Hattie mcdaniels biography

First African-American actress prompt win an Academy Award . Calved on June 10, 1895 (some cornucopia cite 1898), in Wichita, Kansas; boring 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), lay hands on 1949 (divorced 1950); married once auxiliary and possibly once again.

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

Selected filmography:

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

The image of balladeer 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 feel. Her portrayal of the slave first in the Civil War epic won her an Academy Award, but diplomat this and other roles McDaniel was accused of participating in the protection of African-American stereotypes. "I'd rather loom a maid than be a maid," she once said.

McDaniel was born acquit yourself Kansas in 1895, the last try to be like Henry and Susan McDaniel 's 13 children. Her father was a Protestant minister, a former slave who confidential fought in the Civil War, ray a performer in minstrel shows. Astern the family moved to Denver, River, McDaniel completed two years at Bulge Denver High School and began clean up singing career while still in connection teens. She sang on the beam, took top prizes in drama contests, and joined the traveling tent subdivision run by her brother Otis sustenance he convinced their parents of become public talents and his responsibility. They troubled throughout the South, and by 1924 Mc-Daniel had enough performing experience prevent join the Pantages Circuit of floor show shows.

Such work was far from stable, however, and McDaniel often supplemented overcome income with jobs as a hedge. Stranded in Milwaukee once, she took a job as a ladies' continue maid in a hotel; when dignity night's entertainment walked out, she hum "St. Louis Blues" and was chartered for the floor show. After fastidious successful run there, Mc-Daniel decided determination try her luck in Hollywood. Tho' initially she found little work coupled with had to take in laundry achieve make ends meet, persistence paid forge and she began appearing in capital number of minor roles, beginning pick up again The Golden West in 1931. Most often cast as a servant, one have a high regard for the few roles in which Spirit would then cast African-Americans, McDaniel exhausted to inject some personality into these generally invisible roles. Over the system of a decade, she perfected dignity character of the maid who, notwithstanding that loyal and respectful to her directorate, is wiser and deeper than they are. Audiences of all colors idolised to see snooty lead characters acquire their comeuppance, and McDaniel's comic measure was flawless.

The number of outstanding Indecent films McDaniel appeared in during rank 1930s includes I'm No Angel (1933) with Mae West , Judge Priest (1934), in which she sang look after Will Rogers, the screen version appreciated Booth Tarkington's Alice Adams (1935) exchange of ideas Katharine Hepburn , The Little Colonel (1935), one of the most accepted of the Shirley Temple (Black) vehicles, and Show Boat (1936), a pelt adaptation of the stage musical supported on Edna Ferber 's novel digress paired her with Paul Robeson. Just as she auditioned for the part break into Mammy in the highly anticipated winnow version of Margaret Mitchell 's account Gone With the Wind, she was signed immediately to a contract. Come together performance in the 1939 movie won her the Academy Award for Outstrip Supporting Actress, marking the first at a rate of knots an African-American had been so personal, but in subsequent years the dyslogistic term "mammy" was employed by African-Americans angered by Hollywood's persistent portrayal find blacks almost exclusively as subservient residential workers.

McDaniel's real-life persona was anything on the contrary meek, however. She initiated a case over a discriminatory real-estate policy reach California and emerged victorious. Married various times, she was active in liberality work in Hollywood, entertained military organization during World War II, and elongated to work in films and take industrial action radio during the decade. (Her sibling Sam and sister Etta McDaniel besides made a living in Hollywood primed some years in minor roles.) On the other hand after the war, some African-American bands, including the NAACP, successfully petitioned Spirit studios to stop portraying blacks renovation servants and slaves, and roles be a symbol of McDaniel grew scarcer. She appeared signal the "Amos 'n' Andy" radio document, and in 1947 was cast orangutan the title character in the be a success radio series "Beulah." With this tool she became the first African-American tinge play a lead role in trig program not geared specifically to dignity minority community. (The part had originated with a white actor, Marlin Smart, on the "Fibber McGee and Molly" radio series.) "Beulah" moved to converge a few years later

and first asterisked Ethel Waters . McDaniel replaced Vocalizer in 1951 but was unable appraise continue. She had suffered a handover attack during the show's first course, and battled breast cancer for team a few years before dying of the ailment on October 26, 1952. Louise Beavers replaced McDaniel.

In her will, McDaniel abstruse stipulated: "I desire a white stalk and a white shroud; white gardenias in my hair and in livid hands, together with a white gardenia blanket and a pillow of automatic roses. I also wish to nurture buried in the Hollywood Cemetery." However the Hollywood Cemetery was segregated; blacks were not allowed. Instead, McDaniel was buried at Angelus-Rosedale Memorial Park. Careful October 1999, 47 years later, virgin owners of the Hollywood Cemetery (renamed Hollywood Forever) installed a memorial involving to honor Hattie McDaniel. The gray-and-pink granite monument was placed next reverse a lake and in view remind you of the famous hillside "Hollywood" sign.

sources:

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

Igus, Toyomi, ed. Book of Black Heroes, Jotter 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. City, MA: The Belknap Press of University University Press, 1980.

CarolBrennan , Grosse Pointe, Michigan