  audrey meadows (february 8, 1922 â february 3, 1996)born in 1922, not 1926, notwithstanding find a grave as per social security death index (ssdi) entry for audrey six was an american actress best known for her role as the deadpan housewife alice kramden on the 1950s american television comedy the honeymooners. ==early life== born as audrey cotter in new york city audrey cotter was born in new york city in 1922, not in china as has been commonly stated. a 1921 passenger list shows the family entering the united states from china via vancouver (s.s. empress of russia arriving at vancouver from shanghai, july 10, 1921). a 1927 passenger list shows audrey's birthplace as new york (s.s. olympic, arriving at new york from southamption, may 3, 1927). the 1930 u.s. census, listing the family in providence, rhode island, also shows audrey's birthplace as new york city and her age as 8 years old in april 1930, which also confirms 1922 as her year of birth. in 1922, the youngest of four siblings. her parents, the rev. francis james meadows cotter and his wife, the former ida miller taylor, had been episcopal missionaries in wu-ch'ang, china, where her three elder siblings were born. the family returned to live in new york in 1921. her older sister is actress jayne meadows. she attended high school at the barrington school for girls in great barrington, massachusetts. ==career== after high school, she sang in the broadway musical top banana before becoming a regular on television in the bob and ray show. she was then hired to play alice on the jackie gleason show after the actress who originated the role, pert kelton, was forced to leave the show due to the blacklisting, although the official reason given was that kelton was suffering from a health problem. when the honeymooners became a half-hour situation comedy o
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