Beah Richards

Biography: After college she served a three-year acting apprenticeship in San Diego, then moved to New York in 1951; not until 1954 did she make her professional debut, in the off-Broadway play Take a Giant Step. She landed several other roles over the next few years but was often out of work. After touring with the national company of A Raisin in the Sun in the early '60s, she gained much attention in the lead role of the play The Amen Corner; her work brought her to the attention of director Otto Preminger, who cast her in a central supporting role in Hurry Sundown (1967) -- her fourth screen appearance but the first of any importance. This led to the role of Sidney Poitier's mother in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. Nevertheless, she only had a handful of other film roles, meanwhile continuing to work on stage and TV.