In honor of TCM and their “Summer Under the Stars” series, we launch our companion series, Summer Madness. The series will spotlight the achievements and films of one Black actor, daily throughout the month of August.
Day 30
Margaret Avery (born January 20, 1944), is an actress and singer. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as Shug in The Color Purple (1985).
Avery was born in Mangum, Oklahoma and raised in San Diego, California, where she attended Point Loma High School. She then attended San Francisco State University, where in 1985, she earned her degree in education. While working as a substitute teacher in Los Angeles, Avery began making singing and acting appearances.
After Tina Turner famously turned down the role, Avery’s breakthrough performance as Shug Avery in the 1985 film The Color Purple earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Among the plays, Avery appeared in were Revolution and The Sistuhs. In 1972 for her performance in Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, she received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress.
In the television movie Something Evil (1972), a horror story with Sandy Dennis and Darren McGavin, Avery was directed by Steven Spielberg. That same year she made her theatrical motion picture debut as Lark in the MGM crime/drama Cool Breeze with Thalmus Rasulala and Judy Pace. In this blaxploitation remake of The Asphalt Jungle, Avery played the Marilyn Monroe part. The following year she played a prostitute in Magnum Force, the second in the series of Dirty Harry films starring Clint Eastwood, in which her character was murdered by her pimp, played by Albert Popwell. The character was killed through the pouring drain cleaner down the victim’s throat which was said to have inspired the notorious Hi-Fi Murders case in 1974.
In the 1977 film, Which Way Is Up?, directed by Michael Schultz, Avery gave a comedic performance as Annie Mae, the wife of Richard Pryor’s character. That same year, she played Belle Joplin, wife of the ragtime composer Scott Joplin, opposite Billy Dee Williams in the title role.
In 1992 Avery starred in The Jacksons: An American Dream as Martha Scruse, mother of Katherine Jackson, who was played by Angela Bassett. The two would later star together in Meet the Browns.
In 2008, Avery played Mama Jenkins in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, opposite Martin Lawrence and James Earl Jones, and Sarah Brown in Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, which also stars Angela Bassett.
Currently, Avery plays recurring character Helen Patterson in BET’s hit series Being Mary Jane. #SummerMadness #Avery
Recommended films:
Hell Up in Harlem (’73)
Which Way Is Up? (’77)
The Color Purple (’85)
White Man’s Burden (’95)
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (’08)
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