambling and out-of-control "commentary" on events of the day. During these sketches, she timidly tried to get Belushi to come to the point, which would only make him angrier. Curtin's newscaster also introduced baseball expert Chico Escuela (Garrett Morris), a heavily accented Dominican, who started 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 viewpoint (à la Shana Alexander) vs. Dan Aykroyd, who (in the manner of James J. Kilpatrick) epitomized the right wing view, albeit with an over-the-top "attack" journalist slant. Curtin presented the liberal "Point" portion first. Then Aykroyd presented the "Counterpoint" portion, sometimes beginning with the statement, "Jane, you ignorant slut," to which she replied, "Dan, you pompous ass." The recurring segment has been discussed in an article on "How to Respectfully Disagree" in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Curtin is also well known for her role in the Conehead sketches as Prymaat (wife/mother of the Conehead family), and as Enid Loopner (in sketches with Gilda Radner and Bill Murray). She is one of many cast members who appear in the retrospective compilation DVD The Women of SNL (2010, 97 minutes).

Later television work

Unlike many of her fellow SNL cast members who ventured 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 (1984–89), with Susan Saint James, she played a single mother named "Allie Lowell" and twice won the Emmy Award for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

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.

In 1997, Curtin narrated two episodes of the documentary television series Understanding.

Curtin also starred with Fred Savage in the ABC sitcom Crumbs, which debuted in January 2006 and was canceled in May of that year. She also guest-starred on Gary Unmarried as Connie, Allison's mother. In 2012, she joined Unforgettable as Dr. Joanne Webster, a gifted but crusty medical examiner.

Film

In 1980, Jane starred with Susan Saint James and Jessica Lange in the moderate hit How to Beat the High Cost of Living. In 1993, 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 in the film Antz. In 2009, she played Paul Rudd and Andy Samberg's mother in I Love You, Man.

Other work

Curtin has also performed on Broadway on occasion. She first appeared on the Great White Way as Miss Proserpine Garnett 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.

She also has narrated several audio books, including Carl Hiaasen's novel Nature Girl.

On May 7, 2010, Curtin placed second in the Jeopardy! Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational, winning $250,000 for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Michael McKean won the tournament, while Cheech Marin came in third.

She presented the Emmy Awards in 1984, 1987, and 1998; the 11th Annual American Comedy Awards in 1997; and the 54th Annual Golden Globe Awards in 1997.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	Mr. Mike's Mondo Video	Herself/Cameo
1980	How to Beat the High Co$t of Living	Elaine
1985	O.C. and Stiggs	Elinore Schwab
1993	Coneheads	Prymatt Conehead / Mary Margaret DeCicco
1998	Antz	Muffy (voice)
2003	Recess: All Growed Down	Additional Voices	Video
2004	Geraldine's Fortune	Geraldine Liddle
2005	Brooklyn Lobster	Maureen Giorgio
2006	The Shaggy Dog	Judge Claire Whittaker
2009	I Love You, Man	Joyce Klaven
2011	I Don't Know How She Does It	Marla Reddy
2013	Flicker Box	Sister Margaret	Pre-production
2013	The Heat	Mrs. Mullins

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975–1980	Saturday Night Live	Various	107 episodes Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program
1977	The Love Boat	Regina Parker	1 episode
1977	What Really Happened to the Class of '65?	Ivy	Episode: "Class Hustler"
1981	Bob & Ray, Jane, Laraine, & Gilda	Herself	TV Movie
1982	Candida	Prossie	TV movie
1982	Divorce Wars: A Love Story	Vickey Sturgess	TV movie
1983	The Coneheads	Prymaat (voice)	TV short
1984	Bedrooms	Laura	TV movie
1984–89	Kate & Allie	Allison 'Allie' Lowell	122 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (1984–1985) Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Performer (1984–1985) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
1988	American Playhouse	Lina McLaidlaw	Episode: "Suspicion"
1988	Maybe Baby	Julia Gilbert	TV movie
1990	Common Ground	Alice McGoff	TV movie
1990	Working It Out	Sarah Marshall	13 episodes
1994	Dave's World	Anne	Episode: "Lost Weekend"
1995	Tad	Mary Todd Lincoln	TV movie
1995	Mystery Dance	Susan Baker	Episode: "1.1"
1996–2001	3rd Rock from the Sun	Dr. Mary Albright	137 episodes Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
1998	Hercules	Hippolyte (voice)	Episode: "Hercules and the Girdle of Hippolyte"
1998	Recess	Mrs. Clemperer (voice)	Episode: "Wild Child"
2000	Catch a Falling Star	Fran	TV movie
2003	Cyberchase	Lady Ada Byron Lovelace (voice)	Episode: "Hugs and Witches"
2003	Our Town	Mrs. Webb	TV movie Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2004	The Librarian: Quest for the Spear	Charlene	TV movie
2006	Crumbs	Suzanne Crumb	13 episodes
2006	The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines	Charlene	TV movie
2007	Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office	Joy	TV movie
2008	In the Motherhood	Mom	Episode: "Mother Dearest"
2008	The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice	Charlene	TV movie
2008–2009	Gary Unmarried	Connie	2 episodes
2009	Sherri	Margo / Paula's Mom	Episode: "Birth"
2010	The Women of SNL	Various/Prymaat Conehead/Weekend Update	TV Movie; Archive Footage
2010	Rex Is Not Your Lawyer	Unknown	Episode: "Pilot"
2011	The Oprah Winfrey Show	Guest	Episode: "Saturday Night Live Class Reunion"
2012–2014	Unforgettable	Joanne Webster	27 episodes
2014	The Librarians	Charlene	Guest role in 2 episodes "And the Crown of King Arthur", "And the Sword in the Stone"

External links

• Jane Curtin at the Internet Movie Database
• Jane Curtin at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jane Curtin at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Jane Curtin reading Tobias Wolff's story "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs" on YouTube
• Jane Curtin interview video at the Archive of American Television

Media offices
Preceded by Chevy Chase	Weekend Update anchor 1976–1977	Succeeded by Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin
Preceded by Jane Curtin	Weekend Update anchor (with Dan Aykroyd) 1977–1978	Succeeded by Jane Curtin and Bill Murray
Preceded by Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd	Weekend Update anchor (with Bill Murray) 1978–1980	Succeeded by Charles Rocket