Audrey Meadows

Born
February 8, 1922 · New York City, New York, USA
Died
February 3, 1996 · Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (lung cancer)
Birth name
Audrey Meadows Cotter
Nickname
- Aud
Height
5′ 6″ (1.68 m)

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 he hired her.
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 reruns and sales of the episodes.
She was the live action model for the cartoon character Wilma Flintstone.
She lived in China for the first five years of her life because her parents were missionaries there. Until her family moved back to the US, Audrey spoke nothing but Chinese. Her family was visiting New York City when she was born.
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.

You as you are better by far than the you that you are trying to be.
[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.
I've always voted Republican because America is exactly that, a republic. You can't expect much leadership with a Democrat behind the desk; they're not even close to dual efficient.
[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.
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.