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 2
Gloria Foster (November 15, 1933 – September 29, 2001) was an actress, most known for her stage performances both on and off-Broadway, including her acclaimed roles in plays In White America and Having Our Say, winning three Obie Awards during her career. In films, she was perhaps best known as The Oracle in The Matrix (1999) and The Matrix Reloaded (2003), the latter film being her last. She also played the role of the mother of Yusef Bell in the mini-series The Atlanta Child Murders which aired in 1985.
Instead of searching for fame by trying to be in many different productions, Foster searched for roles in which she would be able to perform at the best of her ability. She once said, “Young people today, I think, are thinking in terms of stepping stones.…I don’t know that I ever thought that way. It sounds ridiculous, but I was always thinking in terms of a more difficult role”. Foster was married to the actor Clarence Williams III in 1967. They met on the television show The Mod Squad that ran from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.
Foster died on September 29, 2001, at age 67. The cause of her death was diabetes. #SummerMadness #Foster
Recommended films:
The Cool World (’63)
Nothing But A Man (’64)
The Angel Levine (’70)
The Matrix (’99)
The Matrix Reloaded (’00)
