Jane Rose

Jane Phin Rose (February 7, 1913 – June 29, 1979) was an American character actress whose career spanned Broadway, film, and television over several decades. Born in Spokane, Washington, she was the only child of Dr. Charles L. Rose, a Spokane dentist, and Dr. Frances Eastman, a Spokane physician. Eastman had a daughter, Angeline Kearny Lockhart, from a prior marriage. Rose received her education at Lewis and Clark High School, the University of Washington, and Columbia University, and developed her early performance experience through little theater.

Rose's Broadway career ran from 1952 to 1972 and encompassed a range of dramatic and comedic productions. She appeared in the original production of The Time of the Cuckoo during the 1952–53 season, followed by Orpheus Descending in 1957 and the comedy The Gazebo from 1958 to 1959. The 1959–60 season brought her a role in a revival of Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House, in which she played Nurse Guinness. Her subsequent Broadway work included The Sound of Music, Enemies, and additional productions through 1972. Beyond Broadway, Rose performed with the New York Shakespeare Festival in productions of All's Well That Ends Well, Richard III, and Measure for Measure.

Her film work included David Lean's Summertime (1955), starring Katharine Hepburn, Flipper (1963), and I Walk the Line (1970), which featured Gregory Peck and Tuesday Weld. On television, Rose accumulated an extensive list of credits across drama, comedy, and daytime programming. Her series appearances included Robert Montgomery Presents, Car 54 Where Are You?, The Defenders, Route 66, All in the Family, Rhoda, Lou Grant, and Co-Ed Fever. On daytime television she appeared on Dark Shadows, The Secret Storm, and Somerset, and created the recurring character of Sarah Dale on Love of Life.

Rose is perhaps most widely remembered for her role as Audrey Dexter, the mother-in-law of Cloris Leachman's character Phyllis Lindstrom, on the CBS sitcom Phyllis, which ran from 1975 to 1977. Nearly three decades after the series ended, she received a posthumous nomination for a TV Land Award in the category of Favorite Mother-in-Law in 2005. Her final screen performance was the role of Mrs. Bulfinch in the ABC miniseries Roots: The Next Generations (1979).

In addition to her performing career, Rose devoted eleven years to the New York Association for the Blind, serving as the organization's Director of Recreation. She also taught acting and was a pioneer in the application of drama as a therapeutic tool for the blind. Rose died of cancer on June 29, 1979, at her home in Studio City, California, at the age of 66.