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Hattie McDaniel
Oscar Winning
Actress
Hattie McDaniel (1895-1952) was born June
10, 1895 in Wichita, Kansas. her nicknames were.
"Hi-Hat Hattie" and "The Colored Sophie
Tucker." Her father was a Baptist minister. She worked as
a singer with Professor George Morrison's Orchestra. She was
the first African-American woman to sing on the radio. She was a
headliner on the Pantages and Orpheum circuits - vaudeville
When work in show business wasn't
available she hired out as a domestic, a cook, or a
washerwoman.
Numerous offers followed and in 1934 she was chosen to play
the washerwoman Aunt Dilsey, a lead part in Will Rogers's film
Judge Priest
She made her
movie debut in The Golden West. She
sang with Clark Gable in the film Saratoga. About
her most famous character, Mammy, in
Gone with the
Wind, she said "I naturally felt I could create in
it something distinctive and unique." She
was the first black woman to win the prestigious
award Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of
Mammy in
Gone with the
Wind. Sadly, she was not
invited to the Atlanta, Georgia premiere because of her race.
The human
"Mammy" character in the cartoons
Tom and Jerry
is based on her. She appeared in a pivotal role in the
Bette Davis/Olivia de Havilland film In This Our
Life. She actually told off her socialite employer
and her snooty friends in the film "The Mad Miss
Manton." She co-starred with Claudette Colbert and
Shirley Temple in the film? "Since You Went Away. She
portray on television the character "Beulah." She
willed her Oscar to Howard University, but the Oscar was lost
during the race riots at Howard during the 1960s. It has never
been found.
Her most famous
personal quote -- "I'd rather play a maid than be
one." She married four times - Larry Williams, James
Lloyd Crawford, Howard C. Hickman and George Langford .
She did not have children. She
pass away October 26, 1952 in San Fernando Valley, California
(breast cancer). She was the first African-American to
be buried in Los Angeles' Rosedale Cemetery.
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