High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Jo Van Fleet (December 30, 1914 June 10, 1996) was an American theatre and film actress. Van Fleet established herself as a notable dramatic actress on Broadway over several years, winning a Tony Award in 1954 for her skill in a difficult role, playing an unsympathetic, even abusive character, in Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful with Lillian Gish and Eva Marie Saint.