Jean Stapleton The marquee lights on Broadway were dimmed for one minute on June 5, 2013, at 8 p.m. EDT, to honor the memory of Stapleton. Jean Stapleton Jean Stapleton (born Jeanne Murray; January 19, 1923 – May 31, 2013) was an American character actress of stage, television, and film. Stapleton is best known for having portrayed Edith Bunker, the long-suffering yet devoted wife of Archie Bunker, on the 1970s sitcom "All in the Family". Stapleton was a three-time recipient of the Prime Time Emmy Award for leading actress in a comedy series and won two Golden Globes in the same category
United States in the 1950s show. In "Life of Riley" (1953–1958), blue collar Chester A. Riley (William Bendix) became the prototype for a long line of bumbling television patriarchs that included Fred Flintstone and Archie Bunker. The show's first incarnation for the DuMont Television Network lasted a season (1949–1950) and won an Emmy during the first Emmy Awards in 1949. "The Honeymooners" (1955–1956) followed bus driver Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) and his sewer-working sidekick Ed Norton (Art Carney) while archetypal suburban life was limned in "Leave It to Beaver" (1957–1963), purportedly the first sitcom to be told from a child's point of view and the