Friday, February 10, 2012

Know Your LGBT History - Nell Carter

I was especially sadden when actress and singer Nell Carter passed away in 2003. She was one of the few celebrities I had wanted to meet. She was truly an awesome lady.





From Wikipedia:

Born Nell Ruth Hardy in 1948 to Horace and Edna Mae Hardy in Birmingham, Alabama, Carter was one of nine children. She overcame adversity and personal hardships before finding success as an actress. Her father died in an accident with a power line. A man raped her when she was 16, and she became pregnant from the attack, giving birth to a daughter, Tracy.

She was in the 1971 rock opera Soon, which closed after three performances. She was the Music Director for the 1974 Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective's production of "What Time of Night It Is". Carter appeared alongside Bette Davis in the 1974 stage musical Miss Moffat, based on Davis' earlier film The Corn Is Green. The show closed before making it to Broadway. She broke into stardom in the musical Ain't Misbehavin, for which she won a Tony Award in 1978. She also won an Emmy for the same role in a televised performance in 1982. Additional Broadway credits included Dude and Annie.

In 1979, she had a part in the Miloš Forman-directed musical film adaptation of Hair. Her vocal talents are showcased throughout the motion picture soundtrack. One of the more memorable moments in the film involves her rendition of the song "White Boys" where she can be seen dancing playfully as she performs the song (alongside Ain't Misbehavin co-star, Charlayne Woodard).

In 1978, Carter was cast as Effie White in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, but departed the production during development to take a television role on the ABC-TV soap opera, Ryan's Hope in New York. When Dreamgirls premiered in late 1981, Jennifer Holliday had taken over the lead. Carter also took a role on television's The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, before landing a steady role as housekeeper Nell Harper on the sitcom Gimme a Break!, for which she earned Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations. The popular show lasted from 1981 to 1987.


Within a couple of a years after Gimme a Break!, Carter pursued new TV series projects. In 1989, she shot a pilot for NBC entitled Morton's By the Bay, which aired as a one-time special in May of that year. In this, Carter played the assistant to the owner of a banquet hall, and the focus was on her and her mad-cap staff. Alan Ruck and Jann Karam co-starred. NBC passed on the series development. The following year, Carter surfaced as the star of the CBS comedy You Take the Kids. The series, which was perceived as being the black answer to Roseanne due to its portrayal of a working-class African-American family, featured Carter as a crass, no-nonsense mother and wife. You Take the Kids faced poor ratings and reviews, and had a month's run from December 1990 to January 1991.

During the early 1990s, Carter appeared in low-budget films, TV specials, and on game shows such as Match Game '90 and To Tell the Truth. She also co-starred in Hangin' with Mr. Cooper. She appeared as a special guest star on the pilot episode of the new WB show Reba and continued with the show, making a total of three appearances in season one.

After Gimme a Break! began, Carter's life took a turbulent turn. She married mathematician and lumber executive George Krynicki, and converted to Judaism in 1982 (she had been born Roman Catholic and raised Presbyterian). She attempted suicide in the early 1980s, and entered a drug detoxification facility around 1985. Her brother, Bernard, died of AIDS in 1989.

Carter had three children: daughter Tracy and two sons, Daniel and Joshua. She adopted both her sons as newborns over a four-month period. She attempted to adopt twice more but both adoptions fell through. In one case she brought home a child, Mary, but the birth parents demanded money before they would sign the adoption papers. In her final attempt, she allowed a young pregnant woman to move into her home with the plan that she would adopt the child, but the mother decided to keep her baby.

In 1992, Carter had surgery to repair two aneurysms. She divorced Krynicki and married Roger Larocque the same year, divorcing Larocque the next year. She declared bankruptcy in 1995 and again in 2002. She also endured three miscarriages.

Having previously survived two brain aneurysms, Carter died at the age of 54 on January 23, 2003, from heart disease complicated by diabetes in her Beverly Hills home that she shared with her partner Ann Kaser, and her two 13-year-old boys, Joshua and Daniel. Her daughter Tracy Ruth lived away from their California home. She is interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.


Past Know Your LGBT History posts:

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The Jeffersons and the transgender community    



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2 comments:

truthspew said...

And recall she played Dorita in Modern Problems. Too funny too!

Jay said...

You should cite the much better article on Nell Carter at glbtq.com. Here is the url: http://www.glbtq.com/arts/carter_nell.html