Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-5 of 5
- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Slender, attractive actress Margaret Avery, spellbinding in her role of Shug in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985), is certainly no "one-hit wonder". Although filmgoers may be able to trace her back only to that once-in-a-lifetime part, Margaret has been a talented player on the large and small screens for well over three decades.
Born on January 20, 1944, in Mangum, Oklahoma, the daughter of a Navy man, she was raised in San Diego, California, where she completed high school. Margaret demonstrated a certain passion for acting while in her teens but decided to pursue a more stable career in teaching. Graduating from San Francisco State University, she joined the Los Angeles public school system as a substitute teacher, but the "acting bug" continued to nibble away at her. She auditioned for commercials on the sly and managed to also segued into stage work and singing jobs. Her early 1970s L.A. plays included "Revolution", "Sistuhs", and 1973's "Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?", the last for which she nabbed the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award. Her skills as an actress helped her to move into TV roles, appearing in such established 1970s and 1980s series as The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971), Kojak (1973), Sanford and Son (1972), Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), The Rookies (1972), Baby... I'm Back! (1977), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Miami Vice (1984), Spenser: For Hire (1985), a recurring part in Harry O (1973), and a regular role in the short-lived series A.E.S. Hudson Street (1977).
Her film career ignited during the popular "blaxploitation" era. She somehow managed to avoid the pitfalls of many a black actress of that time, however, despite her sexy and revealing roles in her first two films, Cool Breeze (1972) starring Thalmus Rasulala and Lincoln Kilpatrick, and Hell Up in Harlem (1973), in which she found herself in the clutches of brawny former footballer Fred Williamson. Margaret carried on with Magnum Force (1973) (as a hooker) and the comedies Which Way Is Up? (1977) and The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979), establishing herself as a solid, reliable actress.
Music was never far away from Margaret as attested by her roles in Louis Armstrong - Chicago Style (1976), starring Ben Vereen as "Satchmo", and Scott Joplin (1977), which showcased Billy Dee Williams. However, it was her riveting supporting turn as the drug-riddled, fly-by-night singer Shug Avery in The Color Purple (1985) that put her on the map. Stories have long circulated that Spielberg wanted a star singer in the role and that Margaret received the role only after both Patti LaBelle and Tina Turner were approached and turned it down. She had previously worked with Spielberg in her first TV movie Something Evil (1972). He remembered her from this and cast her. Earning an Academy Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actress", it was expected that her career would hit major cinematic heights. Unfortunately, Margaret didn't make another film for three years, when she played a jazz singer in the little-seen Blueberry Hill (1988) with Carrie Snodgress.
On TV she continued to grace episodes of Amen (1986), The Cosby Show (1984), Roc (1991), JAG (1995), MacGyver (1985), Bones (2005), enhanced such commendable made-for-TV movies as Heat Wave (1990) with Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones, and has been seen sporadically in films. She co-starred in The Return of Superfly (1990) -- a nod to her old blaxploitation days--Lightning in a Bottle (1993), White Man's Burden (1995) with John Travolta, the Mario Van Peebles feature Love Kills (1998)
Into the millennium, Margaret has been seen in Waitin' to Live (2006), directed by Travolta's brother, Joey Travolta; Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins (2008) as well as Meet the Browns (2008) with Martin Lawrence and Angela Bassett, respectively; the crime drama Proud Mary (2018) and the family comedy Grand-Daddy Day Care (2019). She also appearing regularly alongside Gabrielle Union and Richard Roundtree on BET's Being Mary Jane (2013).
Divorced (74-80) from director Robert Gordon Hunt, Margaret has one daughter, Aisha.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Eugene L. Eubank was born on 2 December 1892 in Mangum, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Bombardier (1943). He died on 9 April 1997 in San Antonio, Texas, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Born in Oakland, CA, in 1931, Preston Epps learned to play various percussion instruments, including the bongos, while he was in the US military during the Korean War, where he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. After his hitch was over he moved to Southern California and began to make some money playing bongos in coffee houses around the area. He came to the attention of Los Angeles disc jockey Art Laboe, who owned Original Sound Records and signed Epps to that label. In 1959 it released his single "Bongo Rock", which shot to #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His follow-up record, "Bongo Bongo Bongo", sold respectably but didn't reach the heights that "Bongo Rock" did. In 1960 he released an album, but the public's taste for bongo music had begun to ebb. He released a string of bongo music over the next few years, but they didn't go anywhere
In 1957 he appeared (uncredited) as a bongo player in Calypso Heat Wave (1957) and in 1968 he had a small part in Girl in Gold Boots (1968), also as a bongo player. He continued to work as a session musician in the L.A. recording scene in the 1960s and 1970s. He also kept busy playing in various clubs and nightspots into the 1990s.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Andy Parker was born on 17 March 1913 in Mangum, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Throw a Saddle on a Star (1946), Under Californian Stars (1948) and The Westward Trail (1948). He died on 2 October 1977 in Pleasant Hill, California, USA.- Gary McSpadden was born on 26 January 1943 in Mangum, Oklahoma, USA. He died on 15 April 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.