Butterfly McQueen
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| Butterfly McQueen | |
|---|---|
 in Affectionately Yours (1941) |
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| Born | Thelma McQueen January 7, 1911 Tampa, Florida, U.S. |
| Died | December 22, 1995 (aged 84) Augusta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1939–1989 |
Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen (January 7, 1911 – December 22, 1995) was an American actress. Originally a dancer, the 28-year-old McQueen first appeared as Prissy, Scarlett O'Hara's maid in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, then continued as an actress in film in the 1940s, then moving to television acting in the 1950s .
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[edit] Early life
Born Thelma McQueen in Tampa, Florida, she had planned to become a nurse until a high school teacher suggested that she try acting. McQueen initially studied with Janet Collins and went on to dance with the Venezuela Jones Negro Youth Group. Around this time she acquired the nickname "Butterfly"—a tribute to her constantly moving hands—for her performance of the Butterfly Ballet in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (she had always hated her birth name, and later legally changed her name to Butterfly McQueen). She performed with the dance troupe of Katherine Dunham before making her professional debut in George Abbott's Brown Sugar.[1]
[edit] Career
McQueen's first role would become her most identifiable —as Prissy, the young maid in Gone with the Wind, uttering the famous words: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!" Her distinctive, high-pitched voice also took people by surprise. She also played an uncredited bit part as a sales assistant in The Women, filmed after Gone with the Wind but released before it. She also played Butterfly, Rochester's niece and Mary Livingstone's maid in the Jack Benny radio program, for a time during World War II. She appeared in an uncredited role in Mildred Pierce (1945) and played a supporting role in Duel in the Sun (1946). By 1947 she had grown tired of the ethnic stereotypes she was required to play and ended her film career.
From 1950 until 1952 she played Oriole, another racially stereotyped role, on the television series Beulah. In a lighter moment, she appeared in a 1969 episode of The Dating Game.
Offers for acting roles began to dry up around this time, and she devoted herself to other pursuits including political study; she received a Bachelor's degree in political science from City College of New York in 1975.[2] In 1979 McQueen won a Daytime Emmy Award for her performance as Aunt Thelma, a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special episode "The Seven Wishes of Joanna Peabody."[3] She had one more role of substance in the 1986 film The Mosquito Coast.
[edit] Legacy and death
McQueen never married or had children. She lived in New York in the summer months, and in Augusta, Georgia during the winter.[4] She died on December 22, 1995 at Augusta Regional Medical Center in Augusta, from burns sustained when a kerosene heater she attempted to light malfunctioned and burst into flames.[5] A lifelong atheist,[6] she donated her body to medical science[2] and remembered the Freedom From Religion Foundation in her will.
[edit] Quotes
- "As my ancestors are free from slavery, I am free from the slavery of religion."[7] This quote was used by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in advertisements inside Madison, Wisconsin buses in 2009,[8] and in the Atlanta market in 2010.[9] It is also featured on bookmarks in the FFRF shop.
[edit] Filmography
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1939 | The Women | Lulu - Cosmetics Counter Maid | Uncredited |
| Gone with the Wind | Prissy | ||
| 1941 | Affectionately Yours | Butterfly | |
| 1943 | Cabin in the Sky | Lily | |
| I Dood It | Annette | Alternative title: By Hook or by Crook | |
| 1945 | Flame of Barbary Coast | Beulah, Flaxen's Maid | Alternative title: Flame of the Barbary Coast |
| Mildred Pierce | Lottie - Mildred's Maid | Uncredited | |
| 1946 | Duel in the Sun | Vashti | Alternative title: King Vidor's Duel in the Sun |
| 1948 | Killer Diller | Butterfly | |
| 1970 | The Phynx | Herself | |
| 1974 | Amazing Grace | Clarine | |
| 1986 | The Mosquito Coast | Ma Kennywick | |
| Television | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1950 | Studio One | 1 episode | |
| 1950–1953 | Beulah | Oriole | Unknown episodes |
| 1951 | Lux Video Theatre | Mary | 1 episode |
| 1957 | Hallmark Hall of Fame | 1 episode | |
| 1978 | ABC Weekend Special | Aunt Thelma | 1 episode |
| 1979 | ABC Afterschool Special | Aunt Thelma | 1 episode |
| 1981 | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Television movie | |
| 1985 | Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Blind Negress | Television movie |
| 1988 | The Making of a Legend: Gone With The Wind | Herself (Interview) | Television Documentary |
| 1989 | Polly | Miss Priss | Television movie |
[edit] References
- ^ JM Appel234. Butterfly McQueen. St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Jan. 1 2000.
- ^ a b "Butterfly McQueen, 84, 'Gone With the Wind' Actress, Dies From Burns". Jet (Johnson Publishing Company) 89 (9): 60. 1996-01-15. ISSN 0021-5996.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365740/
- ^ Edward T. James,; Sicherman, Barbara; Wilson James, Janet ; Boyer, Paul S.; Ware, Susan (2004). Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary. Harvard University Press. pp. 438. ISBN 0-674-01488-X.
- ^ Alvarez, Lizette (1995-12-23). "Butterfly McQueen Dies at 84; Played Scarlett O'Hara's Maid". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E4DD1539F930A15751C1A963958260. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
- ^ Suman, Michael (1997). Religion and Prime Time Television. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 22. ISBN 0-275-96034-X.
- ^ Freedom From Religion Foundation
- ^ "Atheists, church face off in Madison bus advertising". jsonline.com. 2009-03-11. http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/41131567.html#.
- ^ "Billboards shun religion, promote separation of church and state". ajc.com. 2010-09-10. http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/billboards-shun-religion-promote-608792.html.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Butterfly McQueen |
- Butterfly McQueen at the Internet Broadway Database
- Butterfly McQueen at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Butterfly McQueen at the Internet Movie Database
- "Butterfly McQueen". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5816373. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
- Butterfly McQueen
- Accidental deaths in Georgia (U.S. state)
- Deaths from fire
- Actors from Florida
- African American actors
- American atheists
- American film actors
- American radio actors
- American stage actors
- American television actors
- City College of New York alumni
- Daytime Emmy Award winners
- People from Tampa, Florida
- 1911 births
- 1995 deaths
- American humanists
