Madeline Lee

Biography

Madeline met Jack at a political meeting for left wing causes in 1947. The couple was married in 1949 and remained together for forty years until Jack's death in 1990. Both husband and wife had left their original spouses for each other during the late 1940s. Both Madeline and Jack were both subpoenaed and blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. They were specifically named by choreographer Jerome Robbins during his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. During the 1980s she became a Broadway theater producer and casting director. She co-produced the 1982 play "The World of Sholom Aleichim" which starred husband Jack Gilford, and the 1986 Broadway musical "Rags". A strong social activist following the McCarthy Era, she took a leading role in demonstrations during the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and reportedly stood very close to the main platform for the memorable 1963 "I Have A Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial. As recent as 1999, Madeline was arrested for civil disobedience while protesting the police shooting of Amadou Diallo in New York City. A character actress from the 1970s on, her last film appearance was a bit part in the film Sex and the City (2008). Madeline understudied Anne Bancroft in the Broadway production of "Two for the Seesaw". Sister of Fran Lee.