Audrey Meadows was an American actress born as Audrey Cotter on 8th February 1922 in New York City, and will be best remembered for her role in the 1950s TV comedy “The Honeymooners”, as housewife Alice Kramden. She passed away in 1996.
Have you ever wondered how rich Audrey Meadows was? According to celebrity dot money, it has been estimated that Meadows’ net worth was three million dollars, accumulated through a notable acting career, primarily during the 1950s and 1960s. Her role in the popular TV show “The Honeymooners” brought her great popularity and significantly increased her net worth.
Audrey was the youngest of four children in the family; her parents had been Episcopal missionaries in China, where her siblings had been born. A year before Audrey was born, her parents returned to the USA and settled in New York. Meadows went to Barrington School for Girls in Great Barrington Massachusetts, and decided to pursue an acting career upon graduation. Her first engagements included singing in Broadway musicals such as “Top Banana”. She then landed a regular television role in “The Bob and Ray Show”, and soon after in “The Jackie Gleason Show”, in which she starred as Alice, a role which she later continued in “The Honeymooners” when it became a regular situation comedy of a half-hour on CBS. When the show’s creator, Jackie Gleason produced the Honeymooners specials in the 1970s, Meadows auditioned for the role of Alice but was initially turned down due to her chic and pretty looks. However, after submitting a completely different photo of herself in which she looked much plainer, she won the role. Her portrayal of Alice was probably the most impressionable, as she became more associated with the character than any other actor who played the role. She reprised her role in other shows as well, including “The Steve Allen Show” and “The Jack Benny Program”. Audrey earned a large amount of money thanks to her brother Edward, a lawyer, who had previously inserted a clause into her contract with the producers of the “Honeymooners”, where he stated she would be paid in case of the show’s rebroadcast. Since the series did eventually start airing in reruns, Meadows earned millions of dollars in return.
When it comes to her career after this show, Audrey co-operated with director Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her in several of his “Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat” series, and several other TV variety shows, series and feature films. During the ‘80s she was mostly seen in situation comedies such as “Too Close for Comfort”. Later, she even had an impact in “The Simpsons” in the episode “Old Money”, voicing the character of Grandpa Simpson’s girlfriend, Bea Simmons. Her net worth was still rising.
Apart from her fruitful career in the entertainment industry, Meadows also had a marketing and banking career – she served as director of the First National Bank of Denver, becoming the first woman to hold this position. Also, for twenty years she worked as an advisory director of Continental Airlines, retiring in 1981.
In October 1994, Audrey published “Love, Alice: My Life As A Honeymooner” – her memoirs, and only two years later, after being diagnosed with lung cancer, she died in Beverly Hills, California, five days before her 74th birthday on 3rd February 1996 in, USA.
Privately, Meadows was married twice, firstly to real estate man Randolph Rouse from 1956 to ’58, and then Robert F. “Bob” Six from 1961 to ‘86.
Full Name
Audrey Meadows
Net Worth
$3 Million
Date Of Birth
February 8, 1922
Died
February 3, 1996, Beverly Hills, California, United States
Place Of Birth
New York City, New York, USA
Height
5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
Profession
Actress, Soundtrack
Nationality
American
Spouse
Randolph Rouse
Parents
Francis James Meadows Cotter, Ida Miller Taylor
Siblings
Jayne Meadows, George Edward Cotter
IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0575031/
Awards
Primetime Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress In A Regular Series
Nominations
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, TV Land Favorite Cantankerous Couple Award, Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress In A Supporting Role, Primetime Emmy Award for Best Supporting Performance By An Actress
Movies
That Touch of Mink, Invisible Diplomats
TV Shows
Too Close for Comfort, The Honeymooners, The Jackie Gleason Show, Bob and Ray
#
Trademark
1
New England accent
2
Gravelly voice
3
Red hair
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Quote
1
My father was an Episcopal minister, and for 14 years my family lived in China, in a city called Wuchang. We four children spoke Chinese before we spoke English. We left when the communists came, in the early 1930s. I was about 5 years old.
2
[on Jackie Gleason] He was divine to work with, an absolute genius. I’ve never been in a show that had the chemistry of everybody together like that. We were all very close.
3
I’ve always voted Republican because America is exactly that, a republic. You can’t expect much leadership with a Democrat behind the desk their not even close to dual efficient.
4
[on Jackie Gleason and The Honeymooners (1955)] He did not like to rehearse. I kept saying to Art [Art Carney] ‘When do we do the blocking?’ And he said, ‘You just did it’. I said, ‘Well, are they going to do a camera run?’ He said, ‘You just did it’. I said, ‘Well, what time is dress rehearsal?’ And he said, ‘You just did it’. I was in a state of panic. So I got through that first show and then I got to love the fact of not rehearsing, because it’s much better for comedy when it’s not over-rehearsed.
5
You as you are are better by far than the you that you are trying to be.
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Fact
1
She was the live action model for the cartoon character Wilma Flintstone.
2
A Republican, she publically endorsed Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan for president.
3
Her father was Francis Meadows Cotter, an Episcopal missionary. Her mother’s name was Ida Miller Taylor.
4
She was the first The Simpsons (1989) guest star to have passed away. Ironically she played an old woman at an old folk’s home who died and came back as a ghost.
5
Although not a comedienne by nature, Audrey appeared with many of Hollywood’s top comic royalty during her “Golden Age of TV” years including Red Skelton, George Gobel, Jack Benny, Sid Caesar, and Carol Burnett.
6
Biography in: “American National Biography”. Supplement 1, pp. 401-403. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
7
Jackie Gleason was short and had a Napoleon complex, so he hired short actors to work with. One of the few exceptions was Audrey, who was 5’6″ but wore flats.
8
She returned once to The Honeymooners (1955) in 1966 for the last black-and-white sketch entitled “The Adoption” which was broadcast in Miami.
9
She lived in China for the first five years of her life because her parents were missionaries there. Until her family moved back the US, Audrey spoke nothing but Chinese. Her family was visiting New York City when she was born.
10
One of many of her character’s famous quips to Jackie Gleason’s “Ralph Kramden” was when Ralph said that he was waiting for his “pot of gold”: “Go for the gold, Ralph, you’ve already got the pot!”.
11
When she first auditioned for the part of Alice Kramden, Jackie Gleason turned her down because, he said, she was too pretty to be believable as Ralph’s wife. Determined to get the part, she hired a photographer to take pictures of her with frumpy clothes, no makeup and a generally world-weary attitude and sent them to Gleason. Gleason, not recognizing the woman in the photo as Audrey, told his producers that she was “Alice” and to find her. When he found out it was indeed Audrey, he said that any actress that determined to get the part deserved it, and hired her.
12
Became the first woman director of the First National Bank of Denver in post-acting years.
13
Audrey and Joyce Randolph (who played neighbor Trixie in the Honeymooner’s sketches) knew each other before the classic TV show. They once worked together in a summer stock production of “No, No, Nanette.”.
14
Her last word was reportedly “Jayne!” Her sister Jayne Meadows rushed to her bedside when she heard of her impending death, and after Audrey said this last word, Jayne took her little sister’s hand and Audrey squeezed it. She slipped into a coma and never said another word, passing away on February 3, 1996, in Room 8102 of Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
15
Both Audrey and Jayne Meadows competed against members of the William F. Buckley family in local talent shows. In 1944, three of Buckley’s sisters were accused of vandalizing the church where Audrey and Jayne’s father was rector.
16
The youngest of four children.
17
Brother-in-law is the late Steve Allen.
18
Late husband, Bob Six, was CEO of Continental Airlines and was once married to Ethel Merman.
19
Played field hockey in school
20
She and sister Jayne Meadows had nicknames for each other when they were little. Audrey was Sara and Jayne was Elinor.
21
Debuted at Carnegie Hall as a mezzo soprano.
22
Was a chain smoker.
23
Father, Rev. Francis James Meadows Cotter was an Episcopal priest and mother, Ida, was a missonary.
24
In one sense, Audrey and her agent, were smarter than the usually visionary Jackie Gleason. Audrey was the only one of the Honeymooners cast whose contract required payments to her for TV re-runs and sales of the episodes.
25
Younger sister of actress Jayne Meadows.
26
Best remembered for her continuing role as Alice Kramden, wife of Ralph Kramden (played by Jackie Gleason), in TV’s The Honeymooners (1955). (The same role had been played earlier by Pert Kelton, and later by Sheila MacRae.).
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Dave’s World
1995
TV Series
Ruby
Empty Nest
1994
TV Series
Margaret Randall
Burke’s Law
1994
TV Series
Georgia Stark
Sisters
1993
TV Series
Ada Benbeow
Davis Rules
1992
TV Series
Gunny’s Ex-Wife
Hi Honey, I’m Home
1991
TV Series
Alice Kramden
The Simpsons
1991
TV Series
Bea Simmons
Uncle Buck
1990-1991
TV Series
Maggie Hogoboom
Wally and the Valentines
1989
TV Movie
Lillian
Nightingales
1989
TV Series
CBS Summer Playhouse
1988
TV Series
Aunt Lunar
Too Close for Comfort
1982-1986
TV Series
Iris Martin
Life with Lucy
1986
TV Series
Audrey, Lucy’s Sister
Murder, She Wrote
1986
TV Series
Mildred Tilley
Hotel
1985
TV Series
Amelia Chelton
The Love Boat
1978-1984
TV Series
Helen Williams / Mrs. Elliott / Gladys Watkins
Diff’rent Strokes
1982
TV Series
Mrs. Martinson
Lily: Sold Out
1981
TV Movie
Polly Jo
The Honeymooners
1978/I
TV Movie
Alice Kramden
Starsky and Hutch
1978
TV Series
Hilda Zuckerman
The Honeymooners
1978/II
TV Movie
Alice Kramden
The Honeymooners
1977
TV Movie
Alice Kramden / Mother Cratchit
The Honeymooners
1976
TV Movie
Alice Kramden
The Dean Martin Show
1974
TV Series
Martha Washington
Love, American Style
1972
TV Series
Eve / Harriet / Mom (segment “Love and Dear Old Mom and Dad”)
$3 Million
