User:Mnt006/Beulah Elizabeth Richardson

Beah Richards (Born Beulah Elizabeth Richardson on July 12, 1920) was an Award-Winning African- American actress, best known for her Oscar nominated role as Sidney Poitier's proud, knowing mother in Stanley Kramer's 1976 Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. She is also known for her last appearance on the big screen in a film based on Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel, Beloved, as Baby Suggs. She was also a poet, playwright and author. Originally from Vicksburg, Mississippi, Beah Richards relocated from Vicksburg to New York to play the role as May Scott, the grandmother in Take A Giant Step. Her move was the beginning of what boosted her career to the success that it became. Along with being a two time Emmy Award winner, Richards has been a recipient of a number of different award nominations and in addition, she had been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival in 2000. Richards died at the age of 80 on September 14th, 2000 in her hometown of Vicksburg, Mississippi by cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (otherwise known as emphysema).

EARLY LIFE

Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Richards is the daughter of Beulah Molton Richardson, a steamstress and a Parent Teacher’s Association (PTA) advocate and Wesley R. Richardson, a Baptist Minister. As a young girl, people had said that her future was in theatre, but unfortunately, such a career seemed unlikely. Vicksburg at that time did not include a theatre. Even if it were the case that the hometown of Richards did provide a theatre, that it was likely from the racial hostility at that time would not allow for her to partake in such activities. Segregation was still strongly implemented in the United States (U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation as unconstitutional in 1954, acting as a reversal to the ”separate but equal” ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896).

It was possible, as a daughter of a Baptist minister and PTA advocate, for Richards to receive a good education that would lead to a secure career in the comfort of a middle class life. Going away to continue her education meant otherwise for Richards. It was a means of freedom and escaping the town in which African-Americans were still suffering strongly from racial issues. Continuing her education elsewhere also meant that she would be able to pursue her interest in theatre. In 1948, Richards graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana and joined a theatre troupe in San Diego, California, having decided that a life of acting and the stage was for her.

CAREER AS AN ACTRESS

Richards was never really considered one to be called “black beauty” by cause of her dark skin natural hair and large nose. Richards began her career at a period when the roles for African-American actors were gradually becoming less stereotypical, as opposed to how it was in the years before the war. In the times of pre-war, African-Americans generally played the part of the servant or other minor parts that would play more of in the background rather than captivating the audience. For three years, Richard worked as an apprentice, studying acting and dance at the Old Globe Theatre. She had played roles in smaller productions like Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes.

A move to New York in the early 1950’s to further advance her career, proved to be the boost in her career that Beah Richards needed. To support herself while trying to build her professional history, the soft-spoken, kindly-faced actress was employed at a charm school as an instructor. In 1954, Richards (at the age of 30) was cast to play the lead role of, May Scott, the eighty-four year old grandmother of Spence Scott, a troubled African-American who tries to make sense of the White world and find his place in it, in Louis S. Peterson’s Take A Giant Step, without using theatrical make-up.

In 1958 Richards, along with 19 other actors, started the Harlem Community Theatre and then had decided that she would make a move to Hollywood, California for an attempt to further her career there. Her moved proved to be less of a success than she hoped for, though in 1958 Richards did experience her on-screen debut as an unnamed maid in William Berke’s The Mugger, where a mysterious mugger is on the loose, preying on women at night, stealing their purses and as a symbol of his exploits cuts them on their left cheek. Hollywood seemed to be still in the fashion of casting African-American actors/ actresses with roles that did not give too much substance, though America as a whole was still at that time period when African-American actors were still closed off to roles on television. Thus, it was easier to obtain parts and roles in the industry of theatre.

To escape the inevitability of being tied down to play the African-American stereotypical typecasting if she had stayed in Hollywood, Richards moved back to New York to continue her journey to success there. When it was that British director, Philip Leacock, developed Take A Giant Step into a film in 1959, Richards played not the role of the leading character’s grandmother, but as his mother in the film adaptation. That same year, Richards understudied the lead role as Leah Younger, the matriarch to a poor African-American family whose lives are hanging by few threads, is expecting a large life insurance payment provided from her late husband. (otherwise known as Mama) for Claudia McNeil in Lorraine Hansberry Off-Broadway production A Raisin In The Sun, then going on a national tour with the production company, eventually actually playing the role in Los Angeles in 1968 and again at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1983. In 1961, Richards received her first screen role as she played the part as Idella Landy in Ossie Davis’ play, Purlie Victorious (later renamed, Gone Are The Days!), a production that was set in the time period of when the Jim Crow Laws still existed in the Southern region of America, where a young and idealistic man and his fiancé go back home to a plantation where he grew up as a servant, in hopes of securing the family inheritance by attempting to convince the plantation owner that, Lutiebelle, the young man’s fiancé is in fact his cousin and her inheritance was long due.

Richards seemed to take a small step back in 1962 when she played the part of the Keller maid, Viney in the original Broadway production of Arthur Penn’s The Miracle Worker, a biography of Anne Sullivan’s struggle as Helen Keller’s teacher. She played her role as the house maid to Captain Arthur and Annie Keller, parents to their only child, Helen, blind, deaf and mute since infancy. Unfortunately, Richards was never credited as Viney, the Keller maid, as like other actors as their characters in that same production, but it ended up to be her only unaccredited performance.

In 1965, Richards co-starred in Jame’s Baldwin’s Amen Corner, where she was the recipient of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Theatre World Award, and a nomination for a Tony award as Best Actress for her role as Sister Margaret, a church pastor whose estranged husband unexpectedly arrives and thus begins the coming of the truth of his abandonment from the past. Critics raved of Richard’s fantastic performance, despite the fact that the response of the performance itself was less exciting.

1967 became a big year of success for Richards, for she was offered three roles that she would take. That year, Richards relocated back to Hollywood to take part in these roles. Unlike the first and last time she had visited Hollywood, she was met with great success. To start, after witnessing Richard’s stunning performance in Amen Corner, director Otto Preminger offered her Richard’s biggest role as a co-star in Hurry Sundown a movie set in the Deep South. Richards played the role of Rose Scott (Mammy Rose), the white-haired matriarch mother to Reeve Scott, whose land is wanted by Henry Warren, a Northern canning plant owner.

The second role consisted of her playing the part of Mrs. Bellamy (Mama Caleba), the town’s abortionist, in In The Heat Of The Night. Within the film, there contains one scene that parallels the character’s struggle and the real life of Beah Richards and what fights she had to endure herself to achieve what she most desires without being punished in the steps to it. Times were changing in both the setting and in the time of Richard’s career. Social Progress was evident in the movie and Richard’s was able to strongly relate to that, in which her dedication to succeed helped In The Heat Of The Night achieve an Oscar for Best Motion Picture of the Year. The film became a classic, thanks to Richards on-target portrayal of Mama Caleba.

Before the end of the year arrived, Richards finished a successful year off with Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner as Mrs. Prentice, mother to Joanna “Joey” Drayton’s African-American fiancé, Dr. John Prentice. With this film, Richard was nominated for an Oscar Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, as well as an Academy Award. Richard became the third African-American Woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for the role of Mrs. Prentice. Richard’s success in her motherly role as Mrs. Prentice provided her with great attention. Richards for the most part, concentrated the parts she played usually with the older character roles, particularly the dominating matriarch or mothers to many onscreen sons: James Jones with Great White Hope in 1970, Danny Glover with And The Children Shall Weep in 1984 and Eriq La Salle as Dr. Mae Benton in the TV series, ER from 1994-1995.

Other films that she had played a role in include: The Great White Hope in 1970 as Mama Tiny, the remake of the 1940 popular film The Biscuit Eater in 1972 as Charity Tomlin, Mahogany in 1975 as Florence, Inside Out in 1987 as Verna, Big Shots in 1987 as Miss Hanks, and Drugstore Cowboy in 1989 as the drug counselor. The last film in which she took a role was 1998's Beloved, an adaptation of Toni Morrison's Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, as Baby Suggs (Grandma Baby). For that film, Richards portrays the mother-in-law to Oprah Winfrey’s character, Sethe. Danny Glover also co-starred in the film as the screen son of Baby Suggs, Sethe’s husband, Paul D. For that film, Richards was nominated for an Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. Two years after, Richards received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Los Angeles Pan-African Film Festival.

The fact that 1967 was one of the most successful years for Beah Richards wasn’t enough to give her credit for. Her work in film also pushed for the idea that Hollywood should follow suit of Theatre and Television, that Hollywood should progress to the changing times and adapt and make use of the events and changing times around the world at this time. That was not the cause for her lack of appearance on screen after the golden year of 1967. It was not that Richard’s was lacking in offers to play roles in developing films, but of the fact that she was in high demand for parts in television and on stage in the theatres. She was still viewed by audiences for her talent, but mainly it was on the small screen (television). During the 1970’s, Richards took more of the roles of the grandmother, like the Lillian Randolph’s role of Bill Cosby’s mother on NBC’s The Cosby Show in 1970-1971, Aunt Ethel on NBC’s Sanford and Son in 1972 and various other grandmother-like personalities for movies featured on TV. Richards Played the role in a twisting pot of Mrs. Varden, the wife of a man who had died in a car accident. For that role in an episode of CBS’s Frank’s Place in 1987, Richards was nominated for and won an Emmy as Best Guest Performer. She was also involved on recurring roles like the voodoo priestess on CBS’s Beauty And The Beast in 1987-1989 and as a childhood nursemaid to Markie Post in CBS’s Hearts Afire in 1992. Richard was also involved as one of the played in the American Playhouse production of the stage play, Zora Is My Name! in 1990. For Diana Ross’ first TV movie debut, Richards played the role of the mother of a paranoid Schizophrenic (Diana Ross) in ABC’s Out Of Darkness in 1994. A little before her unfortunate and early death, even though she was suffering from emphysema Richards won her second Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series as Gertrude Turner, an elderly mother whose daughter was planning to find a way to end her mother’s new marriage for ABC’s The Practice in 1997. Because she was diagnosed and was suffering from the effects of emphysema, Richards was unable to collect the award colleague Lisa Gay Hamilton accepted the award on her behalf.

AUTHOR, PLAYWRIGHT, MENTOR AND POET

Richards was not only talented as an actress but in such a way that she wrote out a series of plays. Two of which that she had written in 1971 were about the social issues of racial segregation. There was one that was called, All’s Well That Ends and the other in which she wrote and premiered One Is A Crowd in which she starred in herself as the lead role. It was about an African-American Singer who sought out revenge against a White male who had destroyed her family. In both 1986 and 1987, Richards directed Piano Bar, a play performed at the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center.

Richards also had a noted poetry book published called A Black Woman Speaks and Other Poems comprised of 14 poems.

In 2003, Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, a documentary biographical film was composed about the life of Richards. The film was directed by actress Lisa Gay Hamilton, who had worked with Richards on the set of The Practice and Beloved. The entire length of production had gone through a duration of many years. It had won the Documentary Award at the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival in 2003. It was also nominated for three Black Reel Awards and an Image Award in 2005. Archive footage of Richards was included in the documentary.

One of the poems from A Black Woman Speaks and Other Poems, that was called, Keep Climbing, Girls, a poem to inspire girls and their power, was later made into a children’s picture book. She had adapted her poetry for the stage and manned a one woman tour with a show called An Evening With Beah Richards in 1979.

Richards did not limit her talents to entertainment to her viewers but also giving out knowledge and guidance by teaching university courses of theatre.

Richards was also known to be a strong civil rights activist.

RECOGNITION AND AWARDS

It was felt by Richards’ friends and colleagues she did not receive enough of the recognition that was due from her work and talent on both the big and small screen, in addition to on stage. Most of the reason would be of the racial and social issues that the country as a whole was facing at the time. Hollywood was only just beginning to disregard more of the negative and demeaning African-American stereotypes and welcome more African-American actors and actresses on the scene to take part in bigger and more leading roles in productions. It was believed that Richards never complained and nevertheless went about with immersing herself into her career and placing the best of herself in all performances she took part in. It was though, in 1973, that she did voice her opinion at “Black Images in Film: Stereotyping and Self-Perception as Viewed by Black Actresses” a conference that Boston University had held.


 * 1965
 * * Amen Corner
 * * * Won
 * * * * New York Drama Critics Circle Award
 * * * * Theatre World Award
 * * * Nominated
 * * * * Tony Award as Best Actress.


 * 1968
 * * Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner
 * * * Nominated
 * * * * Oscar for Best Supporting Actress
 * * * Nominated
 * * * * Golden Globe Best Supporting Actress


 * 1974
 * * Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame


 * 1987
 * * As Summers Die
 * * * Won
 * * * * ACE Award for Best Actress in a Movie or Miniseries
 * * Frank’s Place
 * * * Won
 * * * * Emmy for Best Guest Performer


 * 1999
 * * Beloved
 * * * Nominated
 * * * * Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture


 * 2000
 * * The Practice
 * * * Won
 * * * * Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
 * * * Won
 * * * * Lifetime Achievement Award


 * 2001
 * * The Practice
 * * * Nominated
 * * * * Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series


 * For her work on the legitimate stage, she was honored with the Paul Robeson Pioneer Award and was inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame.

FILMOGRAPHY

FILMS The Mugger, 1958. Take a Giant Step, 1959. Gone Are the Days!, 1963. Hurry Sundown, 1967. In the Heat of the Night, 1967. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, 1967. The Great White Hope, 1970. The Biscuit Eater, 1972. Mahogany, 1975. Big Shots, 1987. Drugstore Cowboy, 1989. Beloved, 1998.

TELEVISION The Bill Cosby Show, 1970-71. Sanford and Son, 1972. Frank's Place. Roots: The Next Generations, 1979. The Sophisticated Gents, 1981; Acceptable Risks, 1986; One Special Victory, 1991. Out of Darkness, 1994.

PERSONAL LIFE

Not much is known of Richards’ personal life. She had been married to a man named Hugh Harrell Jr., an African-American sculptor, for less than three years. That marriage and divorce had occurred sometime within the 1960’s. No children were resulted from the marriage.

DEATH

Just four days after receiving her second Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Gertrude Turner, which, because of her state of health, friend and costar of The Practice, Lisa Gay Hamilton accepted her award on her behalf and had it delivered to Vicksburg, Richards died at the age of 80 on September 14th, 2000 by cause of a prolonged battle of the lung disease, emphysema.