Madea

Mable Simmons
Mable Simmons
	File:Ph madea.jpg
First appearance	I Can Do Bad All By Myself
Last appearance	Madea Goes To Jail
Portrayed by	Tyler Perry
In-universe information
Alias	Mable R. (maiden name)
Nickname	Madea
Gender	Female
Title	Mrs. Simmons
Occupation	Bus Driver and a Stripper
Spouse	Unnamed 1st Husband (deceased); Johnny Simmons (2nd husband; deceased); Unnamed 2nd - 17th husband (deceased);
Children	Cora Jean Simmons (daughter, with Brown); William Simmons; Nichole "Nikki" Grady (adopted)Mrs. Griffin (Daughter)
Relatives	Irene (sister; deceased); Joe (brother, only in movies); Brian (nephew, only in movies); Tina Simmons (granddaughter); Lisa Simmons (granddaughter); Helen Simmons-McCarter (granddaughter); Gina Simmons (granddaughter); Jackie Simmons (granddaughter); Vianne Griffin (granddaughter); Maylee Griffin (granddaughter); Kiesha Griffin (great-granddaughter)

Mabel "Madea" Simmons is a fictional character created by writer/director Tyler Perry. Based on Perry's mother and aunt, Madea is an aggressive, grey haired, ghetto, bespectacled matriarch. She will argue with anyone, she also has the very frequent tendency to threaten people with going to her purse which is full of metal, and she has a penchant for her unique pronunciation and enunciation of words as reflected in her tag line, "I oughta punch chur in da face!" She is part of a large family, with many children and grandchildren. Her name is spelled variously as "Mabel" and "Mable," probably in order to confuse government authorities and others when applying for jobs, getting credit cards, etc. In the films, she is portrayed by Tyler Perry himself.

"Madea" or "Madear" is a typical Southern name for a grandmother. The term is a shortened form of "Mother Dear."

Although Madea was featured heavily in the trailers for Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and Madea's Family Reunion, she is not the central character of the films.

Personal life

Madea was born in Greensburg, Louisiana in May of 1935 (as Mabel Dean), to Mr. Dean and Big Mabel Murphy. She had two siblings: a sister, Irene and a brother, Fredrick (Joseph). At some point in her early life she moved to Cleveland, Ohio then she relocated to Waycross, Georgia. Deacon Leroy Brown took Madea to the Waycross African American High School prom in 1953 and that night, after drinking too much, they became intimate and later had a daughter, Cora. They did not marry because Madea did not remember that Cora was Brown's daughter until her class reunion in 2003. Up until that time she was unaware of who the father was. Some of her extended family include Parker Osgood, her cousin; Vickie, a niece; and several more relatives. In 1953, she married and relocated to metropolitan Atlanta where she still resides. It is not known if she has moved to a newer home, but in Madea Goes to Jail the set-up of her home was new, and the houses seen in the background look to be examples of the current architectural style rather than the old-type of her former home.

Family in the plays

Tamela Mann plays Cora in Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Meet the Browns, and I Can Do Bad By Myself.

In I Can Do Bad All By Myself, Madea's Family Reunion, Madea's Class Reunion, Meet the Browns, and Madea Goes to Jail, Cora is one of Madea's daughters. Cora has two daughters, Tina and Lisa. Madea's unnamed daughter has two daughters, Vyanne and Maylee. She has a niece named Victoria and a nephew named Sonny.

In Madea Goes To Jail, Madea takes temporary custody of Toni, the daughter of one of Madea's cell mates. She rejects the offer at first until she meets the father, who wishes to take advantage of his own daughter right in front of Madea.

Madea claims to have been pivotal in Rosa Parks' role in African American history. Madea's assertion is that Parks stole Madea's man, and Madea came to the bus stop with a gun to retaliate. Rosa stayed on the bus to avoid confronting Madea. Madea was also supposed to march in Martin Luther King's march in Selma, Alabama, but was told by King himself they didn't need her because she was too violent. She replied saying, "I was only gonna carry thirteen guns on me, hell."

Cora Simmons meets her father's family in Meet the Browns.

Family in the movies

The Family Tree is different in the movies than in the plays. Her daughter, Cora, appears in the new movie Meet the Browns. Cora is still Madea's daughter, as heard in Tyler Perry's House of Payne. She has a granddaughter named Helen, who is the daughter of her son. She has a niece named Victoria who has two daughters, Lisa and Vanessa. She has a brother named Joe who has a son named Brian (also played by Tyler Perry), who is married to Debra and has two children, Tiffany and BJ (Brian Jr.). Joe's family is the newest addition to the Simmons Family Tree.

In the film version of Madea's Family Reunion, Madea took in Nikki. She had a choice to either do so or go to jail because she took off her house arrest bracelet that she wore in Diary of a Mad Black Woman.

Madea is 73. She has had about seventeen husbands, one by the name of Johnny who was her second husband. When each dies, she collects his life insurance checks. She either shoots or poisons by sweet-potato pie those for whose death she is unwilling to wait. After each husband dies, they are buried quickly. Madea claims, "I'm tryna get to the insurance company by five, and the casino by nine!"

In spite of her less-than-glowing reputation with her marriages and the law, Madea helps women realize how badly they have been treated by their men, instructs them on what to do about the mistakes they have made in their life choices, and leads them towards the path of forgiveness and moving on. She also helps others shed some light on their own life instead of looking at someone else's. On numerous occasions she has accepted family members into her home out of her own accord, including granddaughter Helen ("Diary of a Mad Black Woman"), her grandniece Vianne ("I Can Do Bad All by Myself"), and ex-convict Bobby Mitchell ("Myself").

Madea's home is a spacious, early-1900s style house on a street corner at 1197 Avon Avenue in Southwest Atlanta, Georgia.^[1] There are at least five bedrooms, and Joe sleeps in a room downstairs (seen in Diary of a Mad Black Woman when Madea answers the front door at night). The kitchen is on the left when one walks in the house, and beyond that is the living room, where Joe can usually be found. To Madea's annoyance, Mr. Leroy Brown is her next-door neighbor, and has a barking dog that Madea gets tired of and at one point feeds a whole bottle of sleeping pills. Outside, the yard is fenced and Madea's green 1970 Cadillac is parked on the street. Joe cannot drive.

Madea on television

Madea has made occasional appearances on the TBS television series Tyler Perry's House of Payne. Again, she resides in Atlanta, and serves as a foster parent to wayward children. She first encounters the Payne family when her foster daughter has an altercation at school with Curtis Payne's great-nephew Malik. Curtis takes a particular disliking to Madea, who -- as expected -- is not intimidated by Curtis at all.

About a year later, Curtis' wife Ella chastises him for taking her for granted. That night Curtis has an extended nightmare where he is married to Madea instead of Ella.

Family, Relatives & Friends

Sonny Andrews (Christian Keyes), Irene's son. He is a dim-witted fool.who works at the jail.

Victoria (Lynn Whitfield), William's daughter. She has two daughters Lisa and Vanessa.
Vanessa (Lisa Arrindell Anderson), Victoria's eldest daughter. She has two children, Nima and Jonathan; neither of their fathers pay child support. She gets married to her boyfriend, Frankie, when her sister, Lisa, decides not to get married.
Lisa, Victoria's youngest daughter. She was beaten constantly by her fianceé, Carlos (Blair Underwood).
Victoria/Vickie (Pebbles Johnson), Madea's niece from her late husband Johnny, she has four sons, she appears in Madea's Family Reunion the play. Depicted as an outspoken know-it-all.
Brian (Tyler Perry), Joe's son. He is a lawyer, who is very intelligent and had a drug-addict wife.
Cora (Tamela Mann), Madea's eldest daughter. She is a church-going woman.
William, Madea's only son and youngest child. He died of an unknown illness.
Helen (Marva King)&(Kimberly Elise), Myrtle & William's daughter. Her husband, Charles, put her out of their house on their 18th Anniversary after having cheated on her for several years. She later returned to help him after he was shot and helps him recover after his girlfriend, Brenda, whom he cheated on Helen with, leaves him and takes a great deal of his belongings. He later apologizes (in the film version) and says he wants to get back together. However, she tells Charles that they needed to stay friends and she agrees to get married to Orlando.
Gina, Helen's sister.
Debra, Helen's friend and Brian's wife in the movie (Diary). but in Family Reuinon after Madea leaves court her and Brian was talking about her she at that time was 15 months clean
Vianne (Kisha Grandy), Vianne is the daughter of Madea's unnamed daughter. She is Madea's favorite grandchild.
Maylee (Donna Stewart), Maylee is the other daughter of Madea's unnamed daughter. She is troublesome and is a gold-digger. She planned on marrying her sister's ex-husband.
Irene, Madea's sister. She slept with one of Madea's husbands. She died.
Johnny, Madea's husband. He was fed dog food and died after eating Madea's sweet potato pie.
Angela, Irene's daughter. She is troublesome and was taken in by Vickie.
Joe (Tyler Perry), Madea's brother. He is just like Madea and she can't stand him, she only lets him stay at her house so she can get his check.
Keisha (Elaine O'Neal), Maylee's daughter who is fourteen. She is a smart-aleck who has often been neglected and emotionally distant from Maylee and got pregnant by her friend, Kelly.
Ella Kincaid (Cassi Davis), Madea's next door neighbor and best friend.
Ruby, Madea's aunt. She is Madea's mother's sister who is 96.
Sarah (Cassi Davis), Madea's cousin.
Clara, Madea's cousin.
Toni (Anndretta Lyle), Madea took her in, in the play, when Toni's mother was in jail for stabbing Toni's father for trying to molest Toni.
Nikki Grady (Keke Palmer), Madea's foster daughter appointed by the court for Madea's failure to keep her house arrest bracelet on.
Deacon Theodore Leroy Brown (David Mann), Madea's ex-boyfriend, next door neighbor, whom she has just found out fathered Cora. She despises him and says he doesn't know how to dress (a view explained by Brown's often brightly colored, outlandish outfits). In spite of their rivalry, Madea and Brown have occasionally enjoyed each other's company (as seen at the title sequence of "Madea's Class Reunion and at very brief intervals during "Myself".
Jackie (D'Atra Hicks), William's daughter.
Myrtle (Cicely Tyson in the Movie), Madea's daughter-in-law. She is full of wisdom and is William's widow.
May (Maya Angelou), Madea's cousin.
Wanda (Cheryl Pepsi Riley Grace), Sonny's girlfriend and a head prosecutor for "Children & Family Services".
Leo (LaVan Davis), Sonny's friend, co-worker, and Ella's boyfriend.
Jeremy (Brian Hurst), Madea's probation officer.

In books

Perry has also written a book in her persona entitled Don't Make A Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings: Madea's Uninhibited Commentaries On Love And Life, which was published April 11, 2006.

Influence

In The Boondocks, the fictional movie "Madea's Bat Mitzvah" is mentioned.

References

^ The house number can be seen in both Madea's Family Reunion, and Diary of a Mad Black Woman.