Jane Withers

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Jane Withers bigraphy, stories - American actor

Jane Withers : biography

April 12, 1926 –

Jane Withers (born April 12, 1926) is an American actress. Beginning a prolific career as a child actress at the age of three, Withers is a Young Artist Award–Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award honoree, best known for being one of the most popular child film stars of the 1930s and early 1940s, as well as for her portrayal of "Josephine the Plumber" in a series of TV commercials for Comet cleanser in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Josephine the Plumber fame

Withers appeared in various television series in the early 1960s, including the CBS sitcom Pete and Gladys, in the role of Wilma in the 1962 episode "Step on Me"; the CBS anthology series General Electric Theater, hosted by Ronald W. Reagan; and the CBS adventure series The Aquanauts, starring Keith Larsen and Jeremy Slate. She was cast in 1963 as Edith Swinney in the episode "How to Get Rid of Your Wife" on CBS’s The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

By the middle 1960s, she gained recognition again as "Josephine the Plumber", a character in a long-running and popular series of television commercials for Comet cleanser, and the veteran TV-ad pitchwoman’s beloved character lasted into the 1970s, and even further in the 1980s when her niece, JoAnn or Jo, would show her customers a picture of her Aunt Josephine. During this time, Withers also continued to do voice-over work and occasional guest-starring appearances on television. A December 15, 2008, Advertising Age article about Flo, the Progressive Insurance TV commercial character played by Stephanie Courtney, said that Flo, "… is a weirdly sincere, post-modern Josephine the Plumber who just really wants to help. She has: The brand is flourishing." , Advertising Age, December 15, 2008

Filmography

Features

  • Handle with Care (1932)
  • Zoo in Budapest (1933)
  • Tailspin Tommy (1934)
  • It’s a Gift (1934)
  • Imitation of Life (1934)
  • Bright Eyes (1934)
  • The Good Fairy (1935)
  • Ginger (1935)
  • The Farmer Takes a Wife (1935)
  • Redheads on Parade (1935)
  • This Is the Life (1935)
  • Paddy O’Day (1935)
  • Can This Be Dixie? (1936)
  • Gentle Julia (1936)
  • Little Miss Nobody (1936)
  • Pepper (1936)
  • The Holy Terror (1937)
  • Angel’s Holiday (1937)
  • Wild and Wooly (1937)
  • 45 Fathers (1937)
  • Checkers (1937)
  • Rascals (1938)
  • Keep Smiling (1938)
  • Always in Trouble (1938)
  • The Arizona Wildcat (1939)
  • Boy Friend (1939)
  • Chicken Wagon Family (1939)
  • Pack Up Your Troubles (1939)
  • High School (1940)
  • Shooting High (1940)
  • Girl from Avenue A (1940)
  • Youth Will Be Served (1940)
  • Small Town Deb (1941)
  • Golden Hoofs (1941)
  • Her First Beau (1941)
  • A Very Young Lady (1941)
  • Young America (1942)
  • The Mad Martindales (1942)
  • Johnny Doughboy (1942)
  • The North Star (1943)
  • My Best Gal (1944)
  • Faces in the Fog (1944)
  • Affairs of Geraldine (1946)
  • Danger Street (1947)
  • Giant (1956)
  • The Right Approach (1961)
  • Captain Newman, M.D. (1963)
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) (vocal "stand-in" for Mary Wickes after her death) (voice)
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (2002) (voice) (direct-to-video)

Short subjects

  • Hollywood Hobbies (1939)
  • Meet the Stars #1: Chinese Garden Festival (1941)
  • Meet the Stars #6: Stars at Play (1941)
  • Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood No. 2 (1941)
  • Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood No. 4 (1942)
  • Screen Snapshots: Fashions and Rodeo (1945)
  • Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Small Fry (1956)
  • Boxes (2005)