Alfre Woodard
| Alfre Woodard | |
|---|---|
 at a Barack Obama rally at the Democratic National Convention, 2008-08-28 |
|
| Born | Alfre Ette Woodard November 8, 1952 Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States |
| Occupation | Actress, Producer |
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Spouse | Roderick Spencer (1983–present) |
Alfre Ette Woodard (born November 8, 1952) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award and Grammy Awards, 17 times for Emmy Awards (winning four), and has also won a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.
She is known for her role in films such as Cross Creek, Miss Firecracker, Grand Canyon, Passion Fish, Primal Fear, Star Trek: First Contact, Miss Evers' Boys, K-PAX, Radio, Take the Lead and The Family That Preys.
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[edit] Early life
Woodard was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Constance, a homemaker, and Marion H. Woodard, an entrepreneur and interior designer.[1] Woodard attended Bishop Kelley High School, a private Catholic school in Tulsa. She studied drama at Boston University, from which she graduated.
[edit] Career
Woodard has made numerous appearances in television series and motion pictures. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1983 film Cross Creek. In 1993 she starred in the film Passion Fish for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. She also appeared in the films Heart and Souls, Crooklyn, How to Make an American Quilt, Primal Fear, in Down in the Delta as a single alcoholic mother from Chicago forced to spend a summer with her uncle in Mississippi, and as Lily Sloane, Zefram Cochrane's assistant in Star Trek: First Contact.
In 1997 she starred in the HBO film Miss Evers' Boys, for which she won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a CableACE Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Satellite Awards.
Woodard's television credits include Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, Faerie Tale Theatre (in "Puss in Boots"), L.A. Law, and Homicide: Life on the Street. Woodard has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for her performances in the series Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and The Practice, as well as the television movie Miss Evers' Boys. Woodard has received Emmy nominations for Words by Heart, St. Elsewhere, Unnatural Causes, a second nomination for St. Elsewhere, A Mother's Courage: The Mary Thomas Story, The Piano Lesson, Gulliver's Travels, Homicide: Life on the Street, and The Water Is Wide.[2]
In 2003, Woodard, took part in the HBO film Unchained Memories, a dramatization of WPA slave narratives. From 2005 to 2006, Woodard starred in the ABC series Desperate Housewives, and received another Emmy nomination for her role as Betty Applewhite. Woodard has appeared on stage in such plays as Map of the World, Drowning Crow, Me & Bessie, and The Winter's Tale. She starred in Tyler Perry's latest film The Family That Preys. In 2009, she appeared in American Violet, playing the mother of a 24-year-old African American woman wrongfully swept up in a drug raid.
In 2010, she was a guest star in the third season of the Vampire Television series True Blood as Ruby Jean Reynolds.[3] and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2011 for her role.[4][5]
She was most recently seen starring as Lt. Tanya Rice in TNT's original series Memphis Beat, for which she won Gracie Allen Awards for performance in a series. One critic said: "I originally tuned in for Jason Lee, who plays a police detective named Dwight who likes to croon the blues. But I was won over by Alfre Woodard, who plays Dwight’s by-the-book boss."[6]
[edit] Personal life
Woodard lives in Santa Monica, California, with her husband, writer Roderick Spencer, and their two children, Mavis and Duncan. Woodard follows Christian Science.[7] She is a founder and board member of Artists for a New South Africa and is also active in the Democratic Party. 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.[8] Her daughter, Mavis, served as Miss Golden Globe for the 2010 Golden Globe Awards.
[edit] Awards and nominations
[edit] Filmography
| Film | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
| 1978 | Remember My Name | Rita | ||
| 1979 | Freedom Road | Katie | ||
| 1980 | HealtH | Sally Benbow | ||
| 1981 | The Sophisticated Gents | Evelyn Evers | ||
| 1982 | The Ambush Murders | Kariha Ellsworth | ||
| 1983 | Cross Creek | Geechee | ||
| 1986 | Extremities | Patricia | ||
| 1987 | Mandela | Winnie Mandela | ||
| 1987 | The Life Saver | Andrea Crawford | ||
| 1988 | Scrooged | Grace Cooley | ||
| 1989 | Miss Firecracker | Popeye Jackson | ||
| 1989 | A Mother's Courage: The Mary Thomas Story | Mary Thomas | ||
| 1990 | Blue Bayou | Jessica Filley | ||
| 1991 | Grand Canyon | Jane | ||
| 1992 | Passion Fish | Chantelle | ||
| 1992 | The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag | Attorney Ann Orkin | ||
| 1993 | Rich in Love | Rhody Poole | ||
| 1993 | Heart and Souls | Penny Washington | ||
| 1993 | Bopha! | Rosie Mangena | ||
| 1994 | Blue Chips | Lavada McRae | ||
| 1994 | Crooklyn | Carolyn Carmichael | ||
| 1995 | How to Make an American Quilt | |||
| 1995 | The Piano Lesson | Berniece | ||
| 1996 | Star Trek: First Contact | Lily Sloane | ||
| 1996 | Gulliver's Travels | Queen of Brobdingnag | ||
| 1996 | Primal Fear | Judge Miriam Shoat | ||
| 1996 | Follow Me Home | Evey | ||
| 1996 | A Step Toward Tomorrow | Dr. Sandlin | ||
| 1997 | Cadillac Desert | Narrator | ||
| 1997 | Miss Evers' Boys | Eunice Evers | ||
| 1997 | The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue | Maise the Cat | ||
| 1997 | The Member of the Wedding | Berenice Sadie Brown | ||
| 1998 | Down in the Delta | Loretta Sinclair | ||
| 1999 | Funny Valentines | Joyce May | ||
| 1999 | The Wishing Tree | Clara Collier | ||
| 1999 | Mumford | Lily | ||
| 2000 | What's Cooking? | Audrey Williams | ||
| 2000 | Holiday Heart | Wanda | ||
| 2000 | Love & Basketball | Camille Wright | ||
| 2000 | Innovators | Herself as Host | ||
| 2000 | Dinosaur | Plio | Voice role | |
| 2001 | K-PAX | Claudia Villars | ||
| 2002 | Searching for Debra Winger | Herself | ||
| 2002 | The Wild Thornberrys Movie | Akela | ||
| 2003 | The Singing Detective | Chief of Staff | ||
| 2003 | The Core | Talma Stickley | ||
| 2003 | Unchained Memories | a reader of a WPA slave narrative. | ||
| 2003 | Radio | Principal Daniels | ||
| 2003 | A Wrinkle in Time | Mrs. Whatsit | ||
| 2004 | The Forgotten | |||
| 2005 | Beauty Shop | Miss Josephine | ||
| 2006 | Something New | Joyce McQueen | ||
| 2006 | Take the Lead | Principal Augustine James | ||
| 2007 | Pictures of Hollis Woods | Edna Reilly | ||
| 2008 | American Violet | Alma Roberts | ||
| 2008 | The Family That Preys | Alice Pratt | ||
| 2008 | AmericanEast | Angela Jensen | ||
| 2009 | Reach for Me | Evelyn | ||
| Television | ||||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
| 1982–83 | Tucker's Witch | Marcia Fulbright | 12 episodes | |
| 1983 | Hill Street Blues | Doris Robson | 3 episodes | |
| 1985 | Sara | Rozalyn Dupree | 13 episodes | |
| 1985, 1988 | St. Elsewhere | Dr. Roxanne Turner | 13 episodes | |
| 1994 | Frasier | Edna | Episode: "The Botched Language of Cranes" | |
| 1998 | Homicide: Life on the Street | Dr. Roxanne Turner | Episode: "Mercy" | |
| 2003 | The Practice | Denise Freeman | Episodes: "Final Judgement" and "Down the Hatch" | |
| 2005–06 | Desperate Housewives | Betty Applewhite | 26 episodes, Season 2, series regular | |
| 2008 | My Own Worst Enemy | Mavis Heller | 9 episodes | |
| 2009–10 | Three Rivers | Dr. Sophia Jordan | 12 episodes | |
| 2010 | True Blood | Ruby Jean Reynolds | 3 episodes | |
| 2010 | Black Panther | Dondi Reese, Queen Mother | ||
| 2010–2011 | Memphis Beat | Lt. Tanya Rice | 20 episodes | |
| 2011 | Grey's Anatomy | Justine Campbell | Episode: "Heart Shaped Box" | |
[edit] References
- ^ Alfre Woodard Biography (1952–)
- ^ Alfre Woodard 2006 Interview on Sidewalks Entertainment
- ^ TV: 'True Blood' Returns This June
- ^ And the 2011 Emmy Award Nominees Are...
- ^ Announcing the 2011 Primetime Emmy Awards Nominees!
- ^ Paige Wiser (June 2, 2011). "7 summer TV shows that you’ll want to skip the beach for". Chicago Sun-Times. http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/5738839-417/7-summer-tv-shows-that-youll-want-to-skip-the-beach-for.html.
- ^ The religion of Alfre Woodard, actress
- ^ Iranians newspaper, Ashburn, Virginia, March 6, 2009.
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alfre Woodard |
- Alfre Woodard at the Internet Movie Database
- Alfre Woodard at the Internet Broadway Database
- Alfre Woodard at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Alfre Woodard at AllRovi
- Alfre Woodard at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
- 1952 births
- Living people
- Actors from Oklahoma
- African American film actors
- African American television actors
- American Christian Scientists
- American stage actors
- Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
- Emmy Award winners
- Independent Spirit Award winners
- Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- People from Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Boston University alumni
- California Democrats
