Sue Ane Langdon

Sue Ane Langdon

Born in New Jersey, Sue Ane Langdon was raised in Michigan and 13 other states by her mother, former opera singer Grace Lookhoff. It was Grace who directed the 5-year-old Sue Ane in her stage debut as Tinker Bell in a semi-professional staging of Peter Pan. After attending North Texas State Teachers College and Idaho State, Langdon headed for New York, where she sang in the Radio City Music Hall chorus then danced in a Las Vegas production of The Ziegfeld Follies. In 1962, she was chosen by Jackie Gleason to play Alice Kramden in the "Honeymooners" sketches on Gleason's weekly TVer The American Scene Magazine. It was strictly "oil and water" time on the set, and within a few weeks Langdon and Gleason parted company by mutual agreement, whereupon Gleason jocularly took out a newspaper ad saying he was no longer responsible for his "wife's" debts. Much was made of Langdon's exposure of her attractive epidermis in Playboy magazine and (briefly) in the 1965 film The Rounders, but this sex-symbol image faded when she became firmly established as a comedienne. From 1969 through 1971, Langdon played Herschel Bernardi's wife on the TV sitcom Arnie, winning a Golden Globe for "Best Supporting Actress." Sue Ane Langdon's recent film assignments have included the forbidding task of playing Weird Al Yankovic's aunt in UHF (1989). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide