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Esther Rolle
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Early in her career, Esther Rolle was a member of the Shogola Obola Dance Company. One of her first major acting parts was in the 1962 off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s The Blacks. More New York stage roles followed, and she became a founding member of the Negro Ensemble Company. In the early 1970s, she had a starring part in Melvin Van Peebles’ Broadway musical, Don’t Play Us Cheap, which was turned into a film in 1973. Around this time, she landed the role of Florida Evans, the wisecracking maid on Maude, a comedy series created by Norman Lear that starred Beatrice Arthur in the title role. Audiences loved her character so much that Lear produced a new show for Rolle entitled Good Times.
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Esther Rolle ( November 8 , 1920 – November 17 , 1998 ) was an American actress. The daughter of Bahamian immigrants, Rolle was born in Pompano Beach , Florida and attended Spelman College .
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From All Movie Guide: The ninth in a family of 18 children, Esther Rolle left her family's Florida home for New York once she came of age. She worked her way through Hunter College, Spellman College and the New School for Social Research. Even after her 1962 New York stage debut in The Blacks, Esther was compelled to hold down a day job in the city's garment district. She appeared in such Broadway productions as The Crucible and Blues for Mr. Charlie, and toured extensively with Robert Hooks' Negro Ensemble Company. Her breakthrough role was Florida the maid in the 1972 Norman Lear sitcom Maude. Though she balked at playing a domestic, Rolle was impressed by Florida's independence and pugnaciousness.
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Well-meaning Florida (Esther Rolle) convinces herself that her unmarried friend Willona (Ja'net DuBois) is lonely. Obligingly, Florida tries to arrange a romance (and possible marriage) between Willona and James' (John Amos) friend Duane (Lloyd Holland). There's only one problem: Willona wants no part of this cozy arrangement. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Rolle's final project put her in touch with a notable African American artistic force when she signed on to play a woman suffering from Alzheimer's in poet Maya Angelou's directorial debut, Down in the Delta. This 1998 film, starring Alfre Woodard as a down-and-out mom who turns her life around during a summer in Mississippi, featured the sort of complex African American characters that Rolle had fought to bring to America's attention in her own career. Woodard recalled for People magazine her impression of Rolle as she watched the preview of the movie: "She was quietly beaming [because] she nailed it."
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Rolle moved to New York City and attended Hunter College, Spelman College and the New School for Social Research. She was ... a member of Zeta Phi Beta sorority. For many years, Rolle worked in a traditional "day job" in New York City's garment district.[1]
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Esther Rolle