Jean Sullivan

February 2024 · 5 minute read

Actress, legit producer-director, dancer

Jean Sullivan, actress, legit producer-director and a former principal dancer for the American Ballet Theater Company, died of cardiac arrest Feb. 27 at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 79.

Logan, Utah, native was discovered by a Warner Bros. Scout when she performed in a play while a student at UCLA. Subsequently, she starred in or had a prominent role in three movies: “Uncertain Glory” with Errol Flynn, “Escape to the Desert” (1945 remake of “The Petrified Forest”) and “Roughly Speaking” with Rosalind Russell and Jack Carson. In 1976 she returned to the bigscreen in “Squirm.”

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Despite the early success, she decided to leave Hollywood and study acting in New York with the likes of Sanford Meisner, Nola Chilton, Frank Corsaro and others. While there, she was into dancing and was discovered anew by choreographer Anthony Tudor while she rehearsed a flamenco number at Carnegie Hall. She became a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theater, performing the leading role in Agnes de Mille’s “Tally Ho” and character roles in “Giselle,” Anthony Tudor’s “Romeo and Juliet” and George Balanchine’s “Apollo.”

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She specialized in the flamenco, both dance and guitar, and played in numerous Manhattan Latin nightclubs. She also performed on cello and piano.

Her first appearances on live television were as a featured dancer on Paul Whiteman’s and Steve Allen’s shows, followed by roles in primetime dramatic shows and daytime soaps. During her career she appeared on such varied fare as “Lamp Unto My Feet,” “One Day at a Time,” “The Jackie Gleason Show,” “Search for Tomorrow,” “The Colgate Family Hour” and so forth. She also became a TV spokeswoman for many products, including Blue Cross/Blue Shield on CBS for seven years, Revlon, Coty, Frigidaire, Swanson’s Chicken and Maxwell House Coffee. Much later, she also worked as a meteorologist for various local Gotham area TV stations.

But her love was the theater. During the 1970s, she was executive director of New York’s South Street Seaport Museum, a position that included overseeing and performing in the museum’s Theater-on-the-Pier, of which she was co-artistic director for 15 years with her partner, Michael Fischetti.

In addition to many stage appearances, she directed and/or produced at least 12 productions of plays by Shaw, Chekhov and an experimental production of “Moby Dick.” She also appeared at Vienna’s English Theater with the South Street Theater’s double bill of Eugene O’Neill’s “Hughie” and “Before Breakfast.”

She was an active member of 42nd Street Theater Row Inc., the umbrella organization that helped revitalize the Off Off Broadway area between Ninth and 10th Avenues. She was also a member of five performing arts unions: AGVA, AGMA, AFTRA, AEA and SAG.

She is survived by her daughter, Francesca Poston (from her former marriage to actor-comedian Tom Poston); a brother; and two sisters.

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