Jeannie Carson (born Jean Shufflebottom; 23 May 1928) is a British-born retired comedian, actress, singer and dancer. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Early life

Born to show business parents, Carson was born as Jean Shufflebottom in

Pudsey Pudsey is a market town in the City of Leeds Borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located midway between Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 22,408. History T ...

, West Riding of Yorkshire. In her early British films, she performed under the name Jean Carson, but later changed her given name to "Jeannie" to avoid confusion with the similarly named American actress

Jean Carson Jean Leete Carson (February 28, 1923 – November 2, 2005) was an American stage, film and television actress best known for her work on the classic 1960s sitcom ''The Andy Griffith Show'' as one of the " fun girls". Early life Carson was bor ...

Acting career

Carson acted in ''

Love from Judy ''Love from Judy'' is a musical with music by Hugh Martin, lyrics by Martin and Jack Gray, and a book by Eric Maschwitz and Jean Webster. It is based on Webster's novel and play '' Daddy-Long-Legs''. The original production opened in Coventry ...

'' in London. After producer

Max Liebman Max Liebman (August 2, 1902 – July 21, 1981) was a Broadway theater and TV producer-director sometimes called the "Ziegfeld of TV", who helped establish early television's comedy vocabulary with ''Your Show of Shows''. He additionally helped bring ...

saw her in that production, he signed her to a contract to appear on television in the United States, starting with a six-episode

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...

version of the Broadway musical '' Best Foot Forward''. In January 1953 she released her first recording on the newly formed Philips label "Barrels and Barrels of Roses". In 1956, she starred in her own series ''

Hey, Jeannie! ''Hey, Jeannie!'', retitled ''The Jeannie Carson Show'' during its second season and also during later prime-time reruns, is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS during the 1956-1957 television season and in first-run syndication during ...

'', which aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. The series lasted one season before being cancelled in 1957, although six new episodes with a revamped format were broadcast in syndication in 1958 with the title ''The Jeannie Carson Show'', and reruns of ''Hey, Jeannie!'' were aired in primetime during the summer of 1960, also under the title ''The Jeannie Carson Show''. She appeared as a guest panelist on the February 24, 1957 telecast of ''

What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...

''. In 1969, she appeared as Marcy Vincente on the soap opera ''

Search for Tomorrow ''Search for Tomorrow'' is an American television soap opera. It began its run on CBS on September 3, 1951, and concluded on NBC, 35 years later, on December 26, 1986. Set in the fictional town of Henderson in an unspecified state, the show fo ...

''. Oscar-winning actress

Anne Revere Anne Revere (June 25, 1903 – December 18, 1990) was an American actress and a progressive member of the board of the Screen Actors' Guild. She was best known for her work on Broadway and her film portrayals of mothers in a series of critical ...

played her mother and

Anthony George Anthony George (born Ottavio Gabriel George; January 29, 1921 – March 16, 2005) was an American actor mostly seen on television. He is best known for roles of Don Corey in CBS's ''Checkmate'', Burke Devlin #2 and Jeremiah Collins on ABC's ...

played her husband.

Personal life

In 1960, Carson married her second husband, actor

Biff McGuire William "Biff" McGuire (October 25, 1926 – March 9, 2021) was an American actor. Best known as Inspector Kramer in ''Nero Wolfe'' (1979). Early years McGuire attended Hamden High School and the University of Massachusetts, where he studied agr ...

, while both were starring in the Broadway revival of '' Finian's Rainbow''. They toured together in 1961 in ''

Camelot Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as th ...

'', with McGuire as King Arthur and Carson as Guenevere. Later, they performed at the

Seattle Repertory Seattle Repertory Theatre (familiarly known as "The Rep") is a major regional theatre located in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Center. It is a member of Theatre Puget SoundA Date with a Dream'' * 1953 – '' Love in Pawn'' * 1955 – '' As Long as They're Happy'' * 1955 – ''

An Alligator Named Daisy ''An Alligator Named Daisy'' is a 1955 British comedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Donald Sinden, Jeannie Carson, James Robertson Justice, Diana Dors, Roland Culver and Stanley Holloway. Plot Returning from a cricket match in I ...

'' * 1957 – ''

Rockets Galore! ''Rockets Galore!'' is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Michael Relph and starring Jeannie Carson, Donald Sinden and Roland Culver. The sequel to '' Whisky Galore!'', it was much less successful than its predecessor. It was based on the n ...

'' (US title: ''Mad Little Island'') * 1958 – '' Little Women'' (

Musical) (portraying Jo March) is * 1961 – '' Seven Keys'' * 1964 – ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play '' Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons ...

'' (bit part)

Broadway appearances

* 1959-63 – ''

The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, ''The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. S ...

''Profile
playbill.com; accessed 16 March 2022. * 1960 – '' Finian's Rainbow'' * 1970 – ''Blood Red Roses''

References

External links

* * 1928 births Living people English women comedians English expatriates in the United States English musical theatre actresses English film actresses English television actresses People from Pudsey {{England-actor-stub