Giving off a “to the manner born” vibe from the start, Jane Curtin was born near Boston, MA, on Sept. 6, 1947. She was raised in Cambridge, first attending Catholic school and then going on junior college at Elizabeth Seton Junior College in New York City. After receiving a two-year degree from Seton, she returned to Boston and began taking drama classes at Northeastern University. She left Northeastern in 1968 when she landed a $40 dollar a week acting job with “The Proposition,” a topical, politically-oriented comedy show in Cambridge which also included future actors Fred Grandy (“The Love Boat”) and Josh Mostel (“Billy Madison”). Prior to that, Curtin had plenty of experience as a theater audience member, but practically no stage time, leaving her four-year stint with “The Proposition” essentially becoming her comedic training ground. At one point the group relocated to New York, and Curtin followed, appearing in other theatrical productions. In 1972, she and Grandy co-wrote an off-Broadway musical and comedy revue called “Pretzels.”

In 1974, the further seasoned comedic actress found herself up for consideration for roles in two TV shows. The first show was “Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell” (ABC, 1975-76) – a canned prime time variety show hosted by sports announcer Cosell and featuring such un-youthful guests as Frank Sinatra, Barry Manilow and the Rockettes. The second show was an as-yet-undefined comedy and music show to be helmed by Lorne Michaels, called “NBC’s Saturday Night.” The cast were hungry young unknown comics and the style was contemporary, edgy, and unlike any of the Carol Burnett-type sketch comedy that had been on TV before. Producer Michaels courted Curtin for her cool demeanor, her skills as a straight man, and her look — which was uniquely square among a cast of mostly wild, downtown theater looking types. After some consideration, Curtin decided to risk joining this ragtag group in development – including John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase – rather than the stodgy pre-fab Cosell outfit. It proved to be the best decision of her young career.

As a member of the cheekily named “Not Ready for Primetime Players,” Jane Curtin made her TV debut on “NBC’s Saturday Night” on October 11, 1975. For the next five years, the show would literally invent itself on the air, altering its structure and adopting a new name, but Curtin remained a popular and hard-working cast member on the iconic show. Her onscreen persona as the calm and collected straight-man, often brought to the breaking point by others’ lunacy was not far from the off-screen truth. Married and commuting from Connecticut, Curtin was cut from a different cloth than her hard-partying cast mates like Belushi and Bill Murray, who found themselves in trouble with drugs and round-robin affairs. She later explained in interviews that her goal was to have a steady job doing something she loved, so she treated “S.N.L.” as a great job, with no thoughts of abusing her unexpected fame or clawing her way onto the next bigger opportunity.

A “S.N.L.” mainstay, she earned Emmy nominations in 1978 and 1979 for her work. Some of her most memorable roles included Mrs. Lupner, the kindly mother of uber-nerd Lisa Lupner (Gilda Radner); Prymaat Conehead, the matriarch of an alien family undercover in suburbia; and as co-anchor of Weekend Update. Curtin originally took over the legendary news anchor seat for Chevy Chase in 1976, and during subsequent seasons, was paired with co-anchors Murray and Aykroyd. The “Point-Counterpoint” segments between Curtin and Aykroyd – which were a take-off on a liberal/conservative feature on “60 Minutes” (CBS, 1968- ) – elicited howls, as Aykroyd launched into his defenses with the wildly inappropriate line, “Jane, you ignorant slut.” The smartly-dressed, pearl-wearing figure of authority also calmly endured the ravings of Roseanne Roseannadanna (Radner), meandering editorials by John Belushi, and unintelligible contributions by Dominican baseball star Chico Escuela (Garrett Morris). She was the only female news anchor until Tina Fey took over the desk 20 years later in 2000.

Curtin and the remainder of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players – sans Belushi and Aykroyd who had abandoned ship in 1979 – left the show in 1980 after a regime change and the departure of producer Lorne Michaels. Many of them like Aykroyd, Belushi and Bill Murray headed to Hollywood with their sights set on feature films, but Curtin had enjoyed the stability and creative environment of her television experience. As was her way, she was on the lookout for her next steady acting job.

After a 1981 Broadway run in the drama “Candida” with Joanne Woodward and a 1983 TV adaptation of the same play, Curtin landed a role in the new sitcom “Kate and Allie.” Curtin played opposite Susan St. James in this semi-feminist but sweet scenario of divorced mothers who decide to share a household with their kids in New York’s Greenwich Village. The role of a likeable, shy, but increasingly independent mother was a departure from Curtin’s association with cutting edge comedy – a genre the humble actress admitted she had never truly been comfortable with. The show was part of a growing trend towards domestic sitcoms and female lead characters, lasting five seasons and earning Curtin a pair of Emmy Awards in 1984 and 1985.

In 1988, she appeared in an American Playhouse presentation of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Suspicion” and the made-for-TV movie “Maybe Baby” with Dabney Coleman. Curtin returned to the stage following the cancellation of “Kate & Allie,” playing in “Love Letters” and “Noises Off.” This was followed by an impressive dramatic turn in “Common Ground” (1990) a Mike Newell-directed miniseries about desegregation in Curtin’s hometown of Boston.

Curtin dusted off her old Conehead in 1993 for an oddly-belated film version of the classic “S.N.L.” sketch, but struck series television gold again with the wildly popular “Third Rock from the Sun.” The “aliens among us” theme was reminiscent of the Coneheads, but this time Curtin was the unwitting human – Dr. Mary Allbright, a college anthropology professor and the object of alien John Lithgow’s affections. As in the “S.N.L.” days, Curtin’s comedy was brilliant, with that cool exterior prone to cracking under the total insanity around her. She stayed with the show until it ended in 2001 and she was tapped to perform in a summer production of “Our Town” for the Westport Country Playhouse. The play received lots of press, as it marked Paul Newman’s return to stage, and the cast consisted of all local Westport talent, adding another layer to the meaning of the title. Curtin’s last foray into sitcoms lasted less than a full season – the quickly cancelled “wacky family” sitcom “The Crumbs” (ABC, 2006-07), in which she played the mental patient matriarch.

In addition to her onscreen work, the gracious actress was active in fundraising for UNICEF for several decades, a charity she was inspired to work for since her childhood travels around the world exposed her firsthand to brutal conditions. She was appointed as an official UNICEF ambassador in 1990 and worked to bring attention to their international health and childcare initiatives. In 1991, she received the Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award for her work on behalf of children’s causes.