Born to Episcopal missionaries who spent much of their careers in China, Meadows, along with sister and fellow actor Audrey Meadows (of "The Honeymooners" fame) arrived in the US in the early 1930s. She made her Broadway debut in "Spring Again" in 1941 and studied acting under teachers including Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg. Meadows was briefly put under contract to MGM, where she made her debut in the somewhat wobbly film noir "Undercurrent" (1946) as a woman who knows something about psychotic Robert Taylor's past. Film work, though, petered out in the early 50s as Meadows moved into the medium in which she would primarily work, television. Her most famous association began then too, when she married comic actor, writer and composer Steve Allen in 1954. As half of one of the most visible and durable couples in show business, Meadows alternated between playing character roles, her best ones being haughty and pushy in nature, and appearing as herself as a general purpose TV personality, often on Allen's arm.
Blonde and slightly sharp-featured like her sister, Meadows appeared to best effect in features as David Niven's unsympathetic sister in the good romantic drama, "Enchantment" (1948). An essentially modern type, she seemed better suited to the tough-talking environs of the noir "Lady in the Lake" (1946) than to the religious epic "David and Bathsheba" (1951), in which she played Gregory Peck's shrewish wife. Later films were very occasional, from the Doris Day vehicle "It Happened to Jane" (1959) to the dopey sex farce with Allen, "Campus Confidential" (1960), to the leering "Norman...Is That You?" (1976), in which she played the mother of one of the film's two gay lead characters. Apart from cameos as herself alongside Allen in "The Player" (1992) and "Casino" (1995), Meadows' most prominent feature acting has been as Billy Crystal's mother in the hit "City Slickers" (1991) and the less popular "City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold" (1994).
Meadows was prolific in 50s TV on anthology dramas including CBS's "Danger", "Studio One" and "The Web". One of her best-remembered stints was as a panelist on the first six years (1952-58) of the long-running CBS game show "I've Got a Secret", which she reprised for the 1972 syndicated revival hosted by Allen. Meadows made her series acting debut in a recurring role as the assistant to a government research scientist on the offbeat and intense NBC adventure "Man and the Challenge" (1959-60). She later played Nurse Chambers for the first three seasons (1969-72) of CBS's long-running "Medical Center" before Audrey Totter came on board as the show's most prominent nurse. A later try at sitcom, "It's Not Easy" (ABC, 1983), with Meadows as the hero's mother, didn't last long, and neither did the later "High Society" (CBS, 1995-96) but at least Meadows copped an Emmy nomination as Mary McDonnell's mother in the latter. She has also made TV-movies ("Now You See It, Now You Don't" 1968, "James Dean" 1976, "A Masterpiece of Murder" 1986), and was a regular on "The Steve Allen Comedy Hour" (CBS, 1967) and "The Steve Allen Show", when it moved from NBC to ABC for its last season in 1961. Unlike Audrey, who became associated with one working-class role beloved by the public, Jayne became best known for her partnership with Steve Allen. She also became a much more visible figure in Hollywood circles, such that many of her TV credits featured her appearing rather grandly as herself on fictional and interview programs alike, including "The Gossip Columnist" (1980), "The Ratings Game" (1984) and "Addicted to Fame" (1994).