Jackée Harry

Jackée Harry
Harry, 1988
Born	Jacqueline Yvonne Harry
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1970–present
Spouse	Elgin Charles Williams (1996-2003)
Website	http://jackeeharryfans.synthasite.com/

Jackée Harry (born August 14, 1956) is an American actress. She is best known for role as Sandra Clark on the TV series 227.

Biography

Early life

Harry was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and raised in Harlem, New York, with her four siblings by her mother, Flossie Harry. Her father, Warren Harry, died when she was three, leaving her the youngest of five children. At the age of 14, Harry landed the lead role of the King of Siam in her school's production of The King and I. After graduating from New York City's High School of Music and Art, Harry attended the Long Island University C.W. Post Campus in Brooklyn, where she earned a B.A. in education. Harry began her career as a history teacher at Brooklyn Technical High School. After two years of teaching, she departed from her profession, claiming she did not have the knack for it. “They started whistling at me everyday. I was trying to teach them how to behave — it didn’t work,” she said of her experience.

Personal life

Harry has been divorced three times. Her first marriage lasted from 1980-1984. After her departure from 227, she married a bass player and woke up the next morning knowing she needed to file for divorce. On December 1, 1996, Harry married a third time to Elgin Charles Williams, her hair dresser at Joyce’s Exquisite Styles & Hair Care and ministry student at Crenshaw Christian Center in South Los Angeles. The wedding took place at the Beverly Hills Hotel in the gardens of the historic hotel and the reception in the Crystal Room, with over 550 guests. Bishop E. Lynn Brown officiated, and Cheryl Lynn and Ali-Ollie Woodson of the Temptations sang for the couple.

"It was time," she said of the marriage. "I knew him for two years even before we started dating. And we dated for a year and a half. I thought he had a girlfriend with all those women in there!" The couple adopted a son, Frank, at the age of one. They divorced in 2003.

Career

Television

She began studying acting at the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side in New York City and began a career on the New York stage. In 1973, she debuted with a small part in a play written by Richard Wesley. She then starred in A Broadway Musical as a chorus girl. In 1983, Harry made her television debut by acting opposite the then-relatively unknown Morgan Freeman in the daytime soap opera Another World. She carried this role from 1983 to 1986 as the prostitute Lily Mason alongside other African-Americans such as Petronia Paley and Michele Shay. In 2003, she was the surprise guest on the Another World Reunion that SOAPnet coordinated and aired. She appeared at former co-star and close friend Linda Dano’s request claiming Dano was the only one who calls her “Jack”.

In 1985, Harry found her signature role, starring as "Sandra Clark" on the NBC sitcom 227. Her mother, Flossie, celebrated her getting the part but died before the show aired.

When I got this audition I was doing a soap opera in New York called Another World; it’s now debunked. I played Lilly Mason; I was a lady of the night and I had been on there for two years. I was doing very well. I had a contract. And I got it and I read for the part of Rose. So they said ‘okay could you come back in and read for the part of Sandra?’. I went to the bathroom, changed into this red dress I had, red shoes, big ol’ gold earrings, and I put this lipstick on and I teased my hair. I came back in; I read for that part and they were rolling.

As the breakout star of the show, she became the first African American to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Her performance on 227 inspired NBC producers to create a television pilot for her entitled Jackée. The pilot episode failed with audiences and is now shown as an episode of 227. For her portrayal of Sandra on the series, Maxim magazine awarded her #5 placement on their "TV's Best Nympho" list.

After leaving the cast of 227 in 1989, Harry starred opposite Oprah Winfrey in the adaptation of Gloria Naylor's novel, The Women of Brewster Place. In 1991, Harry was apart of an all-star cast that included Redd Foxx and Della Reese when she played the role of "Ruth 'CoCo' Royal" in The Royal Family. From 1994 to 1999, Harry starred as the adoptive mother of Tia Mowry's character on the ABC/WB sitcom, Sister, Sister. "When I got the Sister, Sister offer to be the mother, I was like 'I don't want to be mama!' But, it turned out to be the best that could happen.” She won NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for two consecutive years in 1999 and 2000.

Harry summed up the show’s plot outline by explaining-

Ray is anal retentive. He is stuffy and I'm fun-loving. He doesn't like her either. Lisa and her daughter end up moving into Ray's house and she (Lisa) wants to brighten up his house. He has a big old house and she just has a tiny apartment. She wants to bring in a cat. He hates cats. She will bring in anything that he hates. He hates all animals. He is very strict and she is not. The real bond is that both of them believe in good parenting.

The series moved to the WB network and Harry's character, Lisa Landry, became the center for the show’s final episode.

Other attempts were made for Harry to star in her own production with pilots for The Cheech Show and Friday Night Surprise (1988) as Sheila, and We’ll Take Manhattan in 1990 as Yvonne. Harry has said, "I knew I would do something. I always had confidence but it was a big let down for me. There weren't even phone calls."

She just recently had a recurring role as Vanessa on the CW's Everybody Hates Chris.

Theatre

In 1994, Harry made her return to the theater by starring as Billie Holiday in the play Lady Day at Emersons Bar and Grill. Following that stage production, she fulfilled the role of "madam who runs a bordello" in the Broadway musical The Boys From Syracuse, a play based on William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors.

"You can't be boring and do musical comedy," she said of the play. "Everything feels alive here, and that's how I like it. I'm back in my element."

In 1992, she starred as the assistant coach in Ladybugs. Harry served as a guest panelist on the 2000 revival of To Tell the Truth. She also was a semi-regular on the Tom Bergeron version of Hollywood Squares, mainly in 2003-04. Harry appeared on the second season of VH1's Celebrity Fit Club 2 in 2005, where she lost 39 pounds over 100 days. Her achievement marked one of the top weight losses in the history of the show. She lost 19.3% of her body weight, dropping down to 163 pounds and keeping the weight off through exercise and a healthy diet.

In the mid-2000s, she appeared in small theater productions of The Sunshine Boys, Damn Yankees, and A Christmas Carol.

She is currently touring nationally in J.D. Lawrence's The Clean Up Woman.

Work

Theatrography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	JD Lawrence's The Clean Up Woman	Jasmine	Performer "Love Won't Let Me Love", "Bonus Track" narration on soundtrack
2008	The Sunshine Boys	Registered Nurse
2007	U Got Me Bent And Twisted	Mable	Director
2007	Damn Yankees	Sister	Performer "Heart (Reprise)"
2006	Man Of Her Dreams	Louise	"I'm as usual. I wanted to be the quiet, happily married one, but they wouldn't hear of it."
2005	Too Good To Let Go
2004	A Christmas Carol	Mrs. Fezziwig/Mrs. Dilbert	Performer “Angels We Have Heard On High
2004	Not A Day Goes By	Ava
2003	Urban Transitions: Loose Blossoms	Mother (Cheryl)
2002	The Boys from Syracuse	Madam Bordello	Performer “Sing For Your Supper”
2001	The Vagina Monologues
2000	For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf	Woman in Blue	Performer "Now I Love Somebody More Than", "Abortion Cycle #1", "I Used To Live In The World", "Sorry"
1994	Lady Day At Emerson‘s Bar & Grill	Billie Holliday	Performer "God Bless The Child", "T'Ain't Nobody's Biz-ness", and "Crazy He Calls Me"
1984	Diamonds	Lady #3	Performer “He Threw Out The Ball”, “Hundreds Of Hats”, “Vendors”, “Stay In Your Own Back Yard”
1984	A…My Name Is Alice		Understudy
1983	Adam	Rachel Watts
1982	Rinestone	Chicago Woman, Sara, Maid
1982	Colored People’s Time	Alberta/Corina	Blues Singer
1981	Child Of The Sun	Cassie
1980	One Mo Time	Ma Reed	Performer "Let Me Make Myself Plain", "Hindustan", "After You've Gone", "Muddy Water"
1979	The Good Ship Credit		Musical
1979	Second Thoughts
1979	I‘m Getting My Act Together And Taking It On The Road	Alice	Performer "Natural High", "Smile", "Miss America", "Strong Woman Package", "Put In A Package And Sold"
1978	A Broadway Musical	Melinda Bernard	Performer "A Broadway Musical", "Smoke And Fire" (Back-up), "The 1934 Hot Chocolate Jazz Babies Revue", "You Gotta Have Dancing"
1977	The Wiz
1975	Eubie!		Performer “My Handyman Ain’t Handy No More"
1973	Two Plays By Richard Wesley	Nurse	Performer "Going Through Changes"
1970	The King And I	King	Performer "A Puzzlement", "Finale, Act I", "Song Of The King", "Shall We Dance?"

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	GED	Mama	Release Date of Feb. 9th, 2009
2009	The Man of Her Dreams	Louise	Recorded Live, Released Direct-to-Video
2004	You Got Served	Mama
1993	Living and Working in Space: The Countdown Has Begun	Charmayne	Released Direct-to-Video
1992	Ladybugs	Julie Benson

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006-2009	Everybody Hates Chris	Vanessa	Recurring Role
2007	The Last Day of Summer	Lola The Lobster	Nickelodeon TV-Movie
2006	All You've Got	Butt Short Salesman	MTV TV-Movie
2005	One on One	Sherri St. Croix	Episode: Waiting for Huffman
	That's So Raven	Dava	Episode: Goin' Hollywood
2003	7th Heaven	Ms. Beane	Episode: It's Not Always About You
2000	Twice in a Lifetime	Darcy Green	Episode: Used Hearts
1994-1999	Sister, Sister	Lisa Landry	Image Award (won-2)
1996	Unhappily Ever After	Ms. Blake	Episode: Girls Who Wear Glasses
1995	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	Bo Peep	Voice Role
1994	Dave's World	Estelle	Episode: Saved by Estelle
1991-1992	The Royal Family	Ruth 'CoCo' Royal
1992	Designing Women	Vanessa Chamberlain	Episode: Shades of Vanessa
1990	We'll Take Manhattan	Yvonne
1988, 1989	Amen	Roxanne Farley Roxanne Farley Florence Hawkins	Episode: A Slight Case of Murder (1) Episode: A Slight Case of Murder (2) Episode: Don't Rain on My Shower
1985-1989	227	Sandra Clark	Primetime Emmy Award (won-1) (nominated-1) Golden Globe Award (nominated)
1989	Double Your Pleasure		NBC TV-Movie
	Jackée	Sandra Clark
	The Women of Brewster Place	Etta Mae	ABC Miniseries
1988	Crash Course	Edna Savage	NBC TV-Movie
1987	Alf Loves a Mystery	Countess
	The Incredible Ida Early	Ida Early	TV-movie
1983-1986	Another World	Lily Mason	NBC Soap opera

External links

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