People, Locations, Episodes

Teresa Graves, Television Actress born

*Teresa Graves, an African American singer and actress, was born on this date in 1949.

She was born in Houston. She started her career as a singer with the Doodletown Pipers. Later she turned to acting full time. Graves’ first big television appearance was on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In program in 1969 and 1970. Graves appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and on several Bob Hope television specials in 1970 and 1971; she had a feature role in “The Funny Side,” a television series in 1971 and 1972.

Sheila Johnson, Entrepreneur born

*Sheila Johnson was born on this date in 1949. She is a Black businesswoman and philanthropist.  Johnson was born Sheila Crump in Chicago, Illinois, a suburb of Maywood. Her father was a neurosurgeon. Johnson attended Irving School in Maywood and graduated from Proviso High School in 1966. Though she was a cheerleading squad member at […]

Ben Powers, Actor born

*Ben Powers born on this date in 1949. He was an African American actor.

Pam Grier, Actress born

Pam Grier was born on this date in 1949. She is an African American actress.

Pamela Suzette Grier was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the daughter of Gwendolyn Sylvia Samuels, a homemaker and nurse, and Clarence Ransom Grier, who worked as a mechanic and Technical Sergeant in the United States Air Force. She has one sister and one brother. Because of her father’s military career, her family moved frequently during her childhood, to various places such as England, and eventually settled in Denver, Colorado, where she attended East High School.

Loretta Devine, Actress born

Loretta Devine was born on this date in 1949. She is an African American actress.

Born in Houston, TX, she earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston and a master’s degree from Brandeis University.

After moving to New York City, she landed her first professional role in “Coming Uptown.” She then appeared in Bob Fosse’s Broadway production “Big Deal.” But it was her portrayal and creation of Lorell in the Broadway hit “Dreamgirls” that won her the admiration of critics and audiences.

Whoopi Goldberg, Media Personality born

Whoopi Goldberg was born on this date in 1949. She is an African American actor, comedian, and television host.

Debbie Allen, Stage, and Film Artist born

Debbie Allen was born on this date in 1950. She is an African American actress, director, producer, and choreographer.

Born in Houston, TX, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors from Howard University. Allen began her career on Broadway in the 1970s in the chorus of “Purlie,” “A Raisin In the Sun,” “West Side Story,” and “Anita,” which earned her a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award. She is probabloy best known for her is probably best known for her role as Lydia Grant in the 1982 TV hit, Fame.

‘Beulah’ (Situation Comedy) Debuts on TV

*On this date in 1950, The Beulah Show was broadcast for the first time. This was the first American television situation comedy to star an African American.

Howard Rollins Jr., Actor born

Howard Rollins Jr. was born on this date in 1950. He was an African American actor.

Born in Baltimore, Howard Ellsworth Rollins, Jr., was the youngest of four children born to Howard E. Rollins, Sr., a steelworker, and Ruth R. Rollins, a domestic worker. After high school, he attended Towson State College, MD, where he studied theater. In his early years, Rollins vaguely considered becoming a teacher. At 17, a friend convinced him to attend a casting call at a local Baltimore theater, where he won a role in “Of Mice and Men.”

David Russell, Media Storyboard Artist born

David Russell was born on this date in 1950. He is an African American visual storyboard artist, educator, and painter.

Syl Jones, Media Consultant, and Playwright born

Syl Jones was born on this date in 1951. He is an African American author, playwright, and media consultant.

He was born Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Sylvester and Juanita Jones. His family migrated north from Arkansas through Chicago in the early 1930s. After high school, Jones attended and graduated from Augsburg College in Minneapolis in 1973 with a double major in English and Theatre Arts.

Delroy Lindo, Actor born

*Delroy Lindo was born on this date in 1952. He is a Black British-American actor. Delroy George Lindo was born in Lewisham, southeast London, the son of Jamaican parents who had immigrated to the United Kingdom. Lindo grew up in nearby Eltham and became interested in acting like a child when he appeared in a […]

Lynn Whitfield, Actress born

*Lynn Whitfield was born on this date in 1953. She is a Black actress. From Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Whitfield made her film debut in Dr. Detroit in 1983. Three years later, she played the title character in the fact-based TV movie Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI, the story of the first Black female FBI agent. After […]

Robin Harris, Comedian born

Robin Harris was born on this date in 1953. He was an African American comedian and actor.

He was born in Chicago, where his father was a welder and his mother a factory seamstress. In 1961, the family moved to Los Angeles where he attended Manual Arts High School. A track star, Harris got a scholarship and attended Ottawa University in Kansas. It was during this time that Harris began to hone his craft of comedy. He worked for Hughes Aircraft, a rental car company, and Security Pacific Bank to pay his bills. In 1980, he debuted at Los Angeles’ Comedy Store with little response.

Alfre Woodward, Actress born

Alfre Woodard, an African American actress, was born on this date in 1953.

Born in Tulsa, OK, she is the youngest of three children. She was named by her godmother, who claimed she saw a vision of Alfre’s name written out in gold letters. A former high school cheerleader and track star, Alfre was bitten by the acting bug after being persuaded to audition for her school play by a nun at her school.