Jean Stapleton 出生于纽约市曼哈顿的 Jeanne Murray，父亲是歌剧歌手 Marie A. （Stapleton） 和广告牌广告推销员 Joseph Edward Murray。她的祖父母是爱尔兰人。她是女演员贝蒂·简·沃森（Betty Jane Watson）的表妹。演艺界的其他亲戚是她的叔叔约瑟夫·戴明（Joseph E. Deming），一个流浪汉;和她的哥哥杰克·斯台普顿（Jack Stapleton），一名舞台演员。她于 1939 年毕业于纽约市的 Wadleigh 高中，并就读于亨特学院。在成为演员之前，她曾担任秘书。斯台普尔顿于 1941 年夏天在缅因州峰岛的格林伍德剧场首次亮相舞台，并在“玉米是绿色的”（1948 年）中首次亮相纽约舞台。她出现在百老汇的音乐剧“该死的洋基队”（1955 年）和“钟声响起”（1956 年），后来在电影版本（该死的洋基队（1958 年）和钟声响起（1960 年））中重复了她的角色。她的其他百老汇角色包括“犀牛”（1961）和“滑稽女孩”（1964）的原始公司。斯台普尔顿还在 1986-87 年复兴的“砷与旧蕾丝”中扮演艾比布鲁斯特。

Jean Stapleton was born Jeanne Murray in Manhattan, New York City, to Marie A. (Stapleton), an opera singer, and Joseph Edward Murray, a billboard advertising salesman. Her paternal grandparents were Irish. She was a cousin of actress Betty Jane Watson. Other relatives in show business were her uncle, Joseph E. Deming, a vaudevillian; and her brother Jack Stapleton, a stage actor. She graduated from Wadleigh High School, NYC, in 1939, and attended Hunter College. She worked as a secretary before becoming an actress. Stapleton made her stage debut at the Greenwood Playhouse, Peaks Island, Maine, in the summer of 1941, and her New York stage debut in "The Corn Is Green" (1948). She appeared on Broadway in the musicals "Damn Yankees" (1955) and "Bells Are Ringing" (1956), and later repeated her roles in the movie versions (Damn Yankees (1958) and Bells Are Ringing (1960)). Her other Broadway roles included the original companies of "Rhinoceros" (1961) and "Funny Girl" (1964). Stapleton also played Abby Brewster in the 1986-87 revival of "Arsenic and Old Lace".