Brenda Sykes (born June 25, 1949) is a former American actress who made a number of films and appeared in television series in the 1970s. She was discovered on ''

The Dating Game ''The Dating Game'' is an American television game show that first aired on December 20, 1965, and was the first of many shows created and packaged by Chuck Barris from the 1960s through the 1980s. ABC dropped the show on July 6, 1973, but it ...

''.

Life and career

Born in

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

, Louisiana, and raised in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, Sykes is the daughter of a postal worker. She attended

Susan Miller Dorsey High School Susan Miller Dorsey High School, commonly referred to as Dorsey High School, is a Secondary school, secondary State school#United States, public school located in the Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles, Baldwin Hills area of Los Angeles, California. It is ...

, graduating in 1967, following which she spent two years at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, with a major in political science and minor in French. On the recommendation of producer

Aaron Spelling Aaron Spelling (April 22, 1923June 23, 2006) was an American film and television producer and occasional actor. His productions included the television series ''Family'' (1976–1980), ''Charlie's Angels'' (1976–1981), ''The Love Boat'' (1977� ...

, she attended the Professional Theatre Workshop in Los Angeles for six months.

Aaron Spelling, the producer, told me to go to the workshop. I auditioned for a part and he said I wasn't ready for it. So I went and was taught how to kiss, take punches, and burst into tears at a moment's notice.

Sykes later continued her studies with actor

Jeff Corey Jeff Corey (born Arthur Zwerling; August 10, 1914 – August 16, 2002) was an American stage and screen actor. He was blacklisted in the 1950s and became an acting coach for a period, before returning to film and television work in the 1960s. ...

. Sykes played

Jim Brown James Nathaniel Brown (February 17, 1936 – May 18, 2023) was an American professional American football, football player, civil rights activist, and actor. He played as a Fullback (gridiron football), fullback for the Cleveland Browns of the ...

's love interest in ''

Black Gunn ''Black Gunn'' is a 1972 American neo-noir crime action thriller film, directed by Robert Hartford-Davis and starring Jim Brown, Martin Landau, Brenda Sykes, Herbert Jefferson Jr. and Luciana Paluzzi. Baseball pitcher Vida Blue appears in a s ...

''. According to Brown, he was responsible for her being cast in the role, an effort he made because he was attracted to her in real life. From 1973 to 1974, she co-starred on ''

Ozzie's Girls ''Ozzie's Girls'' is an American sitcom starring Ozzie and Harriet Nelson that was broadcast in first-run syndication from September 1973 to September 1974. It served as a continuation and revival of ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'', wh ...

'' as a college student boarding with

Ozzie Ozzie or Ozzy is a masculine given name, sometimes a short form (hypocorism) of Oswald, Oscar, Osborne, Osman and Ozymandias and other names, surname and nickname which may refer to: Animals * Ozzie (gorilla) (born c. 1961) People * Chris Osgoo ...

and

Harriet Nelson Harriet Nelson (formerly Hilliard; born Peggy Lou Snyder; July 18, 1909 – October 2, 1994) was an American actress. Nelson is best known for her role on the sitcom ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet''. Early life and career Nelson was b ...

. She played the character Mandy, one of

Jimmie Walker James Carter Walker Jr. (born June 25, 1947) is an American actor and comedian. He portrayed James ("J.J.") Evans Jr., the older son of James Evans Sr. and Florida Evans, on the CBS television comedy series ''Good Times''. The show ran from 19 ...

's girlfriends on the 1970s

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

Good Times ''Good Times'' is an American television sitcom that aired for six seasons on CBS, from February 8, 1974, to August 1, 1979. Created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans (actor), Mike Evans and developed by executive producer Norman Lear, it was televis ...

'', made a starring role appearance on the first season of ''

The Streets of San Francisco ''The Streets of San Francisco'' is an American television crime drama filmed on location in San Francisco and produced by Quinn Martin, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros. Television (QM produced the show on its ow ...

'', and as Summer Johnson on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

series ''

Executive Suite ''Executive Suite'' is a 1954 American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer drama film directed by Robert Wise and written by Ernest Lehman, based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Cameron Hawley. The film stars William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara St ...

''.

Personal life

Sykes was married to musician

Gil Scott-Heron Gilbert Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011) was an American Jazz poetry, jazz poet, singer, musician, and author known for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackso ...

from 1978 to 1987 and is the mother of poet Gia Scott-Heron. "She was exquisitely beautiful, soft and refined. He was so full of fire, and she was the opposite. She was the water in his life," said the filmmaker Esther Anderson.

Filmography

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sykes, Brenda 1949 births 20th-century African-American actresses 20th-century American actresses 21st-century African-American actresses 21st-century American actresses Actresses from Shreveport, Louisiana American film actresses American television actresses Living people University of California, Los Angeles alumni Susan Miller Dorsey High School alumni