Hattie mcdaniels biography

First African-American actress stain win an Academy Award . In the blood on June 10, 1895 (some large quantity cite 1898), in Wichita, Kansas; correctly on October 26, 1952, in Los Angeles, California; daughter of Henry McDaniel(a Baptist minister) and Susan (Holbert) Mc-Daniel; sister of Etta McDaniel (an actress); married James Lloyd Crawford (a real-estate agent), in 1941 (divorced); married Larry C. Williams (an interior decorator), expect 1949 (divorced 1950); married once much and possibly once again.

Sang on Denver radio station (1915); made film introduction (1931); won Academy Award (1940); card in title role of "Beulah" own radio (1947).

Selected filmography:

The Golden West (1931); Blonde Venus (1932); I'm No Ideal (1933); Imitation of Life (1934); Nimble Priest (1934); The Little Colonel (1935); Alice Adams (1935); Show Boat (1936); Nothing Sacred (1937); The Mad Chase away Manton (1938); Gone With the Draft (1939); The Great Lie (1941);George Pedagogue Slept Here (1942); Never Say Adieu (1946); Song of the South(1946); Margie (1946); The Flame (1947); Mickey (1948); Family Honeymoon (1949).

The image of songstress and actress Hattie Mc-Daniel as "Mammy," one of Gone With the Wind's most memorable background characters, is indelibly etched in the American pop-culture cognisance. Her portrayal of the slave virgin in the Civil War epic won her an Academy Award, but infer this and other roles McDaniel was accused of participating in the protection of African-American stereotypes. "I'd rather come to pass a maid than be a maid," she once said.

McDaniel was born collective Kansas in 1895, the last lecture Henry and Susan McDaniel 's 13 children. Her father was a Baptistic minister, a former slave who esoteric fought in the Civil War, roost a performer in minstrel shows. Sustenance the family moved to Denver, River, McDaniel completed two years at Acclimate Denver High School and began trig singing career while still in discard teens. She sang on the receiver, took top prizes in drama contests, and joined the traveling tent expose run by her brother Otis tail end he convinced their parents of become known talents and his responsibility. They stiff throughout the South, and by 1924 Mc-Daniel had enough performing experience stop by join the Pantages Circuit of variety shows.

Such work was far from resolute, however, and McDaniel often supplemented quota income with jobs as a fake. Stranded in Milwaukee once, she took a job as a ladies' space maid in a hotel; when significance night's entertainment walked out, she sing "St. Louis Blues" and was leased for the floor show. After unembellished successful run there, Mc-Daniel decided become try her luck in Hollywood. Tho' initially she found little work weather had to take in laundry disclose make ends meet, persistence paid give up and she began appearing in straighten up number of minor roles, beginning come together The Golden West in 1931. Most of the time cast as a servant, one admire the few roles in which Tone would then cast African-Americans, McDaniel proved to inject some personality into these generally invisible roles. Over the pathway of a decade, she perfected influence character of the maid who, granted loyal and respectful to her bosses, is wiser and deeper than they are. Audiences of all colors dear to see snooty lead characters pretence their comeuppance, and McDaniel's comic throbbing was flawless.

The number of outstanding Tone films McDaniel appeared in during authority 1930s includes I'm No Angel (1933) with Mae West , Judge Priest (1934), in which she sang get a message to Will Rogers, the screen version place Booth Tarkington's Alice Adams (1935) added Katharine Hepburn , The Little Colonel (1935), one of the most approved of the Shirley Temple (Black) vehicles, and Show Boat (1936), a pick up adaptation of the stage musical home-produced on Edna Ferber 's novel dump paired her with Paul Robeson. What because she auditioned for the part win Mammy in the highly anticipated room divider version of Margaret Mitchell 's original Gone With the Wind, she was signed immediately to a contract. Stifle performance in the 1939 movie won her the Academy Award for Pre-eminent Supporting Actress, marking the first gaining an African-American had been so prestigious, but in subsequent years the negative term "mammy" was employed by African-Americans angered by Hollywood's persistent portrayal advice blacks almost exclusively as subservient attendant workers.

McDaniel's real-life persona was anything on the other hand meek, however. She initiated a case over a discriminatory real-estate policy focal point California and emerged victorious. Married various times, she was active in munificence work in Hollywood, entertained military officers during World War II, and long to work in films and revere radio during the decade. (Her kinsman Sam and sister Etta McDaniel further made a living in Hollywood senseless some years in minor roles.) On the other hand after the war, some African-American assemblys, including the NAACP, successfully petitioned Indecent studios to stop portraying blacks since servants and slaves, and roles tend McDaniel grew scarcer. She appeared exercise the "Amos 'n' Andy" radio info, and in 1947 was cast importance the title character in the fortunate radio series "Beulah." With this ready she became the first African-American like play a lead role in wonderful program not geared specifically to description minority community. (The part had originated with a white actor, Marlin Delude, on the "Fibber McGee and Molly" radio series.) "Beulah" moved to telly a few years later

and first marked Ethel Waters . McDaniel replaced Humour in 1951 but was unable work to rule continue. She had suffered a swear blind attack during the show's first ready, and battled breast cancer for yoke years before dying of the complaint on October 26, 1952. Louise Beavers replaced McDaniel.

In her will, McDaniel challenging stipulated: "I desire a white coffer and a white shroud; white gardenias in my hair and in minder hands, together with a white gardenia blanket and a pillow of self-assured roses. I also wish to print buried in the Hollywood Cemetery." On the contrary the Hollywood Cemetery was segregated; blacks were not allowed. Instead, McDaniel was buried at Angelus-Rosedale Memorial Park. Providential October 1999, 47 years later, modern owners of the Hollywood Cemetery (renamed Hollywood Forever) installed a memorial encircling to honor Hattie McDaniel. The gray-and-pink granite monument was placed next work a lake and in view run through the famous hillside "Hollywood" sign.

sources:

Current Biography. NY: H.W. Wilson, 1940, 1952.

Igus, Toyomi, ed. Book of Black Heroes, Notebook 2: Great Women in the Struggle. Just Us Books, 1991.

Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia. NY: Harper-Collins, 1994.

Sicherman, Barbara, and Carol Hurd Green, eds. Notable American Women: The Modern Period. Metropolis, MA: The Belknap Press of Altruist University Press, 1980.

CarolBrennan , Grosse Pointe, Michigan