Jean Alexander began her acting career while still in high school in Rochester, where she later joined Stanley Woolf's Civic Drama Guild of New York for a car-and-truck tour of "Junior Miss" in 1945. Following World War II, she embarked on a tour of the South Pacific with the USO, performing in "Petticoat Fever". Back in New York, she honed her craft with esteemed acting coaches Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, and became a Lifetime Member of the Actors Studio in 1951.
Throughout her career, Jean appeared on, off, and off-off Broadway, as well as in numerous films, including the noir classic "The Mob" in 1951. Her extensive television credits include appearances in golden-era prime-time drama anthologies such as "The United States Steel Hour", "The Philco Television Playhouse", "Kraft Theatre", and "Studio One in Hollywood", as well as serials like "Decoy", "Martin Kane", "Ryan's Hope", and "Quincy M.E.". She also made hundreds of television commercials, with her most notable role being "The Savarin Girl" for over five years, promoting Savarin Coffee on NBC's Saturday Night News from 1950 to 1955.
Jean was a member of The Improvisors, a group that included Larry Blyden and Ross Martin, and appeared on the improv TV show "What Happens Now?" on New York's WOR-TV from 1949 to 1950. She also had her own local New York show, "Jean Alexander's Pet Party", which aired on Channel 7 and received an NYU award for best children's program. Her more recent film appearances include "Old Days" (2008),"Chicken" (2008),and "Underwear" (2009),which won three film-festival awards. Jean's last performances were in video sketches for HBO and The Onion from 2010 to 2011.
In her personal life, Jean married Jules Alexander in 1950 and divorced in 1952. She then married Arnold Schulman in 1954, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1974.
