Actress and Poet Beah Richards

African-American actress and poet Beah Richards was born November 29, 1920, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. She was the daughter of Beulah Molton Richardson, a seamstress and PTA advocate, and Wesley R. Richardson; her name at birth was Beulah Richardson. She spent most of her career on-stage and only appeared in a few films. Her most famous role was that of Sidney Poitier's mother in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," the part that won her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Before becoming a professional, Richards attended college and studied acting in San Diego. In 1951 she moved to New York, getting her first professional acting job in 1954 when she worked in an off-Broadway production of "Take a Giant Step." Over the rest of the decade, her stage appearances were spotty until she joined a national touring company for a production of "Raisin in the Sun" in the early 1960s. She had a smaller role in "The Miracle Worker" in 1962. It was director Otto Preminger who provided Richards with her biggest role when he co-starred her in "Hurry Sundown" after seeing her impressive starring performance in the play "The Amen Corner." She continued working on-stage, in television, and in the film "Beloved" in 1998. She won an Emmy Award days before her death in Vicksburg on September 14, 2000. Reference: The African-American Desk Reference Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Stonesong Press, Inc., and The New York Public Library, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Publishers, 1999