Janet Sarno

Janet Margaret Sarno was an American character actress of stage, film and television.

Early life and career

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on November 18, 1933, Sarno was the daughter of Margaret and Italian-born hair stylist Francis "Frank" Sarno, longtime proprietor of Sarno's Beauty Salon. She attended Central High School, New Haven State Teacher's College, and, after teaching for several years at the Hallen Elementary School, Yale Drama School, where, in 1962, she earned her Master of Fine Arts degree, simultaneously winning the Mrs. W William E. Hill. Sr. Award for drama, issued annually to "the actress who best exemplifies the Yale Drama school, scholastically and in acting achievement".
Of her performance that year in the Yale Drama Society's production of Here Comes Santa Claus, playwright in residence Joel Oliansky's black comedy about the relationship between an aging, erstwhile horror movie icon and his son, New York Times critic Howard Taubman, while deeming the work as written uneven but intermittently hilarious, cites the beneficial effect of several "helpful performances", including those of the two leads and of a young Daniel Travanti, and, in particular, Sarno's turn as "a tough, though sensitive girl who does amusing broadcasts for teenagers".
Some of Sarno's more noteworthy Off-Broadway and regional theater credits include performances as Pirate Jenny in Brecht's Threepenny Opera, the stepdaughter in Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, Melba Snyder in Pal Joey, and, at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Masha in Chekhov's Three Sisters and Sabina in Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth. She played "the woman" in Paul Shyre's A Whitman Portrait, and an assortment of characters in the rock opera, The Survival of St. Joan. She starred as Alice in Play Strindberg, as Patsie in Momma's Little Angels by Paul La Russo II, and, in Jane Anderson's The Pink Studio, portrayed both Madame Bidet and Madame Joie.
Sarno's portrayal of Judith Fellowes in a 1989 revival of Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana proved one of the special pleasures of an otherwise "uneven" production for Montclair Times critic Naomi Siegel.

One more comment on the cast: Janet Sarno as Miss Judith Fellowes brings a wonderful touch of humor and self righteous buffoonery to her small role. This is what good character acting is all about.

In 2010, Sarno became the titular subject of Janet's Class, a feature-length documentary, which followed Sarno and her acting students, ranging in age from 50 to 92. The film was produced, directed and shot by actress Dorothy Lyman, who had made Sarno's previous film, Split Ends. Scored by Grammy-winning arranger Bill Cunliffe, the film had, as of December 2025, yet to find a commercial distributor, although it did have at least one public screening, in February 2011 at the Andes Hotel in the city of Andes in upstate New York,

Personal life and death

In 1960, Sarno was engaged, but evidently, never married, to Thomas John Morrison. From no later than 1985 until his death in 2012, she was, as noted in his New York Times funeral announcement, the "beloved wife" of New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Joseph Dontzin, whose "other great passion was to serve as his wife's Stage Door Johnny, accompanying her to each of her theater performances".
On March 15, 2023, Sarno died at her home in New York City at age 89.