Leslie Uggams
| Leslie Uggams | |
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Uggams in 1971.
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| Born | Leslie Marian Uggams[1] May 25, 1943 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Juilliard School |
| Occupation | Actress, singer |
| Years active | 1950–present |
| Spouse(s) | Grahame Pratt (m. 1965) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Theatre World Award 1967 Hallelujah, Baby! Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical 1968 Hallelujah, Baby! Emmy Award for Outstanding Hostess in a Variety Series 1983 Fantasy TV Land Anniversary Award 2007 Roots |
| Website | leslieuggams |
Leslie Marian Uggams (born May 25, 1943) is an American actress and singer. She is known for her work in the 1967 broadway musical Hallelujah, Baby! for which she won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and a Theatre World Award (1967); as Kizzy Reynolds in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.
Contents
Life and career
Early life
Uggams was born in New York City, the daughter of Juanita (Smith), a Cotton Club chorus girl, and Harold Uggams, an elevator operator and maintenance man.[2] Her father was a singer with the Hall Johnson choir and her mother was a dancer.[3] She attended the Professional Children's School of New York and Juilliard.[3][4] She met her husband, Grahame Pratt while she was performing in Sydney; they married in 1965. After their wedding, the couple decided to reside in New York, in part to avoid Australia's racial segregation laws of that time.[4]
Early work
Uggams started in show business as a child in 1950, playing the niece of Ethel Waters on Beulah. Uggams made her singing debut on the Lawrence Welk Show and was a regular on Sing Along with Mitch, starring record producer-conductor Mitch Miller.[3] In 1960, she sang, off-screen, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" in the film Inherit the Wind. Uggams came to be recognized by TV audiences as an upcoming teen talent in 1954 on the NBC/CBS hit musical quiz show series Name That Tune (1953–59), along with child hitmaker Eddie Hodges. Her records "One More Sunrise"(an English-language cover of Ivo Robic's "Morgen", 1959) and "House Built on Sand" made Billboard magazine's charts.
Television and film
She appeared in her own television variety show, The Leslie Uggams Show in 1969. This was the first network variety show to be hosted by an African American since "The Nat 'King' Cole Show" of the mid-1950's. [5] She had a lead role in the 1977 miniseries Roots, for which she received an Emmy nomination, as Kizzy.[6] In 1979, she starred as Lillian Rogers Parks in Backstairs at the White House, a miniseries for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Actress. She also made guest appearances on such television programs as Hollywood Squares, Fantasy, The Muppet Show, The Love Boat and Magnum, P.I.. In 1996, Uggams played the role of Rose Keefer on All My Children.[3] Her film career included roles in Skyjacked (1972), Black Girl (1972) and Poor Pretty Eddie (1975), in which she played a popular singer who, upon being stranded in the deep South, is abused and humiliated by the perverse denizens of a backwoods town.[7] She later appeared in Sugar Hill (1994) opposite Wesley Snipes, and was cast as Blind Al in Deadpool in July 2015.[8]
Stage
Uggams was picked to star in Hallelujah, Baby! after Lena Horne declined the role of Georgina. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1967 and "created a new star" in Uggams.[9] She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a musical (in a tie with Patricia Routledge).[10] She appeared on Broadway in the revue Blues in the Night in 1982 and in the musical revue of the works of Jerry Herman, Jerry's Girls in 1985.[11] Uggams replaced Patti LuPone as Reno Sweeney in the Lincoln Center revival of Cole Porter's musical Anything Goes on Broadway in March 1989. She had played Reno in a US tour in 1988–1989.[12] Later Broadway roles include Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie (2003–2004) and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond at the Kennedy Center in 2004[13] and on Broadway at the Cort Theatre in 2005.[14] In 2001, she appeared in the August Wilson play King Hedley II,[15] receiving a nomination for the Tony Award, Best Actress in a Play.[16] In January 2009, Uggams played Lena Horne in a production of the stage musical Stormy Weather at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.[17] In June 2012, Uggams played Muzzy in a production of Thoroughly Modern Millie at The Muny in Saint Louis, Missouri.[18] In 2014, she starred as Rose in Connecticut Repertory Theatre's Nutmeg Summer Series production of Gypsy.
Discography
- The Eyes of God (Columbia CS8174, 1959)
- So in Love! (Columbia CS8871, 1963)
- A Time to Love (Atlantic 8128, 1966)
- What's An Uggams? (Atlantic SD8196, 1968)
- Just to Satisfy You (Atlantic SD8241, 1969)
- Leslie (Columbia CS9936, 1970)
- Try To See It My Way (Sonday SL8000, 1972)
- Leslie Uggams (Motown M6846S1, 1975)
Awards and nominations
Supersisters trading card set
- 1979: (one of the cards featured Uggams's name and picture)[19]
- 2009: Nominated for Lead Actress in a Musical for the role of Lena Horne in the Pasadena Playhouse production of "Stormy Weather"[20]
- 2015: Awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Connecticut
References
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ http://www.filmreference.com/film/35/Leslie-Uggams.html
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Leslie Uggams Biography" allmusic.com, accessed July 15, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ "The Leslie Uggams Show" museum.tv, accessed March 4, 2012
- ↑ "Roots" museum.tv, accessed March 4, 2012
- ↑ " 'Poor Pretty Eddie' Synopsis" tcm.com, accessed March 4, 2012
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Siegel, Naomi. "Theater Review; Of Its Moment: 1967" The New York Times, October 24, 2004
- ↑ "Tony AWards, 1968" broadwayworld.com, accessed March 5, 2012
- ↑ Rich, Frank. "Theater: 'Jerry's Girls,' A Musical Entertainment" The New York Times, December 19, 1985
- ↑ Nemy, Enid. "On Stage" The New York Times, March 17, 1989
- ↑ Jones, Kenneth. "James Earl Jones and Leslie Uggams Open in 'On Golden Pond' Oct. 2" playbill.com, October 2, 2004
- ↑ Jones, Kenneth. "Jones and Uggams Face Facts of Family Life in Broadway Return of 'On Golden Pond' " playbill.com, April 7, 2005
- ↑ Brantley, Ben. "Theater Review: The Agonized Arias Of Everyman In Poverty and Pain" The New York Times, May 2, 2001
- ↑ "Tony Award, 2001" broadwayworld.com, accessed March 5, 2012
- ↑ Jones, Kenneth. Stormy Weather, Musical of Horne's Life, Starring Uggams, Begins West Coast Premiere" playbill.com, January 21, 2009
- ↑ "Press Release, Thoroughly Modern Millie " muny2.org, accessed March 4, 2012
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
- Official Web Site
- Leslie Uggams at the Internet Broadway DatabaseLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Leslie Uggams at the Internet Movie Database
- Leslie Uggams at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Leslie Uggams – Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org
- Use mdy dates from May 2015
- Articles with hCards
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- Apex Records artists
- Tony Award winners
- 1943 births
- Living people
- American television actresses
- African-American actresses
- African-American female singers
- Actresses from New York City
- American musical theatre actresses
- 20th-century American actresses
