Entertainer. She will be best remembered for creating the role of Agnes Gooch in the Broadway production “Mame” which ran on stage from 1966 until 1970. She went onto repeat the part in the 1974 motion picture adaptation of the same name. Born Jane Sperry Bennett, a child of the depression and one of four siblings, she had a gift for humor beginning at an early age which provided relief for her family during their financial difficulties. She met her husband actor Gordon Connell during the early part of her career and after their marriage in 1948, they performed together on radio and summer stock productions before settling in New York. She experienced her breakthrough in theater with her part of Mrs. Peachum (a character who was more than 20-years older than Connell’s actual age) in the long running off-Broadway musical “The Threepenny Opera” (1955 to 1961) which co-starred Beatrice Arthur and in 1956, she marked her Broadway debut in the production of “The New Faces of 1956”. In 1960, she became known to an international audience, as she starred in the production of “Once Upon a Mattress” on London’s West End. She went onto perform in several more plays over the next 40 years which included her Tony Award nominated role in “Me and My Girl” (1986 to 1989). She had many television credits on such popular series as “Bewitched”, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Love, American Style”, in addition to roles in the motion pictures “Kotch” (1971), “Mame” (1974) and “House Calls” (1978). (bio by: C.S.)