Phylicia Rashad
| Phylicia Rashād | |
|---|---|
 At the 2007 Red Dress Collection for The Heart Truth Foundation | |
| Born |
Phylicia Ayers-Allen June 19, 1948 Houston, Texas, United States |
| Occupation | Actress, singer |
| Years active | 1972–present |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | 2 |
Phylicia Rashād /ˈfɪliːʃəˈrɑːʃəd/ (born Phylicia Ayers-Allen; June 19, 1948) is an American actress, singer and stage director, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for this role in 1985 and 1986.
In 2004, Rashad became the first African-American actress to win the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, which she won for her role in the revival of A Raisin in the Sun.[1][2] She resumed the role in the 2008 television adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, which earned her the 2009 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special. Rashad was dubbed "The Mother" of the African-American community at the 42nd NAACP Image Awards.
Early life
Rashad was born Phylicia Ayers-Allen in Houston, Texas. Her mother, Vivian Ayers, is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated artist, poet, playwright, scholar, and publisher. Phylicia's father, Andrew Arthur Allen, (d. 1984), was an orthodontist. (Phylicia's maiden name combines the surnames of both her parents.) [3][4] Rashad's siblings are jazz-musician brother Tex (Andrew Arthur Allen, Jr., born 1945), sister Debbie Allen (born 1950), an actress, choreographer, and director, and brother Hugh Allen (a real estate banker in North Carolina). While Rashad was growing up, her family moved to Mexico, and as a result, Rashad speaks Spanish fluently.
Rashad studied at Howard University, graduating magna cum laude in 1970 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She was initiated into the Alpha Chapter during her tenure at Howard University.[5]
Theatre
Rashad first became known for her stage work with a string of Broadway credits, including Deena Jones in Dreamgirls (she was Sheryl Lee Ralph's understudy until leaving the show in 1982 after being passed over as Ralph's full-time replacement) and playing a Munchkin in The Wiz for three and a half years. In 1978, she released the album Josephine Superstar, a disco Concept album telling the life story of Josephine Baker. The album was mainly written and produced by Jacques Morali and Rashad's second husband Victor Willis, original lead singer and lyricist of the Village People. She met Willis while they were both cast in The Wiz.
Other Broadway credits include August: Osage County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Gem of the Ocean, Raisin in the Sun (2004 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play/Drama Desk Award), Blue, Jelly's Last Jam, Into the Woods, and Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death. Off-Broadway credits include Lincoln Center’s productions of Cymbeline and Bernarda Alba; Helen, The Story and Everybody's Ruby at the Public Theater; The Negro Ensemble Company productions of Puppet Play, Zooman and the Sign, Sons and Fathers of Sons, In an Upstate Motel, Weep Not For Me, and The Great Mac Daddy; Lincoln Center's production of Ed Bullins' The Duplex; and The Sirens at the Manhattan Theatre Club. In regional theatre, she performed as Euripedes' Medea and in Blues for an Alabama Sky at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. Other regional theatres at which she has performed are the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. and the Huntington Theatre in Boston.
Rashad was the first African-American actress to win the Best Actress (Play) Tony Award, which she won for her 2004 performance as Lena Younger in a revival of the play A Raisin in the Sun by playwright Lorraine Hansberry. She was nominated for the same award the following year, for Gem of the Ocean. Several Black women have won in the Best Actress (Musical) category, including the late Virginia Capers, who won in 1973 for her portrayal of Lena in the musical adaptation of Hansberry's play, entitled Raisin. Rashad also won the 2004 Drama Desk award for Best Actress in a Play for A Raisin in the Sun by tying (split award) with Viola Davis for the play Intimate Apparel.
In 2007, Rashad made her directorial debut with the Seattle Repertory Theatre's production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean.[6] More recently, in early 2014 Rashad directed a revival of Fences, also by Wilson, at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ, which ran to generally positive reviews, and continued an ongoing focus on Wilson's work.[7]
Rashad can currently be seen in the lead role of Shelah in Tarell Alvin McCraney's new play Head of Passes at The Public Theater. The production began previews on March 17, 2016, opened on March 28, and is scheduled to run through May 1. Her performance has been very positively reviewed.[8]
Film and television
Rashad received a career boost when she joined the cast of the ABC soap opera One Life to Live to play publicist Courtney Wright in 1983. She is best known for another television role, that of attorney Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. The show, which ran from 1984 to 1992, starred Bill Cosby as obstetrician Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable, and focused on their life with their five children.
When Cosby returned to TV comedy in 1996 with CBS's Cosby, he called on Rashad to play Ruth Lucas, his character's wife. The pilot episode had been shot with Telma Hopkins, but Cosby then fired the executive producer and replaced Hopkins with Rashad.[9] The sitcom ran from 1996 to 2000.[10] That year, Cosby asked Rashad to work on his animated television series Little Bill, in which the actress voiced Bill's mother, Brenda, until the show's end in 2002. She also played a role in the pre-show of the Dinosaur ride at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom theme park as Dr. Helen Marsh, the head of the Dino Institute.
She played Kill Moves' affluent mother on Everybody Hates Chris on Sunday, December 9, 2007. In 2007 she appeared as Winnie Guster in the Psych episode Gus's Dad May Have Killed an Old Guy. She returned to the role in 2008, in the episode Christmas Joy.
In February 2008, she appeared in the television adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun. She starred on Broadway as Big Mama in an all-African American production of Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof directed by her sister Debbie Allen. She appeared alongside stage veterans James Earl Jones (Big Daddy) and Anika Noni Rose (Maggie), as well as film actor Terrence Howard, who made his Broadway debut as Brick. She next appeared as Violet Weston, the drug-addicted matriarch of Tracy Letts's award-winning play, August: Osage County at the Music Box Theatre.
In November 2010, Rashad starred in the Tyler Perry film For Colored Girls, based on the play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange. In 2012 she starred in another Tyler Perry movie Good Deeds. In that same year, Rashad played Clairee Belcher in the remake of Steel Magnolias (the role originated by Olympia Dukakis). This version has an all African American cast.
Rashad played Mary Anne Creed in the 2015 movie Creed.
Personal life
Rashad's first marriage, in 1972, was to dentist William Lancelot Bowles, Jr. They had one son, William Lancelot Bowles III, who was born the following year. The marriage ended in 1975. Rashad then married Victor Willis (original lead singer of the Village People, whom she met during the run of The Wiz) in 1978. Their divorce was finalized in 1982.
She married former NFL wide receiver and sportscaster Ahmad Rashād on December 14, 1985. It was a third marriage for both of them and she took his last name. They were married after he proposed to her during a pregame show for a nationally televised Thanksgiving Day football game between the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions on November 28, 1985.[11][12] Their daughter, Condola Phyleia Rashād,[13] was born on December 11, 1986 in New York. The couple divorced in early 2001.[14]
Filmography
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Delvecchio | Ventita Ray | Episode: "Wax Job" |
| 1983–84 | One Life to Live | Courtney Wright | Regular role |
| 1984–92 | The Cosby Show | Clair Hanks Huxtable | 195 episodes |
| 1985 | Santa Barbara | Felicia Dalton | 3 episodes |
| 1985 | The Love Boat | Lonette Becker | Episode: "A Day in Port" |
| 1987 | Uncle Tom's Cabin | Eliza | Television movie |
| 1988 | Mickey's 60th Birthday | Herself | Movie |
| 1988–90 | A Different World | Clair Hanks Huxtable | 4 episodes |
| 1989 | False Witness | Lynne Jacobi | Movie |
| 1989 | Polly | Aunt Polly | Movie |
| 1990 | Reading Rainbow | Herself | Episode: "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters" |
| 1990 | Polly: Comin' Home! | Aunt Polly | Movie |
| 1990 | The Earth Day Special | Clair Huxtable | Special |
| 1991 | Jailbirds | Janice Grant | Movie |
| 1991 | Blossom | Blossom's Dream Mom | Episode: "Blossom's Blossom" |
| 1993 | American Playhouse | Mayor Turner | Episode: "Hallelujah" |
| 1994 | David's Mother | Gladys Johnson | Movie |
| 1994–2002 | Touched by an Angel | Elizabeth Jessup | 2 episodes |
| 1995 | The Possession of Michael D | Dr. Marion Hale | Movie |
| 1995 | In the House | Rowena | Episode: "Sister Act" |
| 1996 | The Babysitter's Seduction | Detective Kate Jacobs | Movie |
| 1996–2000 | Cosby | Ruth Lucas | 92 episodes |
| 1998 | Intimate Portrait | Herself/Narrator | 4 episodes |
| 1999 | Free of Eden | Desiree | Movie |
| 2001 | Murder She Wrote: The Last Free Man | Cassandra Hawkins | Movie |
| 2001 | The Old Settler | Elizabeth | Movie |
| 1999–2004 | Little Bill | Brenda (voice) | Main role (21 episodes) |
| 2007 | Working in the Theatre | Actor | Episode: "August Wilson's Legacy" |
| 2007 | Everybody Hates Chris | Kathleen Devereaux | Episode: "Everybody Hates Kwanzaa" |
| 2007–14 | Psych | Winnie Guster | 3 episodes |
| 2008 | A Raisin in the Sun | Lena Younger | Movie |
| 2008 | The Life & Times of Tim | The Boss's Wife (voice) | Episode: "Theo Strikes Back/Amy Gets Wasted" |
| 2012 | The Cleveland Show | Dee Dee Tubbs (voice) | 4 episodes |
| 2012 | Steel Magnolias | Clairee | Movie |
| 2013 | Gods Behaving Badly | Demeter | Filmed in 2011 |
| 2013 | Do No Harm | Dr. Vanessa Young | Supporting role (all 13 episodes) |
| 2014 | Sofia the First | Glacia the Ice Witch (voice) | Episode: "Winter's Gift" |
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored |
Ma Ponk | |
| 2000 | Loving Jezebel | Alice Melville | |
| 2000 | The Visit | Dr. Coles | |
| 2010 | Just Wright | Ella McKnight | |
| 2010 | Frankie & Alice | Edna | |
| 2010 | For Colored Girls | Gilda | |
| 2012 | Good Deeds | Wilimena | |
| 2015 | Creed | Mary Anne Creed | |
Awards and honors
- 2003: Honored as Woman of the Year by the Harvard Black Men's Forum
- 2005: received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (D.F.A.) degree from Brown University[16]
- 2011: received an honorary doctorate degree from Spelman College for her work in the Arts[17]
- 2011: named the first Denzel Washington Chair professor in Theatre at Fordham University, supported by a $2 million gift from the actor[18]
References
- ↑ "Tony Awards Wrap Up" by Amy Somensky. Jun 9, 2004]
- 1 2 3 Tony Awards (official site)
- ↑ "Phylicia Birthday-01948-June-19". Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved December 27, 2007.
- ↑ Lawrence, Muhammad. - "One-woman dynamo". - The Courier-Journal. - September 12, 1999.
- ↑ "About Phylicia Rashad". Yahoo! Inc. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
- ↑ "Phylicia Rashad to direct Seattle Repertory Theatre's Gem of the Ocean". Monsters and Critics. December 6, 2006. Retrieved December 11, 2009.
- ↑ "Phylicia Rashad directs August Wilson's 'Fences' at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton". The Star Ledger. January 5, 2014. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/theater/review-in-head-of-passes-phylicia-rashad-is-a-matriarch-with-worries.html
- ↑ Dana Kennedy (September 20, 1996). "Pilot Errors This Fall Season". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 21, 2007.
- ↑ ""Cosby" (1996)". IMDb.com. Retrieved June 21, 2007.
- ↑ Moses, Gavin (December 16, 1985). "Sportscaster Ahmad Rashād Scores with a Televised Proposal to Cosby's Phylicia Ayers-Allen". People. Retrieved October 31, 2009.
- ↑ Ken Shouler (1994). "Catching It All". Cigar Aficionado. Retrieved June 21, 2007.
- ↑
- ↑ "Actress Phylicia Rashad Divorcing Sportscaster Husband Ahmad Rashād". Jet. March 5, 2001. Retrieved June 21, 2007.
- ↑ Monsters & Critics: "Tony Awards Wrap Up", by Amy Somensky. Jun 9, 2004
- ↑ 04-126 (Honorary Degrees 2005)
- ↑ "Michelle Obama Addresses 2011 Spelman Class; Joins Debbie Allen, Phylicia Rashad as Honorees". Rolling Out. May 16, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2011.
- ↑ "Denzel Washington donates $2.25 million to Fordham". The Wall Street Journal. October 5, 2011. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
External links
- Phylicia Rashad at the Internet Broadway Database
- Phylicia Rashad at the Internet Movie Database
- Phylicia Rashad interview video at the Archive of American Television
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