Jean Stapleton is “Happily Occupied”
Title: Jean Stapleton is “Happily Occupied”
Source: CBS Press Release
Author: CBS
Date: August 31, 1984
I have no intention of infringing on anyone’s rights to the story - I am merely posting the information here to allow people access to an interview they might otherwise have missed due to limited accessibility. If I am unintentionally breaking a copyright please let me know and I will either add the needed copyright disclaimer or remove the article.
Jean Stapleton knew as soon as she read the “Scarecrow and Mrs. King: script that she was perfect for the role of a British agent taken hostage in Salzburg, Austria. Her rescue would depend on two unlikely partners, who star as Amanda King and Lee Stetson in the adventure-drama returning for it’s second season, for broadcast Mondays (8:00-9:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network.
On a Monday, she learned of the foreign location plans for the series. By Tuesday, she had the script in hand.
“I read it, thought it was adorable and just right for me, and on Thursday I said ‘yes’,” she reported. A little over a week later she was on a plane.
Of course, not everything in Miss Stapleton’s life has happened that quickly. Certainly not her rise to stardom.
“It never occured to me to be anything else but an actress,” she said, “but I had to work. I had to make the money because I had no other source of income.”
First she became a typist. Soon, she learned shorthand; and, eventually, she landed a secretarial position.
“I worked full-time for awhile and did things at night in Off Broadway studio and workshop situations,” she recalled. “Then I graduated to part-time work, and that enabled me to get out more for readings, auditions, rehearsals.”
Miss Stapleton firmly beliebes that New York is the place to get your feet wet.
“I feel it’s important to start by doing theater first, and I think New York is the place to be,” she declared. “To start in New York, be trained and work in theater there — well, to me, it is the foundation of anything you do in film or television.”
Miss Stapleton, whose late husband, William H. Putch, was producer-director of the Totem Pole Playhouse in Pennsylvania, thinks that doing summer theater is also a vital stepping stone.
“It’s very important,” she emphasized, “but they are shrinking. Some are of the opinion that not enough rehearsal time is given. But sometimes you get less rehearsal time in television and film, which makes summer theater almost a luxury in contrast.”
Would the Emmy award-winning actress consider another career now?
“No,” came the firm response. “I’ve been too happily occupied.”