Biography

Jane Kaczmarek

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Jane grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her mother, Evelyn, was a school teacher. Her father, Edward, is a former Defense Department employee. She is the oldest of four children. Her brothers, Jim & Bill, are a teacher and an entrepreneur respectively. Her sister, Mary, works for an Internet company. Jane was a theater major at the University of Wisconsin. While there, she became buddies with Tony Shalhoub, who encouraged her to shoot for stardom. She followed Tony in enrolling at Yale University & performed in the Yale Repertory Company. She had several film and theatrical successes, including good notices for her replacement of Mercedes Ruehl in Neil Simon's Broadway play, "Lost In Yonkers". Jane's roommate at Yale was Kate Burton, Richard Burton's daughter. Kate arranged a blind date between Jane and Bradley Whitford. In 1992, after two years of dating, the two married. They have three children: Frances (b. 1997), Edward (b. 1999) and Mary (b. 2002).
- IMDb mini biography by: John Sacksteder <jsack@ka.net>

Received seven consecutive Emmy nominations for Best Actress in a Comedy Series (Malcolm in the Middle (2000)) but never won.
Studied at Yale University School of Drama, where she was a classmate of Kate Burton.
Founded the charity "Clothes off our Back" (http://www.clothesoffourback.org) with her ex-husband, Bradley Whitford, in 2002. "Clothes off our Back" runs on-line auctions after major awards shows where celebrities' gowns, tuxedos, and other articles of clothing, are auctioned off. The proceeds go to children's charities such as Cure Autism Now (http://www.cureautismnow.org) and The Children's Defense Fund (http://www.childrensdefense.org/).
Studied to be a teacher at the University of Wisconsin.
She and her ex-husband, Bradley Whitford, have three children: Frances Whitford was born in January 1997; George Whitford was born on December 23, 1999 and Mary Louisa Whitford was born on November 25, 2002.

Student teaching is the hardest job there is. Secondary school kids didn't want to be there. I skipped out one afternoon and went to the mall, and there were some of my students there. But they couldn't report me, could they? - about the time she was student teaching
Look, you can get yourself cut and stitched, or you can get a good girdle. The day before my first Emmy show, I went to Sears and bought a really good girdle. And I've worn that thing to every single awards show since!
"If a stove like this was good enough for 50s moms, who made three meals a day, then it's good enough for me!" (when asked why she bought her 1950s stove.)
"I hate cooking, so my only concern was fitting a turkey in it on Thanksgiving and I can." (when asks when she will use her newly purchased 1950s stove).
[on Erik Per Sullivan's refusal to do the 'Malcolm in the Middle' revival] He's studying Dickens and is an incredible student. They offered him buckets of money to come back, and he just said, 'No thank you'.