Beulah Elizabeth Richardson (July 12, 1920 – September 14, 2000), known professionally as Beah Richards and Bea Richards, was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. She was also a poet, playwright, author and activist.
Richards was nominated for an
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People and fictional and mythical characters
* Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar
* Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...
and a
Golden Globe for her supporting role in the film ''
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' in 1968, as well as winning two
Primetime Emmy Awards
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...
for her guest roles in the television series ''
Frank's Place'' in 1988 and ''
The Practice
''The Practice'' is an American legal drama television series created by David E. Kelley centering on partners and associates at a Boston law firm. The show ran for eight seasons on ABC, from March 4, 1997, to May 16, 2004. It won an Emmy i ...
'' in 2000. She also received a
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...
nomination for her performance in the 1965 production of ''
The Amen Corner''.
Early life and education
Beulah Elizabeth Richardson was born in
Vicksburg, Mississippi; her mother was a seamstress, and her father was a Baptist minister. In 1948, she graduated from
Dillard University in New Orleans, and two years later, she moved to New York City.
She was taught dance by
Ismay Andrews.
Career
Her career began in 1955 when she portrayed an 84-year-old-grandmother in the
off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
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 productions of ''
Purlie Victorious'', ''
The Miracle Worker'', and ''
A Raisin in the Sun''.
As a writer, she wrote the verse performance piece ''A Black Woman Speaks'', a collection of 14 poems, in which she points out that white women played an important role in oppressing women of color. The play's first performance was in 1950 for the organization Women for Peace, a white women's organization in Chicago. Her first play was written in 1951 titled ''One Is a Crowd'' about a black singer who seeks revenge on a white man who destroyed her family. It was not produced until decades later.
From the 1930s to the late 1950s, Richards was a member and organizer with the Communist Party USA in Los Angeles after befriending artist
Paul Robeson. She is among the Black women who "actively participated in movements affiliated with the CPUSA" between 1917's
Bolshevik Revolution and Soviet premier
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
's 1956 revelations.
[Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism, McDuffie, Erik S. "Throughout the Party, they advanced Black liberation, women's rights, decolonization, economic justice, peace, and international solidarity. The key figures in this story ... are Audley "Queen Mother" Moore, Louise Thompson Patterson, Thyra Edwards, Bonita Williams, Williana Burroughs, Claudia Jones, Esther Cooper Jackson, Beaulah Richardson (Beah Richards), Grace P. Campbell, Charlene Mitchell, and Sallye Bell Davis."] She was later a sponsor of the National United Committee to Free
Angela Davis.
Richards was known professionally as Beah Richards, and is also referred to in several sources as Bea Richards.
[
Notable movie appearances include '' The Amen Corner'' (1965), '' Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' (1967), '' Hurry Sundown'', '' The Great White Hope'', '' Beloved'' and '' In the Heat of the Night''. She appeared in '' Roots: The Next Generations'' as Cynthia Murray Palmer, the grandmother of Alex Haley.
She made numerous guest television appearances, including roles on '' Beauty and the Beast'', '' The Bill Cosby Show'', '' 227'', '' Sanford and Son'', '' Benson'', '' Designing Women'', '' The Facts of Life'', '']The Practice
''The Practice'' is an American legal drama television series created by David E. Kelley centering on partners and associates at a Boston law firm. The show ran for eight seasons on ABC, from March 4, 1997, to May 16, 2004. It won an Emmy i ...
'', ''Murder, She Wrote
''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...
'', '' The Big Valley'' and '' ER'' (as Dr. Peter Benton's mother.)
Recognition and awards
Richards was nominated for a Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...
for her 1965 performance in James Baldwin's '' The Amen Corner''.
She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 9th Academy Awards to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performanc ...
for her performance as Mrs. Mary Prentice, Sidney Poitier's mother in the 1967 film '' Guess Who's Coming to Dinner''.[
She was the winner of two ]Emmy Awards
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
, one in 1988 for her appearance on the series '' Frank's Place'' and another in 2000 for her appearance on ''The Practice
''The Practice'' is an American legal drama television series created by David E. Kelley centering on partners and associates at a Boston law firm. The show ran for eight seasons on ABC, from March 4, 1997, to May 16, 2004. It won an Emmy i ...
''.[
]
Death and legacy
Richards died from emphysema
Emphysema is any air-filled enlargement in the body's tissues. Most commonly emphysema refers to the permanent enlargement of air spaces (alveoli) in the lungs, and is also known as pulmonary emphysema.
Emphysema is a lower respiratory tract di ...
in her hometown of Vicksburg, Mississippi at the age of 80, less than a month after winning an Emmy Award.
In the last year of her life, Richards was the subject of a documentary created by actress LisaGay 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.
Filmography
References
Further reading
* ''Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War'' (2011) by Dayo Gore
External links
*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Beah
1920 births
2000 deaths
20th-century African-American actresses
20th-century African-American women writers
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American poets
20th-century Baptists
Actresses from Mississippi
Baptists from Mississippi
People from Vicksburg, Mississippi
Dillard University alumni
African-American dramatists and playwrights
African-American women poets
American communists
American film actresses
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American voice actresses
American women dramatists and playwrights
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Deaths from emphysema