Beah Richards 1500049 217307352 2008-06-05T13:48:52Z Cydebot 1215485 Robot - Moving category African-American actors to African American actors per [[WP:CFD|CFD]] at [[Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2008 May 16]]. '''Beah Richards''' ([[July 12]], [[1920]] – [[September 14]], [[2000]]) was an American actress with a long career on stage, screen and television. She was also a poet, playwright and author. Born '''Beulah Richardson''' in [[Vicksburg, Mississippi]], her mother was a seamstress and [[PTA]] advocate and her father was a [[Baptist]] minister. In 1948, she graduated from [[Dillard University]] in [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]] and two years later moved to [[New York City]]. Her career started to take off in [[1955]] when she portrayed an eighty-four-year-old-grandmother in the [[off-Broadway]] show ''[[Take a Giant Step]]''. She often played the role of a mother or grandmother, and continued acting her entire life. She appeared in the original [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] productions of ''[[Purlie Victorious]]'', ''[[The Miracle Worker (play)|The Miracle Worker]]'', and ''[[A Raisin in the Sun]]''. {{Quote box| width=35% |align=right |quote="There are a lot of movies out there that I would hate to be paid to do, some real demeaning, real woman-denigrating stuff. It is up to women to change their roles. They are going to have to write the stuff and do it. And they will." |source=Beah Richards |}} Richards was nominated for a [[Tony award]] for her [[1965]] performance in [[James Baldwin (writer)|James Baldwin]]'s ''[[The Amen Corner]]''. She also received a nomination for the [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress]] for her performance as [[Sidney Poitier]]'s mother in the [[1967 in film|1967]] film ''[[Guess Who's Coming to Dinner]]''. Other notable movie performances include ''[[Hurry Sundown (film)|Hurry Sundown]]'', ''[[The Great White Hope]]'', ''[[Beloved (film)|Beloved]]'' and ''[[In the Heat of the Night (film)|In the Heat of the Night]]'' (as the abortionist, Mrs. Bellamy (a.k.a. "Mama Caleba"). She made numerous guest television appearances including recurrent roles on ''[[The Bill Cosby Show]]'', ''[[Designing Women]]'', and ''[[ER (TV series)|ER]]'' (as Dr. Peter Benton's mother.) She was the winner of two [[Emmy Awards]]. In the last year of her life, Richards was the subject of a documentary created by actress [[Lisa Gay Hamilton]]. The documentary ''[[Beah: A Black Woman Speaks]]'' was created from over 70 hours of their conversations. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the [[AFI Film Festival]]. Beah Richards died from [[emphysema]] in her hometown of [[Vicksburg, Mississippi]] at the age of 80. ==External links== * {{imdb|0723968}} * {{findagrave|6107368}} {{EmmyAward DramaGuestActress 1976-2000}} {{EmmyAward ComedyGuestActress 1976-2000}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Beah}} [[Category:1920 births]] [[Category:2000 deaths]] [[Category:African American actors]] [[Category:American film actors]] [[Category:American poets]] [[Category:American stage actors]] [[Category:American television actors]] [[Category:American dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:Deaths from emphysema]] [[Category:Emmy Award winners]] [[Category:People from Vicksburg, Mississippi]] [[de:Beah Richards]]