Jeanette Seicol: Who is Norman Lear’s mother?

Jeanette Seicol is the mother of legendary Hollywood filmmaker Norman Lear. Jeanette Seicol’s son is a leading name in the film industry with more than 100 films to his name. The screenwriter and producer is known for many popular 1970s sitcoms, including the multi-award-winning All in the Family as well as Maude, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, and Good Times.

Jeanette Seicol: Bio Summary

Who is Norman Lear’s mother?

Jeanette Seicol was born on 20 Jun 1899 in Kirovohradska, Ukraine to her parents Shia Seicol (Sokolovsky) and Elizabeth Bathseva Seicol. She had two siblings- They are  Albert Seicol and Isadore Edward Seicol. Seicol’s family is originally from Ukraine.

Jeanette Seicol tied the knot with Herman Lear in 1921. The couple’s marriage was blessed with two children-  Norman Lear and his younger sister Claire Lear. When Norman was nine, he was sent alone to live with his grandparents on York Street after his father Herman Lear was arrested and put in prison for selling fake bonds. His mother Jeanette Seicol scrambled to make ends meet. “My mother tried to warn him,” he said. “But nobody ever told Herman anything.” 

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The moment was a defining moment in the life of the legendary filmmaker- he said in an interview- “The night that he was taken away, there were a ton of people at the house, and somebody puts their hand on my shoulder, and says, ‘You’re the man of the house now, Norman,’” Lear said in an interview with PBS NewsHour. “Nine years old — I’m the man of the house. What a fool that person was. But somehow I got it. You know, a sense of the foolishness of the human condition.“

Lear’s father was eventually released from prison three years later, and the family reunited. However, tensions remained high. “I used to sit at the kitchen table and I would score their arguments,” he says of his parents. “I would give her points for this, him points for that, as a way of coping with it.“

ALSO, READ; Herman Lear: What happened to Norman Lear’s father?

Norman Lear’s relationship with his parents had so much effect on the shows he wrote and produced. He thought of his father as a “rascal” and said that the character of Archie Bunker (whom Lear depicted as white Protestant on the show) was in part inspired by his father, while the character of Edith Bunker was in part inspired by his mother, Jeanette Seicol.

What happened to Norman Lear’s mother?

Norman Lear’s mother Jeanette Seicol passed away on May 29, 1990, in Bridgeport, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States of America. She was 90 years old at the time of her death. She was laid to rest at John Hay Memorial Park Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA.

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Norman Lear who turned 100 on July 27, 2022, has been married three times and has six kids from his marriages. In an Instagram post a day before his 100th birthday in 2022, the screenwriter serenaded his followers with “That’s Amore,” by Dean Martin. “The miracle of being alive with everything that’s available to us and me turning 100 tomorrow,” Lear said in the video. “That’s as believable to me as today I’m 99.”

Talking about her father’s longevity, Kate Lear, who is a writer told PBS in an interview, “But to me, Norman Lear’s longevity has just as much to do with his in-born optimism. This is a man who goes to bed each night dreaming of the cup of coffee he will have in the morning, who has lived a life in which each meal magically turns out to be better than the one before , and who has said, many times, that he doesn’t want to wake up the day that he doesn’t have hope.“