Anne Jackson

Jackson was born in Millvale, Pennsylvania in 1925, the daughter of Stella Germaine (née Murray) and John Ivan Jackson, a barber who ran a beauty parlor. She was the youngest of three children, after Catherine, eight years older, and Beatrice, three years older. Her year of birth had been misreported for years as 1926, the year Jackson gave in a 1962 interview. Jackson's mother was of Irish Catholic descent and her father, whose original name was Ivan Jchekovitch, had emigrated from Croatia in 1918. Her family moved to Brooklyn, New York when she was eight years old. She attended Franklin K. Lane High School. In New York, Jackson trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse and The Actor's Studio. She made her Broadway debut in 1945. Her theater credits included Summer and Smoke, Arms and the Man, Luv, The Waltz of the Toreadors, Mr. Peters' Connections and Lost in Yonkers.

Jackson's screen credits include The Tiger Makes Out, The Secret Life of an American Wife, How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life, Lovers and Other Strangers, Dirty Dingus Magee, Folks!, and The Shining. Her many television appearances include Armstrong Circle Theatre, Academy Theatre, The Philco Television Playhouse, Studio One, The Untouchables, The Defenders, Gunsmoke, Marcus Welby, M.D., Rhoda, The Facts of Life , Highway to Heaven, Law & Order, and ER. She narrated Stellaluna on an episode of the PBS series Reading Rainbow.

In March 2017, the Harry Ransom Center announced the acquisition of Anne Jackson's archive along with her husband's. It will be made available to the public when cataloging is complete.

Jackson and her husband Eli Wallach in 2010

Jackson was married to actor Eli Wallach, with whom she acted frequently, from March 5, 1948, until his death on June 24, 2014. They had three children, Peter, Katherine, and Roberta. Her marriage to Wallach was one of the longest and most successful in the industry. She later taught at the HB Studio in Manhattan, and continued to act in cameo roles.

Jackson died at her home in Manhattan on April 12, 2016, aged 90.