Juanita Moore

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Juanita Moore (born October 19, 1914 in Greenwood , Mississippi - † January 1, 2014 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actress .

Life

The African American was probably born in 1914, but according to some sources also in 1922, grew up in her native Los Angeles and attended Jefferson High School. On the advice of a teacher and inspired by the well-known African-American drama troupe Lafayette Players , she started an acting education. Moore attended the Actor's Lab in Hollywood with the young Marlon Brando and later worked with the Ebony Showcase Theater .

Moore began her acting career in the late 1940s with an extra role in Elia Kazan's Oscar-nominated drama Pinky (1949) with Jeanne Crain in the title role of a light-skinned African American. Further film roles followed when the major Hollywood studio productions in the early 1950s also showed themselves to be receptive to African-American actors. Often Moore was committed to extras or stereotypical roles such as a maid. She played this in films such as the River of Revenge (1954), Michael Curtiz ' Ein Leben im Rausch (1957) or the love drama Bomber B-52 (both 1957), in which Ann Blyth , Karl Malden , Paul Newman or Natalie Wood starred played.

Moore's breakthrough as an actress paved the way for film director Douglas Sirk , who in 1959 gave her preference over Pearl Bailey for his melodrama As long as there are people . In the remake of the Fannie Hurst novel Imitation of Life , Moore and Lana Turner can be seen as single mothers. While Turner plays an aspiring actress who has become estranged from her daughter through her career, Moore slipped into the role of a colored housemaid whose daughter (played by Susan Kohner ) would rather pose as white. Although As long as there are people was a great financial success, the film largely failed the criticism. Only the acting performances of Kohner and Moore met with approval. The part of Annie Johnson earned the African-American actress an Oscar and a Golden Globe nomination in 1960 ; in the Best Supporting Actress category , however, she was left behind Shelley Winters ( The Diary of Anne Frank ) and Susan Kohner. She was only the fourth African American actress to receive an Oscar nomination after the victorious Hattie McDaniel , Ethel Waters and Dorothy Dandridge .

Despite the success, she was denied similar large-scale film roles. After the shooting of Imitation of Life followed Moore a theater engagement in London's West End , where the role of the matriarchal Lena Younger in Lorraine Hans Berry's A Raisin in the Sun interpreted. By 1988, over 30 other film and television roles should follow. In parallel, she gave acting classes to low-income students at the Ebony Showcase Theater in her hometown.

In the spring of 2000, Moore was rediscovered after more than twelve years of abstinence from the screen when she accompanied her grandson to an audition. She took on roles in Jon Turteltaub's comedy The Kid - Image is Everything and had one-off guest appearances on the television series Emergency Room and Just In Case, Amy .

Juanita Moore died of natural causes on New Year's Day 2014 at the age of 99.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

literature

  • Mapp, Edward: African Americans and the Oscar: Seven decades of struggle and achievement. Scarecrow Press, Lanham (Md.) 2003, ISBN 978-0-8108-6106-0 .

Web links

Commons : Juanita Moore  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stephen Bourne: Juanita Moore. In: Independent. January 7, 2014, accessed October 19, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Juanita Moore, Oscar-Nommed for 'Imitation of Life,' Dies at 99
  3. ↑ Juanita Moore in the Notable Names Database (English)
personal data
SURNAME Moore, Juanita
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California
DATE OF DEATH 1st of January 2014
Place of death Los Angeles , California