Sunday, January 26, 2014

Juanita Moore, "Imitation of Life" Star

Juanita Moore, Oscar-Nominated Actress, Dies at 99

By PAUL VITELLOJAN. 3, 2014

Ms. Moore in "Imitation of Life" with, from left, Karin Dicker, Terry Burnham and Lana Turner. Universal-International Pictures

Juanita Moore, who earned an Academy Award nomination in 1960 for the single major film role she ever landed, then fell through the cracks of a Hollywood system that had little to offer a black actress besides small parts as maids and nannies, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. She was 99.

Her death was confirmed by her grandson, Kirk Kelleykahn, an actor and dancer.

Ms. Moore received a best supporting actress nomination for her role in the 1959 film “Imitation of Life,” in which she played opposite Lana Turner in a story about two single mothers, one black and one white. It was only the fifth time an African-American performer had been nominated for an Oscar.

The two women begin ostensibly as social equals living under the same roof, but their lives diverge along racial and class lines. Ms. Turner’s character becomes a famous actress; Annie Johnson, played by Ms. Moore, becomes her housemaid.

The last movie that the filmmaker Douglas Sirk directed in Hollywood, “Imitation of Life” was widely dismissed at the time as campy melodrama. Its treatment of the intense suffering caused by racial bias, including a subplot in which Annie’s light-skinned daughter renounces her mother to live as a white person, was seen as unbelievable. (“If by accident we should pass in the street,” the daughter, played by Susan Kohner, tells her, “please don’t recognize me.” Ms. Kohner was also nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar.)

But the film has since been re-evaluated and given high marks by many film historians and critics for the subtlety of its social criticism and psychological insight.

Ms. Moore’s performance, in particular, has earned her generations of new fans, said Foster Hirsch, a professor of film at Brooklyn College who has organized several academic conferences on “Imitation of Life.”

“She delivers an astounding performance,” Mr. Hirsch said. “She does a death scene that still reduces audiences to tears — I have seen it many times.”

But after she was nominated for an Oscar, Ms. Moore told The Los Angeles Times in 1967, the work seemed to dry up. “The Oscar prestige was fine, but I worked more before I was nominated,” she said. “Casting directors think an Oscar nominee is suddenly in another category. They couldn’t possibly ask you to do one or two days’ work.”

It would be a decade more before black actresses like Ms. Moore would be considered for major roles, Mr. Hirsch noted.

Ms. Moore was born in Greenwood, Miss., on Oct. 19, 1914, and raised in South Central Los Angeles, the youngest of Harrison and Ella Moore’s eight children. After graduating from high school and spending a few months at Los Angeles City College, she decamped for New York in search of a stage career.

She became a dancer. Throughout the 1930s and ’40s she performed in the elaborate stage shows of nightclubs in Harlem, including the Cotton Club, and in Paris and London, before returning to Los Angeles. She studied acting at the Actors’ Laboratory and began getting small, uncredited parts in films, like that of a maid or an African tribeswoman. She was already in her mid-30s by the time she made her film debut, in Elia Kazan’s “Pinky” (1949), also a film about race. (Throughout her career she hid her true age, saying she had been born in 1922.)

After “Imitation of Life,” she appeared in television dramas and in films including “Walk on the Wild Side” and “The Singing Nun.” She appeared on Broadway in James Baldwin’s play “The Amen Corner” in 1965 and in a London production of “A Raisin in the Sun.” And she was active on the Los Angeles stage, performing with the Ebony Showcase Theater and the Cambridge Players.

Mr. Kelleykahn, her grandson, is her only immediate survivor. Ms. Moore’s first husband, the dancer Nyas Berry, died in 1951. Her second husband, Charles Burris, a Los Angeles bus driver, died in 2001.

Sam Staggs, author of the 2009 book “Born to Be Hurt: The Untold Story of ‘Imitation of Life,’ ” said in a telephone interview on Friday that Ms. Moore’s performance was the major reason for the film’s box-office success (it was one of the most successful movies made up until then by Universal Studios).

People came in droves to watch in the dark and weep, Mr. Staggs said: “There are many, many people alive today who remember crying at her performance, but who could not tell you her name.”

***

Juanita Moore (October 19, 1914 – January 1, 2014) was an American film, television, and stage actress. She was the fifth African American to be nominated for an Academy Award in any category, and the third in the Supporting Actress category at a time when only a single African American had won an Oscar. Her most famous role was as Annie Johnson in the movieImitation of Life (1959).^[1]

[hide]

Career[edit]

Moore as Annie Johnson in Imitation of Life (1959).

Born in Los Angeles in 1914, Moore was a chorus girl at the Cotton Club before becoming a film extra while working in theater. After making her film debut inPinky (1949),^[1] she had a number of bit parts and supporting roles in motion pictures through the 1950s and 1960s. However, her role in Imitation of Life(1959), a remake, as housekeeper Annie Johnson, whose daughter Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner) passes for white, won her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for the role.^[2] When the two versions of Imitation of Life were released together on DVD, the earlier film was released in 1934, one of the bonus features was a new interview with Juanita Moore.

Moore continued to perform in front of the camera, with a role in the movieDisney's The Kid (2000) and guest-starring roles on television shows Dragnet,Marcus Welby, M.D., ER and Judging Amy.

On April 23, 2010, a new print of Imitation of Life (1959) was screened at the TCM Film Festival in Los Angeles, to which Moore and co-star Kohner were invited. After the screening, the two women appeared on stage for a question-and-answer session hosted by TCM's Robert Osborne. Moore and Kohner received standing ovations.^[3]

Personal life and death[edit]

Moore was married for 50 years to Charles Burris; he died in 2001. He was a Los Angeles bus driver and, although she was a frequent passenger, she had stepped out in front of his approaching bus to cross the street to a local bar, hoping to find someone to study for the Inès Serrano role in the play No Exit—Serrano was a lesbian, and Moore was unfamiliar with the lifestyle. She and Burris married a few weeks later.^[4]

Her grandson is actor/producer Kirk Kelley-Kahn, who is CEO/President of "Cambridge Players - Next Generation", a theatre troupe whose founding members included Moore, Esther Rolle, Helen Martin, Lynn Hamilton and Royce Wallace.^[5]

Moore died at her home in Los Angeles on January 1, 2014, from natural causes. She was 99 years old.^[1]^[6]

*****

Juanita Moore

Overview (2)

Date of Birth	19 October 1914 , Los Angeles, California, USA
Date of Death	1 January 2014 , Los Angeles, California, USA

Mini Bio (1)

African American actress Juanita Moore entered films in the early 1950s, a time in which few black people were given an opportunity to act in major studio films. Fortunately Moore's roles began improving as Hollywood developed a social consciousness toward the end of the decade. In 1959 she received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Imitation of Life (1959), a glossy updating of a once controversial Fannie Hurst novel about racism. Within the next decade Hollywood underwent several sociological upheavals, and Juanita was one of the beneficiaries. She became a fixture in black-oriented films of the 1960s and 1970s, appearing in such films as Uptight (1968),Thomasine & Bushrod (1974) and Abby (1974). She also appeared in Walt Disney Pictures' The Kid (2000), and has been in a total of more than 30 films. Moore is semi retired.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: A. Nonymous

Spouse (2)

Charles Thomas Burris	(8 October 1953 - 27 April 2001) (his death)
Nyas Berry	(1943 - 6 October 1951) (his death)

Trivia (3)

Grandmother of Kirk Kelleykahn.

Former chorus girl at Harlem's famed Cotton Club.

She collapsed and died at her home in Los Angeles on January 1, 2014, from natural causes. She was 99 years old.

*****

Born in Los Angeles in 1914, Moore was a chorus girl at the Cotton Club before becoming a film extra while working in theater. After making her film debut in Pinky (1949), she had a number of bit parts and supporting roles in motion pictures through the 1950s and 1960s. However, her role in Imitation of Life (1959), a remake, as housekeeper Annie Johnson, whose daughter Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner) passes for white, won her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for the role. When the two versions of Imitation of Life were released together on DVD, the earlier film was released in 1934, one of the bonus features was a new interview with Juanita Moore.

Moore continued to perform in front of the camera, with a role in the movie Disney's The Kid (2000) and guest-starring roles on television shows Dragnet, Marcus Welby, M.D., ER and Judging Amy.

Moore was married for 50 years to Charles Burris. He died in 2001. He was a Los Angeles bus driver and, although she was a frequent passenger, she had stepped out in front of his approaching bus to cross the street to a local bar, hoping to find someone to study for the Inès Serrano role in the play No Exit -- Serrano was a lesbian, and Moore was unfamiliar with the lifestyle. She and Burris married a few weeks later.

Moore died at her home in Los Angeles on January 1, 2014, from natural causes. She was 99 years old.

Moore continued to perform in front of the camera, with a role in the movie Disney's The Kid (2000) and guest-starring roles on television shows Dragnet, Marcus Welby, M.D., ER and Judging Amy.

Moore died at her home in Los Angeles on January 1, 2014, from natural causes. She was 99 years old.

Sheila Guyse, Singer and Actress

Sheila Guyse, Singer and Star in ‘Race Movies,’ Dies at 88

By WILLIAM YARDLEYJAN. 15, 2014

Sheila Guyse, center, performing in "Lost in the Stars." George Karger/Pix Incorporated

Sheila Guyse, a popular actress and singer who appeared on Broadway and in so-called race movies in the 1940s and ’50s, and who for a time, despite limited opportunities in the entertainment industry, appeared headed for broader fame, died on Dec. 28 in Honolulu. She was 88.

The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter Sheila Crystal Devin said.

For several years, Ms. Guyse (rhymes with “nice”) was compared to stars like Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne and Ruby Dee, black actresses who broke through racial barriers. But by the late 1950s she was out of show business, a result of some combination of health problems, a religious conversion and family obligations.

She left behind a handful of films. The best is probably “Sepia Cinderella” (1947), in which she played a girl-next-door who is initially overlooked by the musician she loves, played by the singer Billy Daniels. She also appeared in Broadway musicals and in nightclubs. Her only album, “This Is Sheila,” a collection of standards released by MGM Records in 1958, a decade after her heyday, was supposed to be a comeback. That November, Jet magazine put her on its cover.

“Sheila Guyse, a glamorous, high-octane performer under supper club spotlights,” the article said, “is a singer who has had to overcome serious illness, marriage failures, financial pressures and professional disappointments in her long campaign to create a career in show business.”

The article quoted Ms. Guyse as saying, “I was discouraged and depressed for a while, but now life looks a lot better to me,” and mentioned a five-year recording contract. But the comeback never happened.

Ms. Guyse, who had surgery for bleeding ulcers in the mid-1950s, continued to have health problems. Ms. Devin, her daughter, recalled once finding her collapsed in her bedroom, bleeding from the mouth.

In addition, Ms. Guyse’s husband did not want her to have a career, Ms. Devin said.

Ms. Guyse’s first two marriages had ended in divorce, and she was a struggling single mother when she met Joseph Jackson, a New York sanitation worker so enthralled by her that he would sometimes follow her in his garbage truck. After they married, in the late 1950s, Ms. Guyse stopped performing and became increasingly involved with a Jehovah’s Witness hall in Queens.

“It wasn’t easy to be a glamorous movie star with people following you for your autograph and now you’re home making pancakes,” Ms. Devin said. “She did it, but I don’t think it was easy.”

Etta Drucille Guyse was born on July 14, 1925, in Forest, Miss. She took Sheila as a stage name. She followed her father, Wilbert, to New York when she was a teenager and, her daughter said, lived for a time in a Harlem rooming house with Billie Holiday.

After winning an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater, Ms. Guyse had a small role on Broadway in the musical “Memphis Bound!” and appeared in a series of all-black films, beginning with a small role in “Boy! What a Girl!” (1947), which starred the vaudeville performer Tim Moore. She moved on to starring roles in “Sepia Cinderella” and “Miracle in Harlem” (1948), in which she played a woman wrongly accused of murder.

She also appeared in the Broadway musicals “Finian’s Rainbow” (1947) and “Lost in the Stars” (1949).

In addition to Ms. Devin, who has worked as a model and actress under the name Sheila Anderson, Ms. Guyse is survived by another daughter, Deidre Devin, from her marriage to Mr. Jackson; two grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. A son, Michael Jackson, died a few years ago. Joseph Jackson died in 2012.

Ms. Guyse moved back to Mississippi in the 1980s and to Hawaii about five years ago.

Her first marriage, to Ms. Devin’s father, a tailor named Shelby Irving Miller, was very brief. Her second, to Kenneth Davis, whom she had met while both performed in “Finian’s Rainbow,” lasted eight years. Mr. Davis, who was white, became a dancer with American Ballet Theater. In 1952, a photograph of the couple appeared on a cover of Jet with the headline “Negro Women With White Husbands.”

“I don’t go about looking for difficulties,” Ms. Guyse said in the article. “It took me a long time to decide to marry Ken, but I’m glad I did. We’ve been very happy. Intelligence and understanding are needed to make a marriage like ours succeed. It takes more than love. You have to have a mind of your own and be able to ignore what the world is saying and thinking about you.”

***

Etta Drucille Guyse, known as Sheila Guyse, (July 14, 1925 – December 28, 2013) was a popular African-American singer, actress, and recording artist, performing on stage and screen during the 1940s and 1950s.

Guyse was often compared to Dandridge and it has been said that some critics thought Guyse was a better actress than the more well-known Dandridge. It may be argued that if Sheila had been allowed the opportunity to make an impact in the Hollywood cinema, she would have been stiff competition for the more established actress.

Guyse had a sultry "girl-next-door" appeal which she showcased in three independent all-Black films (so-called "race films") of the late 1940s: Boy! What a Girl! Boy! (1947), Sepia Cinderella (1947, co-starring with Billy Daniels), and Miracle In Harlem (1948) giving impressive performances in all of them. She also appeared in the "Harlem Follies of 1949" and in a 1957 television adaptation of the play The Green Pastures.

Guyse was not an experienced or trained actress but she was a natural talent. She appeared in many Broadway stage productions such as Lost in the Stars and Finian's Rainbow which were both long-running. She contributed to cast recordings for these productions, and her singing voice was said to be as beautiful as she was; divine, sweet, easy on the ears whether singing jazz, pop, or gospel.

She died of Alzheimer's disease on December 28, 2013 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

****

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

William Henry Johnson, Artist

William Henry Johnson (March 18, 1901–1970) was an African-American painter born in Florence, South Carolina. He became a student at the National Academy of Design in New York. His style evolved from realism to expressionism to a powerful folk style (for which he is best known).

Johnson moved from Florence, South Carolina, to New York City at the age of 17. Working a variety of jobs, he saved enough money to pay for classes at the prestigious National Academy of Design. He worked with the painter Charles Hawthorne, who raised funds that allowed Johnson to go abroad to study. He spent the late 1920s in France, where he learned about modernism. During this time, he met the Danish textile artist Holcha Krake in Cagnes-sur-Mer and they married in 1930. Johnson and his wife spent most of the 1930s in Scandinavia, where his interest in folk art influenced his painting. They returned to the United States in 1938, where Johnson immersed himself in African-American culture and traditions, producing paintings that were characterized by their folk art simplicity.

Johnson enjoyed a degree of success as an artist during the 1940s and 1950s, but he was never able to achieve financial stability. In 1944 his wife Holcha died from breast cancer. To deal with his grief, he took work in a Navy Yard, and in 1946 left for Denmark to be with his wife's family. Johnson soon fell ill himself, from the effects of advanced syphilis, and returned to New York in 1947 to enter the Central Islip State Hospital on Long Island, where he spent the last twenty-three years of his life. He stopped painting in 1956 and died on January 1, 1970.

After his death, his entire life's work was almost disposed of to save storage fees, but it was rescued by friends at the last moment. The Harmon Foundation gave more than 1,000 paintings, watercolors, and prints by Johnson to the Smithsonian American Art Museum (then the National Museum of American Art) in 1967. In 1991, the Smithsonian American Art Museum organized and circulated a major exhibition of his artwork, Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson, and in 2006, they organized and circulated William H. Johnson's World on Paper. An expanded version of this exhibition traveled to the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas (February 3 - April 8, 2007),the Philadelphia Museum of Art (May 20 - August 12, 2007), and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery, Alabama (September 15 - November 18, 2007).

In 2012, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp in Johnson's honor, recognizing him as one of the nation’s foremost African-American artists and a major figure in 20th-century American art. The stamp, the 11th in the American Treasures series, showcases his painting Flowers (1939-1940), which depicts brightly colored blooms on a small red table.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

James Avery, "Fresh Prince" Actor

James Avery, ‘Fresh Prince’ Actor, Dies at 68

By PETER KEEPNEWSJAN. 1, 2014

From left, James Avery, Will Smith and Janet Hubert in the popular 1990s NBC sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” Ron Tom/NBC, via Associated Press

Advertising

James Avery, who played Will Smith’s pompous but well-meaning uncle on the popular 1990s sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” died on Tuesday in Glendale, Calif. He was 68.

The cause was complications of heart surgery, said his mother, Florence J. Avery.

Mr. Avery played Philip Banks, a wealthy lawyer (later a judge) who becomes a surrogate fatherto his street-smart nephew, played by Mr. Smith, on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” seen on NBC from 1990 to 1996.

Reviewing the show in The New York Times early in its first season, John J. O’Connor said Mr. Smith — at the time a popular rapper just beginning his acting career — was “frequently overshadowed by the rest of the cast, particularly James Avery as the father and Karyn Parsons as the older daughter, Hilary.”

A classically trained actor with an imposing physical presence and a resonant voice, Mr. Avery was born on Nov. 27, 1945, in Pughsville, Va., near what is now Suffolk, and grew up in Atlantic City. In the late 1960s, he served in the Navy.

In addition to “The Fresh Prince,” his numerous television credits include “L.A. Law,” “The Closer” and “That ’70s Show.” Among the movies in which he appeared were “Fletch” and “8 Million Ways to Die.”

He was a busy voice artist in animated films and television shows as well. He was the voice of Shredder, the title characters’ nemesis, on the 1987-96 cartoon series “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

In addition to his mother, Mr. Avery’s survivors include his wife, Barbara.

*****

James LaRue Avery (November 27, 1945 – December 31, 2013) was an American actor, best known for his portrayal of the patriarch and attorney (later judge) Philip Banks, Will Smith's character's uncle, in the TV sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This character was ranked #34 in TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time." He also provided the voice of Shredder in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television series, as well as War Machine in the animated series Iron Man and Junkyard Dog in Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling. He also played Michael Kelso's commanding officer at the police academy late in the series run of That '70s Show.

[hide]

Life and career[edit]

Avery was born in 1945^[1] in Pughsville, Hampton Roads, Virginia^[2] and raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey.^[3] He served in the Vietnam War as a member of the U.S. Navy from 1968–1969, after graduating high school. Later on, he moved to San Diego, California where he began to write poetry and TV scripts.^[4]

Personal life[edit]

He married Barbara in 1988.^[5] He had no biological children of his own, but was a stepfather to his wife's son, Kevin Waters. As well as his wife and stepson, he is survived by his mother Florence Avery.^[6]

Death[edit]

On December 31, 2013, Avery died at the age of 68 from complications following open heart surgery in a Los Angeles suburb hospital, Glendale Adventist Medical Center.^[4]^[7]^[8]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	The Blues Brothers	Man Dancing	Uncredited role
1980	The Stunt Man		Uncredited role
1985	Fletch	Detective #2
1985	Appointment With Fear	Connors
1986	Fist of the North Star	Fang	Voice Role
1986	The Eleventh Commandment	Larry
1986	8 Million Ways to Die	Deputy D.A.
1986	The Ladies Club	Joe
1986	Stoogemania	Gulch
1986	Extremities	Security Guard
1987	Deadly Daphne's Revenge	Det. Wood
1987	Three for the Road	Clarence
1987	Nightflyers	Darryl
1988	License to Drive	Les' DMV Examiner
1991	The Linguini Incident	Phil
1991	Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time	Lt. Coberly
1991	Shout	Midnight Rider	Voice Role
1993	Little Miss Millions	Agent Noah Hollander
1995	The Brady Bunch Movie	Mr. Steve Yeager
1997	Spirit Lost	Dr. Glidden
1998	12 Bucks	Slow
1998	The Prince of Egypt	Additional Voices	Voice Role
1998	You Lucky Dog	Calvin Bridges
1999	After Romeo
1999	Out in Fifty	Cappy
2000	Dancing in September	Mr. Warner
2001	Chasing Sunsets	Mr. Burken
2001	Honeybee	Larry Dukes
2001	Dr. Dolittle 2	Eldon
2002	Wheelmen	Vice President
2004	Raise Your Voice	Mr. Gantry
2004	Hair Show	Seymour Gold
2005	Lethal Eviction	Gus
2005	The Third Wish	George
2005	A Christmas Wish	Saint	Short film
2006	Restraining Order	Judge Sanderson
2006	Think Tank	Uncle John
2006	Danika	Teddy Johnson
2007	Who's Your Caddy?	Caddy Mack
2007	Divine Intervention	Rev. Matthews
2008	His Good Will	Mr. Cooper	Short film
2008	Leave with It	Dr. Leon	Short film
2009	Let the Game Begin	Mark Hanley
2009	Steppin: The Movie	The Chancellor
2010	Stride	George
2010	The Grind	Modelo Snipes
2012	Valediction	Edward	Short Film
2014	Wish I Was Here

Television[edit]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Antony and Cleopatra	Mardian	TV movie
1983	Tales of the Gold Monkey	Gabriel	Episode: "God Save the Queen"
1983	Newhart	Construction Guy	Episode: "Heaven Knows Mr. Utley"
1983	The Jeffersons	Coleman	Episode: "Father Christmas"
1983, 1984	Simon & Simon	Huey, Roy	2 episodes
1984	Hill Street Blues	Tolliver	3 episodes
1984	Legmen	No Neck	Episode: "I Shall Be Re-Released"
1984	Hardcastle and McCormick		Episode: "Scared Stiff"
1984	Going Bananas	Hank
1984	Webster	Judge	Episode: "Webster Long (2)"
1984	Fist of the North Star	Fang (voice)
1984	The Dukes of Hazzard	Charlie	Episode: "Cool Hands, Luke & Bo"
1984, 1985	Brothers	Bubba Dean	2 episodes
1985	Street Hawk	Councilman Waters	Pilot
1985	St. Elsewhere	Mental Patient	Episode: "Give the Boy a Hand"
1985	Cagney & Lacey		Episode: "Who Says It's Fair" (1)
1985	Kicks	Stanley	TV movie
1985	Space	Jean-Marie	CBS miniseries
1985	Scarecrow and Mrs. King	Nabuti	Episode: "Murder Between Friends"
1985	Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling	Junkyard Dog (voice)
1985	George Burns Comedy Week		Episode: "The Assignment"
1985	The A-Team		Episode: "The Heart of Rock n' Roll"
1985	Moonlighting	Reuben King	Episode: "Twas the Episode Before Christmas"
1986	Karate Kommandos	Additional voices
1986	Amazing Stories	Chief Hansen	Episode: "Hell Toupee"
1986	Rambo and the Forces of Freedom	Turbo (voice)
1986	Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Movie	Hank Dudney	TV movie
1986	Condor	Cas	TV movie
1986	Sunday Drive	Oliver	TV movie
1986−1989	The Real Ghostbusters	Killerwatt / Judge / Additional voices	3 episodes
1986−1988, 1989	Amen	Arnie Samples / Rev. Crawford	5 episodes
1987	Jake's M.O.	Abel Barnes	Unsold pilot/TV movie
1987	Timestalkers	Blacksmith	TV movie
1987	Jake and the Fatman		Episode: Fatal Attraction
1987, 1989	Valerie	Judge N. Keller / Mr. Erdman	2 episodes
1987−1993	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Shredder (voice)	103 episodes
1988	Dallas	Judge Fowler	Episode: "Malice in Dallas"
1988	Beauty and the Beast	Winslow
1988	227	Jo-Jo	Episode: "My Aching Back"
1988	Heart and Soul	Harlan Sinclair	Pilot
1988−1992	L.A. Law	Judge Michael Conover	9 episodes
1989	Full Exposure: The Sex Tapes Scandal	Earl	TV movie
1989	Roe vs. Wade		TV movie
1989	FM	Quentin Lamoreaux
1989	A Different World	The Pin Punisher	Episode: "To Have and Have Not"
1989	Turn Back the Clock	Physical Therapist	TV movie
1990	Night Court	Judge Hopkins	Episode: "Wedding Bell Blues" (1)
1990	Capital News		Pilot
1990	To My Daughter		TV movie
1990−1996	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Philip Banks	141 episodes
1991	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Shredder (voice)	TV movie
1991	The Legend of Prince Valiant	Sir Bryant (voice)	9 episodes
1992	Roc	Dale Hammers	Episode: "The Car Accident from Heaven"
1993	Without Warning: Terror in the Towers	Fred Ferby	TV movie
1993−1994	American Experience	Charles Hamilton Houston / Narrator	2 episodes
1994	Hart to Hart: Old Friends Never Die	Chess Player	TV movie
1994	A Friend to Die For	Agent Gilwood	TV movie
1994	Aladdin	Haroud Hazi Bin (voice)	9 episodes
1994−1995	Iron Man	War Machine (voice)	7 episodes
1995	ABC Weekend Special	Headman (voice)	Episode: "Jirimpimbira – An African Folk Tale"
1995	Murder One	Judge Nathaniel Alexander	Episode: "Chapter Five"
1996	Gargoyles	The Shaman (voice)	Episode: "Walk About"
1996	Captain Simian & the Space Monkeys	Gor-illa/Gor (voice)	26 episodes
1996	Spider-Man	War Machine (voice)	2 episodes
1996−1998	Sparks	Alonzo Sparks	40 episodes
199, 1998	In the House	Mediator / Sampson Stanton	2 episodes
1997	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	Father (voice)	Episode: "The Golden Goose"
1997	Extreme Ghostbusters	Danny (voice)	Episode: "Dry Spell"
1998	The Advanced Guard	Fred	TV movie
1998	You Lucky Dog	Calvin	TV movie
1998	The Wild Thornberrys	Gorilla (voice)	Episode: "Valley Girls"
1999	Vengeance Unlimited	Judge Christopher Washington	Episode: "Legalese"
1999	King's Pawn	Cecil	Pilot
1999	For Your Love	Rev. Hicks	Episode: "Mother Load"
1999	Family Law		Episode: "Damages"
1999, 2000	Pepper Ann	Mr. Clapper	3 episodes
2000	Bull	Prof. Gilbert Granville	Episode: "What the Past Will Bring"
2000	One World	William Richard	Episode: "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"
2000	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Preston Cash	Episode: "Unfriendly Skies"
2000	Two Guys and a Girl	Judge	Episode: "Rescue Me"
2000, 2002	Dharma & Greg	Walter	2 episodes
2001	Epoch	Dr. Solomon Holt	TV movie
2001	The Jamie Foxx Show	Reverend	Episode: "Always and Forever"
2001	Strong Medicine	Harold Jenkins	Episode: "Wednesday Night Fever"
2001	The Legend of Tarzan	Chief Keewazi (voice)	3 episodes
2001	The Proud Family	Crandall Smythe (voice)	Episode: "Spelling Bee"
2001−2003	Soul Food	Walter Carter	4 episodes
2002	Philly	Dean Mark Clivner	Episode: "Here Comes the Judge"
2002	Judging Amy	Mr. Ruff	Episode: "Damage Control"
2002	Nancy Drew	Prof. Shifflin	TV movie
2002−2003	The Division	Charles Haysbert	9 episodes
2003	Reba	Judge Samuel Bennett	Episode: "The Feud"
2003	Crossing Jordan	Dr. Erkhart	Episode: "Conspiracy"
2003	Street Smarts	Contestant	Episode: "May 16, 2003"
2003	All About the Andersons	Roscoe	Episode: "Flo's Dream"
2003−2004	All of Us	Lucas	2 episodes
2004	That '70s Show	Officer Kennedy	3 episodes
2004	Charmed	Zola	Episode: "A Call to Arms"
2004	NYPD Blue	Steve Pines	Episode: "Great Balls or Ire"
2004	Girlfriends	Dr. Couch	Episode: "Maybe Baby"
2004	That's So Raven	Presto Jones	Episode: "Opportunity Shocks"
2005−2007	The Closer	Dr. Crippen	11 episodes
2005	My Wife and Kids	Professor Tillman	Episode: "Study Buddy"
2005	Star Trek: Enterprise	General K'Vagh	2 episodes
2005	Living With Fran	Mr. Bryant	Episode: "Learning with Fran"
2006	Take 3	Judge Sanderson	Episode: "Study Buddy"
2008	Eli Stone	Mason Andrews	Episode: "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"
2009	Sherri	Redmond	4 episodes
2012	Grey's Anatomy	Sam	Episode: "One Step Too Far"
2012	The Young and the Restless	Judge Roy Daley	2 episodes
2013	Call Me Crazy: A Five Film	Dr. Beckett	TV movie

Video games[edit]

Year	Title	Role
1989	Splash Mountain	Br'er Frog
1995	Animated Storybook: The Lion King	Narrator
2011	Kinect Disneyland Adventures	Br'er Bear

****

James LaRue Avery (November 27, 1945 – December 31, 2013) was an American actor, best known for his portrayal of the patriarch and attorney (later judge) Philip Banks, Will Smith's character's uncle, in the TV sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This character was ranked #34 in TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time." He also provided the voice of Shredder in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television series, as well as War Machine in the animated series Iron Man and Junkyard Dog in Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling. He also played Michael Kelso's commanding officer at the police academy late in the series run of That '70s Show.

Avery was born in 1945 in Pughsville, Hampton Roads, Virginia and raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He served in theVietnam War as a member of the United States Navy from 1968–1969, after graduating high school. Later on, he moved to San Diego, California, where he began to write poetry and TV scripts.

In addition to his fame in sitcoms, he did voice acting for many animated series, most notably the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series (as the voice of The Shredder) and James Rhodes in the 1990s Iron Man series.
^{He married Barbara in 1988. He had no biological children of his own, but was a stepfather to his wife's son, Kevin Waters. As well as his wife and stepson, he is survived by his mother Florence Avery.}
^{On December 31, 2013, Avery died at the age of 68 from complications following open heart surgery in a Los Angeles suburb hospital, Glendale Adventist Medical Center.}

African American Biographies