Janet Sarno

Janet Margaret Sarno (November 18, 1933 – March 15, 2023) was an American character actress whose career in stage, film, and television spanned more than five decades. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, she was the daughter of Margaret (née Daddona) and Francis "Frank" Sarno, an Italian-born hair stylist who operated Sarno's Beauty Salon for many years. After completing her secondary education at Central High School and attending New Haven State Teacher's College, Sarno worked as a teacher at Hallen Elementary School before pursuing advanced training at Yale Drama School. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale in 1962, the same year she received the Mrs. William E. Hill Sr. Award, given annually to the actress who best exemplifies the Yale Drama School in both scholastic achievement and acting. That year, her performance in the Yale Drama Society production of Here Comes Santa Claus, a black comedy written by playwright in residence Joel Oliansky, drew notice from New York Times critic Howard Taubman, who singled out her portrayal of a tough yet sensitive girl who delivers broadcasts for teenagers as one of several helpful performances in the production. Fellow cast member Daniel Travanti also appeared in that production.

Sarno's stage work outside Broadway encompassed a wide range of classical and contemporary roles. Her Off-Broadway and regional theater credits included Pirate Jenny in Brecht's Threepenny Opera, the stepdaughter in Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, and Melba Snyder in Pal Joey. At Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., she played Masha in Chekhov's Three Sisters and Sabina in Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth. Additional stage work included the title role in Play Strindberg, the character Patsie in Paul La Russo II's Momma's Little Angels, and both Madame Bidet and Madame Joie in Jane Anderson's The Pink Studio. She also appeared as the woman in Paul Shyre's A Whitman Portrait and performed in the rock opera The Survival of St. Joan. Her 1989 portrayal of Judith Fellowes in a revival of Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana earned particular praise from Montclair Times critic Naomi Siegel, who described Sarno's work as exemplifying what good character acting is all about, citing her humor and self-righteous buffoonery in the role.

On Broadway, Sarno performed across a span of more than fifty years, from 1964 to 2015. She starred in The Apple Doesn't Fall... and appeared in productions of Equus, Fish in the Dark, and Knockout.

In 2010, Sarno became the subject of Janet's Class, a feature-length documentary produced, directed, and shot by actress Dorothy Lyman, who had previously made the film Split Ends with Sarno. Janet's Class followed Sarno alongside her acting students, who ranged in age from 50 to 92. The documentary was scored by Grammy-winning arranger Bill Cunliffe and received at least one public screening, in February 2011 at the Andes Hotel in Andes, New York, though it had not secured a commercial distributor as of December 2025.

In her personal life, Sarno was engaged to Thomas John Morrison in 1960, though the two did not marry. From no later than 1985 until his death in 2012, she was the wife of New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Joseph Dontzin, whose New York Times funeral announcement described him as Sarno's devoted Stage Door Johnny who accompanied her to each of her theater performances. Sarno died on March 15, 2023, at her home in New York City at the age of 89.