Alfre Woodard
Alfre Woodard (/ˈælfri ˈwʊdərd/;[1] born November 8, 1952) is an American actress. Known for portraying strong-willed and dignified roles on stage and screen, she has received various accolades, including four Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as nominations for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and two Grammy Awards. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her as one of "The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century".[2] She is a board member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[3]
Alfre Woodard
Woodard began her acting career in theater. After her breakthrough role in the Off-Broadway play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1977). She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in Cross Creek (1983).[4] She earned a BAFTA Award for Best Actress nomination for her role in Clemency (2019). Woodard's notable films include Grand Canyon (1991), Passion Fish (1992), Heart and Souls (1993), Crooklyn (1994), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Primal Fear (1996), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Down in the Delta (1998), 12 Years a Slave (2013), and Juanita (2019). She voiced Sarabi in The Lion King (2019).
Woodard gained prominence for her television role as Dr. Roxanne Turner in the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1986, and for Guest Actress in 1988. She's received four Primetime Emmy Awards for her roles in the NBC drama series Hill Street Blues in 1984, the NBC series L.A. Law in 1987, the HBO film Miss Evers' Boys (1997), and The Practice in 2003. From 2005 to 2006, Woodard starred as Betty Applewhite in the ABC comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) she portrayed the "Black" Mariah Dillard Stokes in the Netflix series Luke Cage (2016–2018).
She is also known for her work as a political activist and producer. Woodard is a founder of Artists for a New South Africa, an organization devoted to advancing democracy and equality in that country.[5]
Early life and education[edit]
Woodard was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Constance, a homemaker, and Marion H. Woodard, an entrepreneur and interior designer.[6] She is the youngest of three children and was a cheerleader in high school.[7] Woodard attended Bishop Kelley High School, a private Catholic school in Tulsa, graduating from there in 1970. She studied drama at Boston University, from which she graduated.[5]
Career[edit]
1970s[edit]
Woodard made her professional theater debut in 1974 on Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage.[8] On off-Broadway, she performed in the play So Nice, They Named it Twice at The Public Theater in early 1976.[9] In 1976, she moved to Los Angeles, California. She later said, "When I came to L.A., people told me there were no film roles for black actors. I'm not a fool. I know that. But I was always confident that I knew my craft."[10] Her breakthrough role was in the Off-Broadway play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf in 1977.[5] The next year, Woodard made her film debut in Remember My Name, a thriller written and directed by Alan Rudolph. In the same year, she had a leading role in The Trial of the Moke, a Great Performances television film co-starring Samuel L. Jackson.
Personal life[edit]
Woodard lives in Santa Monica, California, with her husband, writer Roderick Spencer, and their two children Mavis and Duncan. Woodard follows Christian Science.[111] Her daughter, Mavis, served as Miss Golden Globe for the 2010 Golden Globe Awards.[112]
Woodard is an activist for a wide spectrum of causes. She is a founder and board member of Artists for a New South Africa, a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating the African AIDS pandemic and to advancing democracy and equality in South Africa since 1989. The charity has raised more than $9 million and has provided healthcare to over 3,500 South African AIDS orphans.[113] Woodard is also a board member of the Democratic Party, and campaigned for Barack Obama in both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.[114] She lends continuing support to the fight for LGBT rights and same sex marriage.[115] In February 2009, she joined a group of American film directors and actors on a cultural trip to Iran at the invitation of the "House of Cinema" forum in Tehran.[116]
On August 9, 2015, Woodard appeared on TLC's Who Do You Think You Are?. Research into her father's genealogy revealed that her great-grandfather Alex Woodard was born into slavery in Houston County, Georgia, in the early 1840s. At about age 14 or 15, Alex was separated from his family when his master relocated to Jackson Parish, Louisiana. Historians helped Woodard locate evidence that Alex was assessed a poll tax in 1867, indicating that he was registered to vote two years after the Civil War ended. By 1881, Alex had purchased 80 acres of farmland in Jackson Parish. On April 15, 1898, Alex Woodard and his wife Elizabeth sold their 80 acres to her brother, Aaron Stell, as they had moved to Wharton County, Texas, by that time.[117]