Jean Stapleton: The Woman Behind ‘All in the Family’s Edith Bunker Could Never Be Stifled

Lori Acken Today, 6:00 am

Jean Stapleton, 1994, — Steve Hilll/TV Guide/Courtesy Everett Collection

Archie Bunker’s favorite nickname for his loving but long-suffering wife Edith may have been “dingbat.” But devoted All in the Family viewers knew that Edith was hardly a pushover. And neither was Jean Stapleton, the Manhattan-born character actress turned sitcom star who played her.

Stapleton played Edith for nine seasons, earning three Emmys and two Golden Globes, and building a backbone quiet strength and deep moral conviction into the sweetly naive Queens housewife who doted on her foul-mouthed, blue-collar husband (Carroll O’Connor) and the couple’s only child, Gloria (Sally Struthers). But she worried that, as the series entered later seasons and Edith endured both cancer and an attempted rape, Edith was becoming a bit too world weary. And Stapleton was becoming a bit too Edith Bunker.

ALL IN THE FAMILY, from left: Rob Reiner, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers, Carroll O'Connor, 1971-79

CBS/Everett Collection

By the time, the series segued into Archie Bunker’s Place, turning Archie into a tavern owner, Stapleton had had enough. She thought her character had run its course and worried about being typecast by the iconic role.

“I was a little concerned we were using the serious side of Edith too much, and I was not doing the riotous comedy that we used to do in the first three years,” Stapleton told the Christian Science Monitor. “If I had decided to invest more years in the show, I would have made a demand for more comedy instead of the melodramatic experiences Edith was having.”

Stapleton, a friend and fan of acclaimed playwright Horton Foote, was always comfortable losing herself in an interesting character over chasing top-billing stardom. “I wasn’t a leading lady type,” she told The Associated Press. “I knew where I belonged. And actually, I found character work much more interesting than leading ladies.”

MRS. PIGGLE-WIGGLE, Jean Stapleton, 1994,

Showtime Network/courtesy Everett Collection

So once she put Edith behind her, Stapleton took roles that captured her fancy, on the stage and the large and small screen. She earned a 1982 Best Actress Emmy nomination for her role as Eleanor Roosevelt in the TV movie Eleanor, First Lady of the World. She turned down Angela Lansbury‘s role in Murder, She Wrote, but popped up on Shelley Duvall’s Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, The Love Boat, Murphy Brown, and Everybody Loves Raymond. And her final role was Grace Anne Thompson in Foote’s “The Carpetbagger’s Children.”

And she remained proud of All in the Family‘s impact. Still, Stapleton spoke highly of her time on the show. “For me, it was the highest education in comedy. … My mind is so sharpened through that whole experience that now I can analyze a play of whatever length with a clarity and perception I never had before.”

Here are five facts about the late Jean Stapleton who played the most resilient of TV moms.

1 All the Family wasn’t Stapleton’s first project with Carroll O’Connor

Before they won America’s hearts as Archie and Edith Bunker, the duo starred in a 1962 episode of the Emmy-winning legal drama The Defenders. “The Hidden Jungle” featured O’Connor as murderous composer Joshua Ryder and Stapleton as Mrs. Larsen as the witness who puts him away.

2 The pair would go on to become lifelong friends and admirers

ALL IN THE FAMILY, from left: Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, 1971-79.

Everett Collection

In his 1998 memoir, O’Connor wrote of his confidante, “What we then called ‘the women’s movement’ was getting into stride, and Jean — besides being herself involved in it, and being a pace-setter in the real world — saw to it that Edith, observed by twenty-five million people every week, was a courageous women’s champion in her own imaginary family.”

3 All the Family creator Norman Lear took Edith’s passing much harder than Stapleton

ALL IN THE FAMILY, from left: Jean Stapleton (second), Carroll O'Connor (third), Norman Lear (front, center), Rob Reiner (fifth), Sally Struthers (right of center), Mike Evans (right), (1970s), 1971-79.

CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection

Stapleton only made guest appearances on Archie Bunker’s Place, but Lear couldn’t manage to officially pull the plug on her character. When the writers finally approached him about wanting to create storylines that would get Archie out of the bar — such as dates — Lear realized the time had come and called Stapleton for her blessing. Stapleton told the Archive of American Television that, of course, she was fine with it, because Edith was a work of fiction. “To me, she isn’t,” Lear responded. And so Edith earned a gentle death, dying of a stroke, off camera and in her sleep.

4 Stapleton watched the episode in a North Carolina hotel room

In the same interview, Stapleton explained “I was in Winston-Salem to play a part in the reopening of an old theater there which they were naming after [theater producer] Roger Stevens and I was in the hotel the night this episode (“Archie Alone”) aired. And Carroll did a great job — after a long time away, he found one of Edith’s slippers under a chair. He did a whole monologue to this slipper. It was very moving.”And apparently very convincing. “The next morning, the maid entered the room,” Stapleton continued. “She saw me and she dropped her jaw and said, ‘My God, I thought you were dead!’”

5 Stapleton took the stage the night her real-life husband died

Actress Jean Stapleton and husband William Putch attending Fifth Annual Kennedy Center Honors Gala Dinner on December 4, 1982 at the State Department in Washington, D.C.

Betty Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

In 1983, Stapleton’s husband of 25-plus years, producer-director William Putch, was directing her in a touring production of George Kelly’s “The Show-Off” when he died suddenly of a heart attack. Stapleton completed the night’s performance because she said Putch would have wanted it that way.