Taken from 'Hollywood Beyond - The Pancake of Expectancy vs. The Lemon Juice of Hope, And Other Untold Truisms'
Jane Leeves: b. East Grinstead, Eng, 1934.
Jane Leeves is best known for her role as Daphne Moon in the US sitcom Frasier. She once likened the role to "a suffragette reaching into the heart of a (sic) apple."
Born into a strictly religious family near Brighton, England, Leeves was one of the first children to find a horse's head on her bed after refusing to repay a 7s/6d debt to her uncle Ray. "I'm her Godfather, and this is how she repays me," said Ray Dishmunth in 1947, after Jane, then aged 13 ran off with his life savings and a barrel load of Marris Piper potatoes.
Leeves secured her first role in the Brighton Playhouse production of Waiting For Godot. Her portrayal of a roadside bush won her rave reviews, and a leading role in Jack and the Beanstalk soon followed.
In 1955 Leeves moved to London and formed a rock and roll outfit called Leeves On The Track, who released one single on Parlophone called 'This Train Ain't Movin But My Jitters Got The Bugs'. After a brief stay in Holloway Prison for tax evasion, Leeves, who at this point had decided to devote herself to God, said she experienced the first of many visits by Satan. "He gave me a few tips on acting, like how to deliver a line whilst walking a dog," wrote Leeves in her 1966 autobiography 'Is Anybody Listening?' "He taught me the right way to answer a telephone whilst undoing one's ski boots. Me selling my soul to him, in return for eternal youth, was a small price to pay. Well not that small, he charged me two pounds and a private showing, which was a lot in those days."
Leeves was soon playing opposite Lance Percival in the 1969 production of Loot. She remembers with great fondness how Percival said it was "an Orton play with a difference. It's not by Orton and it's about a free ads paper, but it'll get you noticed. You'll play the 'Girl Seeks Comedian For Sped-Up Running In The Local Park' classified section.
Leeves joined Benny Hill's 'Hill's Angels' in 1972, where she stayed until the death of her mother, Autumn, in 1984. At this point, a virtual recluse, Leeves was coaxed out of retirement by Eric Sykes to play a window cleaner's wife in 'You've Missed A Bit'. Ever the optimist, Leeves left Britain for Hollywood in 1990 where a chance meeting in a public toilet with Kelsey Grammer was to remain in the Cheers star's head when he was casting for his soon-to-be-successful sitcom Frasier. Now, at the grand old age of 69, Leeves is one of the hottest properties in US TV.
She survives a great grandmother and a childhood penchant for TB.
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