Beah Richards

She also received a Tony Award nomination for her performance in the 1965 production of The Amen Corner.

Beah Richards studied at Dillard University. The field of work recorded is poetry. Distinctions recorded are Theatre World Award, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

• Name — Beah Richards • Birth Name — Beulah Elizabeth Richardson • Born — 12 July 1920 • Birthplace — Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S. • Died — 14 September 2000 • Place of death — Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S. • Education — Dillard University • Occupation — Actress • Notable Works — Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Roots: The Next Generations • Years Active — 1955–2000 • Spouse — Hugh Harrell Jr. (divorced)

Beulah Elizabeth Richardson was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi; her mother was a seamstress, and her father was a Baptist minister. In 1948, she graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans, and two years later, she moved to New York City. She was taught dance by Ismay Andrews.

Her career began in 1955, when she portrayed an 84-year-old-grandmother in the off-Broadway show Take a Giant Step. She often played the role of a mother or grandmother, and continued acting her entire life. She appeared in the original Broadway productions of Purlie Victorious, The Miracle Worker, and A Raisin in the Sun. As a writer, she wrote the verse performance piece A Black Woman Speaks, a collection of 14 poems, in which she points out that white women played an important role in oppressing women of color. The play's first performance was in 1950 for the organization Women for Peace, a white-women's organization in Chicago. The positive reception of her poetry led her to become the cofounder of the civil rights organization Sojourners for Truth and Justice, which used A Black Woman Speaks as a framework for their work. The Sojourners for Truth and Justice drew in other notable activists including Shirley Du Bois, Louise Thompson Patterson, Mary Church Terrell, Claudia Jones, and Audley Moore. Her first play was written in 1951, titled One Is a Crowd, about a black singer who seeks revenge on a white man who had destroyed her family. It was not produced until decades later. From the 1930s to the late 1950s, Richards was a member and organizer with the Communist Party USA in Los Angeles, after befriending artist Paul Robeson. She is among the black women who "actively participated in movements affiliated with the CPUSA" between 1917's Bolshevik Revolution and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 revelations. She was later a sponsor of the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis. Richards was known professionally as Beah Richards, and is also referred to in several sources as Bea Richards. Notable movie appearances include The Amen Corner (1965), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Hurry Sundown, The Great White Hope, Beloved and In the Heat of the Night. She appeared in Roots: The Next Generations as Cynthia Murray Palmer, the grandmother of Alex Haley. She made numerous guest television appearances, including roles on Beauty and the Beast, The Bill Cosby Show, 227, Sanford and Son, Benson (playing the title character's mother in two episodes), Designing Women, The Facts of Life, The Practice, Murder, She Wrote, The Big Valley and ER (as Dr. Peter Benton's mother.)

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1958 — The Mugger — Grecco Maid • 1959 — Take a Giant Step — May Scott • 1962 — The Miracle Worker — Viney the Maid — Uncredited • 1963 — Gone Are the Days! — Idella Landy • 1967 — Hurry Sundown — Rose Scott • 1967 — In the Heat of the Night — Mama Caleba • 1967 — Guess Who's Coming to Dinner — Mrs. Prentice — Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture • 1970 — The Great White Hope — Mama Tiny — NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture • 1972 — The Biscuit Eater — Charity Tomlin • 1973 — A Dream For Christmas — Grandma Bessie • 1975 — Mahogany — Florence • 1979 — Banjo the Woodpile Cat — Zazu — Voice • 1986 — Inside Out — Verna • 1987 — Big Shots — Miss Hanks • 1989 — Homer and Eddie — Linda Cervi • 1989 — Drugstore Cowboy — Drug Counselor • 1994 — Out of Darkness — Mrs. Cooper • 1998 — Beloved — Baby Suggs — Nominated — NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Beah Richards is recorded as having received Theatre World Award, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. Richards received Theatre World Award, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.