Mary Alice

For other uses, see Mary Alice (disambiguation).

Mary Alice
Alice at the 45th Emmy Awards Governor's Ball, 1993.
Born	Mary Alice Smith (1941-12-03) December 3, 1941 Indianola, Mississippi, US
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1970–present

Mary Alice (born Mary Alice Smith; December 3, 1941) is an American actress.

Life and career

Alice was born Mary Alice Smith in Indianola, Mississippi, the daughter of Ozelar (née Jurnakin) and Sam Smith. She had a yen to act and began her career on stage in her hometown.

Alice has appeared in over 50 television shows and feature films during her career. She made her screen debut in 1974 film The Education of Sonny Carson, and later guest-starred in Police Woman and Sanford and Son. She played Ellie Grant Hubbard on soap opera All My Children in the early 1980s, and co-starred in A Different World as Leticia 'Lettie' Bostic from 1988 to 1989.

In 1987 she received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her work in Fences. She also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1993 for I'll Fly Away (1991–1993). Alice's other film credits include Malcolm X (1992), The Inkwell (1994) and Down in the Delta with Alfre Woodard.

In 2000, Alice was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Alice replaced Gloria Foster in the film The Matrix Revolutions and video game Enter The Matrix as the Oracle, after Foster died in 2001.

Filmography

• The Education of Sonny Carson (1974)
• The Sty of the Blind Pig (1974)
• Sanford and Son (1974–1975)
• Good Times (1975)
• Just an Old Sweet Song (1976)
• Sparkle (1976) as Effie
• Lawman Without a Gun (1979)
• All My Children (1980)
• The Color of Friendship (1981)
• The Brass Ring (1983)
• Beat Street (1984) as Cora Kirkland
• Concealed Enemies (1984)
• Teachers (1984)
• Charlotte Forten's Mission: Experiment in Freedom (1985)
• A Different World (1987) as Leticia "Lettie" Bostic (Episodes 13–21, 23–44)
• The Women of Brewster Place (1989) as Fannie Michael
• Awakenings (1990)
• The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) as Suzie
• To Sleep with Anger (1990)
• I'll Fly Away (1991) as Marguerite Peck
• Malcolm X (1992)
• A Perfect World (1993)
• Laurel Avenue (1993) as Maggie Arnett
• Life with Mikey (1993) as Mrs. Gordon
• Law & Order (1993) as Virginia Bryan (episode "Mother Love")
• The Mother (1994)
• The Inkwell (1994) as Evelyn
• The Vernon Johns Story (1994)
• Heading Home (1995)
• Ray Alexander: A Menu for Murder (1995)
• Bed of Roses (1996)
• Down in the Delta (1998) as Rosa Lynn Sinclair
• Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (1999) as Dolores Williams
• The Wishing Tree (1999)
• The Photographer (2000) as Violet
• The Last Brickmaker in America (2001)
• Sunshine State (2002) as Mrs. Eunice Stokes
• The Life (2002)
• Enter the Matrix (2003)
• The Matrix Revolutions (2003) as The Oracle
• What I Want My Words to Do to You: Voices From Inside a Women's Maximum Security Prison (2003)
• The Burly Man Chronicles (2004)
• The Matrix Recalibrated (2004)
• The Matrix Online (2005)

Awards

Tony Awards

• 1987 Best Featured Actress in a Play - Fences

Nominations

• 1995 Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play - Having Our Say

Emmy Awards

• 1993 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series - I'll Fly Away

Nominations

• 1993 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series - I'll Fly Away

Drama Desk Award

• 1987 - Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play - Fences

Nominations

• 1995 Outstanding Actress in a Play - Having Our Say

Independent Spirit Award Nomination

• 1991 - Best Female Lead - To Sleep with Anger

Black Reel Award Nomination

• 2004 - Best Supporting Actress - The Matrix Revolutions

CableACE Award

• 1994 - Best Actress in a Movie or Miniseries - Laurel Avenue

External links

• Mary Alice at AllMovie
• Mary Alice at the Internet Broadway Database
• Mary Alice at IMDb
• TonyAwards.com Interview with Mary Alice