JAN TICE
Jan Tice, stage-screen-TV actress and model, dies at 76
Jan Tice of Mid-Town, Kansas City, MO, suffered a massive heart attack at her home on Saturday, October 22, and passed away in the Intensive Care Unit at Research Hospital in Kansas City that evening. She enjoyed a successful career as an international fashion model which took her to many places in the world and she studied with famous actors and directors in New York City, which helped her to win roles in major moving pictures, Broadway and off-Broadway stage play parts, and recurring roles in television series. She was photographed by noted photographers, such as Richard Avedon, Eugenia Louis, and Edward Ward of Life Magazine. Noted for her character role as the “Freaked Out Lady” in MGM’s 1969 3-Academy Award-winning film, “Midnight Cowboy,” Jan Tice also had the role of “Marcia” in Hugh A. Robertson’s hard-hitting black movie “Melinda” in 1972. “Midnight Cowboy” won Oscars for Best Picture of the Year, Best Director (John Schlessinger) and Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman). Jan Tice’s acting career also included many supporting roles and chorus line parts in Broadway plays and musicals. She also had major roles and supporting parts in off-Broadway productions. She had the lead in a popular off-Broadway play, “Mother of Four,” in which she portrayed the bedfast mother of four bizarre children. Her performance brought her a rare rave review from Variety Magazine for her 54-continuous minute, in- bed on-stage acting.
Jan Tice also enjoyed a significant career as a television actress in several long-running series such as “Naked City,” (which aired from September, 1958 into the 1960s), in which she had supporting roles, walk-on parts, and recurring character roles. She had similar parts in the “Naked City” TV series. Jan also served as understudy for her actress-singer friend, Diahann Carroll, in several different TV productions in the 1960s. Among Jan’s close New York TV friends were Steve Allen and Jack Paar, who invited her to appear on their shows. The year that the “Miss Slinky” child’s walking spring toy was introduced, Jack Paar invited Jan Tice to appear on the “Tonight Show” as his guest to demonstrate the toy. She demonstrated the walking spring toy by causing it to climb the stairs into the audience seating area of the big NBC studio with Jack Paar and several camera crews pursuing her to the loud laughter and enthusiastic applause of the packed studio audience. Jan’s family watched the Slinky chase on their living room TV set Kansas City. Jan’s mother later told local news reporters that watching Jan and Miss Slinky live, being pursued all up and down and around the New York NBC studio, was both “embarrassing and delightful!” for her. Born April 12, 1935, in Bell, CA, to Guy and Helen O’Brien Tice, she was a graduate of Roosevelt Grade School, Central Junior High School, and Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, KS, where the Tice family had moved in 1946. Jan Tice won local, state and national awards for her art work at Wyandotte High. . Her parents owned and operated the Guy Tice Sign & Advertising Company in Kansas City, KS, for many years. Jan studied acting with Elia Kazan in Actors Workshop classes; with Tony-winner Irene Daily; Uta Hagen; Alice Ghostley, and other noted actor-director teachers in New York City, where Jan resided for some 30 years. Jan also was the subject of fashion photos by famous photographers Richard Avedon, Eugenia Louis, Edward Ward of Life Magazine, and others. She was a member of Equity Actors Guild and Screen Actors Guild. In 1972 a noted Park Avenue surgeon performed botched major internal operations on five women, including Jan Tice, on the same day as the surgeon’s child fell six stories to his death. The surgeon unsatisfactorily performed the five operations even though he knew his child was dead. All five of the women suffered severe disabling injuries from this malpractice, including Jan Tice, who eventually lost her ability walk and was confined to a wheelchair the remainder of her life. After losing her ability to model and act, Jan moved to Kansas City to be near her mother, sister and brother. She moved into the Valentine Neighborhood of Kansas City, MO, where her brother lived. She became a neighborhood activist, a Community Partner with members of the Kansas City Police Department, a block watch captain, and was an active member of the Valentine Neighborhood Association. She formed close lasting friendships with members of the Kansas City Police Department. They depended on Jan to keep them informed of any unusual activities in the area and, with her assistance, they succeeded in closing drug houses, and reduced prostitution, burglaries and car theft in the Central District. Jan Tice became the defender of lost pets and she helped to find homes for many lost dogs and cats. She worked closely with organizations which find homes for homeless cats and dogs. She is survived by her brother, James Tice of Midtown, Kansas City, who is a former Reporter-Photographer for The Kansas City Star, and who served as Executive Assistant to the Governor of Missouri (John M. Dalton); Executive Director of the Missouri Office of Economic Opportunity; Regional Director of the 11-state North Central Region of the U.S. Office Economic Opportunity in Kansas City, MO, and has served in other Federal Government management positions located in Kansas City; her sister, Theora McVay of Centennial, CO, and her niece, Kimberly Demmy of Boulder, CO.
Visitation will be from 1-2:00 p.m., Thursday, October 27th at the Porter Funeral Home 1835 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, KS, followed by a Memorial Service at 2:00 p.m. Community of Christ Ministers will be officiating. Friends of Jan Tice may make contributions in her honor to the Central Avenue for Hope at No.11 North 15th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102.