Kaycee Moore (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Collier; February 24, 1944 – August 13, 2021) was an American actress. Born and raised in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

, Missouri, she was a member of the L.A. Rebellion, an alternative artistic movement developed 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 ...

by Black filmmakers including Charles Burnett and

Julie Dash Julie Ethel Dash (born October 22, 1952) is an American filmmaker, music video and commercial director, author, and website producer. Dash received her Master of Fine Arts, MFA in 1985 at the UCLA Film School and is one of the graduates and filmm ...

. Moore starred in films including '' Killer of Sheep'', '' Bless Their Little Hearts'', and ''

Daughters of the Dust ''Daughters of the Dust'' is a 1991 independent drama film written, directed, and produced by Julie Dash. It is the first feature film directed by an African-American woman to receive a theatrical release in the United States.Michel, Martin (No ...

''. Her work was received positively, and all three films were inducted in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

’

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

for their depictions of Black American life.

Life and career

Moore was born Kaycee Collier in

, Missouri in 1944. She moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s, where she worked at

Max Factor Max Factor is a line of cosmetics from Coty, founded in 1909 as Max Factor & Company by Maksymilian Faktorowicz. Max Factor specialized in movie make-up. Until its 1973 sale for US$500 million (approximately $ billion in 2017 dollars), Max Fa ...

. After joining a theater workshop, she began to perform in plays put on by

students. She met Charles Burnett, then a MFA student at UCLA, and starred in his thesis film '' Killer of Sheep'' (1978).

Manohla Dargis Manohla June Dargis ( ) is an American film critic. She is the chief film critic for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', Dargis ...

of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' referred to the film as "an American masterpiece." Moore later starred in '' Bless Their Little Hearts'' (1983) and ''

'' (1991). Moore's final film role was in '' Ninth Street'' (1999), which was filmed in Kansas City.

Personal life and death

Moore was married twice, first to John Moore, Jr., and then to Stephen Jones, who preceded her in death. She had two children, John Moore III and Michelle Swinton. Moore died on August 13, 2021, at the age of 77.

Filmography

References

External links

* 1944 births 2021 deaths 20th-century African-American actresses Actresses from Kansas City, Missouri 20th-century American actresses American film actresses 21st-century African-American actresses 21st-century American actresses {{US-film-actor-1940s-stub