Georgia Allen
Georgia Allen | |
|---|---|
 Allen around 1997 | |
| Born | Georgia Williams Allen May 12, 1919 Beaumont, Texas, United States |
| Died | January 11, 2014 (aged 94) Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Alma mater | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1949–2006 |
| Spouse | Thaddius S. Allen (1942–2009; his death) |
Georgia Williams Allen (May 12, 1919 – January 11, 2014) was an American actress. She was active from 1949 to 2006, beginning in local theater before progressing to both television and movie roles.
Early life
[edit]Allen was born in Beaumont, Texas.[1] She later moved, via Cleveland, Ohio, to Atlanta, Georgia, where she became an educator in the public school system.[2]
Acting career
[edit]Allen was a repertory player with Atlanta University Summer Theater for thirty years (1949 to 1979).[1] In that time, Allen appeared in a political satire musical called Red, White and Maddox about Atlanta's Governor Lester Maddox. The show premiered in Atlanta and followed with a short run on Broadway.[3] [4]
Her first screen role was as the mother of Clifton Davis' character, Gus, in Together for Days (1972). After a five-year break, she returned in 1977 as Mrs. Jones in Greased Lightning. She appeared in four television movies between 1979 and 1982, then several more from the mid-1980s onward. Between 1990 and 1994, she appeared as three different characters in the television series In the Heat of the Night. In 1997, she played Lucille Wright, the real-life cateress of the parties hosted by Kevin Spacey's character, Jim Williams, in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.[5]
Awards
[edit]Allen was awarded the Bronze Jubilee Award by WETV in 1979; the Ray McIver Award by the Just Us Theater in 1993; and the Legacy Award by Jomandi Productions, also in 1993.[1]
Her last-known appearance was as Ruby in Madea's Family Reunion (2006).
Personal life
[edit]Allen was educated at Clark College in Atlanta, graduating in 1942. That same year, she married Thaddius S. Allen, with whom she had a daughter and a son during their 67-year marriage.[6]
She earned her master's degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara.[2]
Death
[edit]Allen died on January 11, 2014, having survived her husband by five years. She is interred in Atlanta's Crest Lawn Cemetery.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Profiles of African American Stage Performers and Theatre People, 1816-1960 - Google Books
- ^ a b Tilley, Kathy (July 6, 1973). "Acting a Part-Time Job, Full-Time Love". The Atlanta Constitution. p. 31. Retrieved October 22, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Barnes, Clive (27 January 1969). "Stage: 'Red, White and Maddox' Here: Satire From Atlanta Is at the Cort Theater". New York Times. p. 27.
- ^ "Red, White and Maddox". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
- ^ "WashingtonPost.com: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2023-09-08.
- ^ a b Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 13, 2014
External links
[edit]- 1919 births
- 2014 deaths
- 20th-century American actresses
- 21st-century American actresses
- Schoolteachers from Georgia (U.S. state)
- 20th-century American women educators
- American film actresses
- American television actresses
- Actresses from Ohio
- Clark Atlanta University alumni
- People from Beaumont, Texas
- Actors from Cleveland
- University of California, Santa Barbara alumni