Audrey Meadows was revered as the feisty Alice Kramden opposite Jackie Gleason's garrulous bus driver Ralph in television's classic "The Honeymooners."
Meadows was neither the first nor the last Alice but was certainly the best-known. She played the testy bus driver's wife for five years and appeared in several reunion shows. Her work earned her an Emmy in 1954 as best supporting actress in a television series and a 1955 Sylvania Award for outstanding contribution to television techniques.
She considered Alice her favorite role and recalled those barely rehearsed early television episodes as "the best time I ever had." When she wrote her memoirs in 1994, centered on working with Gleason, the title was "Love, Alice."
Although the role made Meadows a household face and name, she would say later that it typecast her, seriously curbing her acting career. She remained popular as a guest on variety shows, including those of Red Skelton, Dinah Shore, Perry Como, Jack Benny, Carol Burnett and Dean Martin, but commented: "Almost all of the stuff I was offered was something in the kitchen, always in the damn kitchen."
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