 In 1956, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in Paddy Chayefsky's "Middle of the Night".In 1963, she won an Obie Award for Best Actress for her performance in two Off-Broadway plays, "The Typists" and "The Tiger".Jackson was born in Millvale, Pennsylvania in 1925, the daughter of Stella Germaine (née Murray) and John Ivan Jackson, a barber who ran a beauty parlor.