Background
Jackson, the youngest of three sisters, was born in Millvale, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Stella Germaine (née Murray) and John Ivan Jackson, a barber who ran a beauty parlor.
Actor film producer television actor
Jackson, the youngest of three sisters, was born in Millvale, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Stella Germaine (née Murray) and John Ivan Jackson, a barber who ran a beauty parlor.
Studied with Sanford Meisner and Herbert Berghof at Neighborhood Playhouse with Lee Strassberg at Actor's Studio.
She is the widow of actor Eli Wallach. In 1956 she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in Paddy Chayefsky's Middle of the Night. Jackson's mother was of Irish Catholic background and Jackson's father, whose original name was John Jchekovitch, immigrated from Croatia in 1918.
Jackson trained at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse and The Actor's Studio. She made her Broadway debut in 1945. Her theatre credits include Summer and Smoke, Arms and the Man, Luv, The Waltz of the Toreadors, Mr.
Peters' Connections, and Lost in Yonkers. Jackson's screen credits include The Tiger Makes Out, The Secret Life of an American Wife, How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life, Lovers and Other Strangers, Dirty Dingus Magee, and The Shining. Her many television appearances include Armstrong Circle Theatre, Academy Theatre, The Philco Television Playhouse, Studio One, The Untouchables, The Defenders, Gunsmoke, Marcus Welby, M.D., Rhoda, Highway to Heaven, Law & Order, and ER. She narrated Stellaluna on an episode of the PBS series Reading Rainbow, aired on October 12, 1994.
Jackson was married to actor Eli Wallach, with whom she acted frequently, from March 5, 1948, until his death on June 24, 2014. They had three children, Peter, Katherine, and Roberta. Her marriage to Wallach was one of the longest and most successful in Hollywood history.
She currently teaches at the HB Studio in Manhattan, and continues to act in cameo roles.
(Memoirs by the noted actress. 212 pages. Hardcover with d...)
Married Eli Wallach, March 5,1948. Children: Peter, Roberta, Katherine.