Jayne Meadows | TV personality, 95

Jayne Meadows, 95, the Emmy-nominated actress and TV personality who often teamed with her husband, Steve Allen, has died.

Ms. Meadows died of natural causes Sunday at her home in the Encino, Calif., area, spokesman Kevin Sasaki said Monday. Her son, Bill Allen, and other family members were with her.

"She was not only an extraordinarily gifted actress who could move audiences from laughter to tears and back again all in one scene, but she was the greatest storyteller I have ever known," said her son, who heads the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

Though best known as the wife of the beloved TV host - and the sister of Honeymooners star Audrey Meadows - Jayne Meadows had a solid career in her own right.

She appeared on Broadway and in movies, gained three prime-time Emmy nominations as a TV actress, and was a staple of talk shows and game shows.

Allen, who died in 2000, summed up her appeal in a 1977 Los Angeles Times interview:

"She's an old-fashioned woman, old-fashioned in terms of her attitudes, her manner, her demeanor, her voice," he said. "She has a dignity that is rare these days. But she also has a lightness, an airiness, a girlishness, and a certain degree of social innocence."

The red-haired Meadows appeared in several Broadway shows and films before she first became known to a wider audience as a panelist on the prime-time game show I've Got a Secret.

- AP