Louise Beavers
| Louise Beavers | |
|---|---|
with Carole Lombard in Made for Each Other (1939)
|
|
| Born |
March 8, 1902 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | October 26, 1962 (aged 60) Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Resting place | Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles |
| Other names | Louise Beaver |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1927–1960 |
| Spouse(s) | Leroy Moore (m. 1952–62)(her death) |
Louise Beavers (March 8, 1902 – October 26, 1962) was an African-American film and television actress. Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s until 1960, most often in the role of a maid, servant, or slave. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Beavers was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, one of the four African-American sororities.
Louise Beavers was a breakthrough actress for black women. Beavers became known as a symbol of a “mammy” on the screen. A mammy archetype “is the portrayal within a narrative framework or other imagery of a black domestic servant, generally good-natured, often overweight, and loud”.
Louise Ellen Beavers was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to school teacher Ernestine Monroe Beavers and William M. Beavers, who was originally from Georgia. Due to her mother's illness, Louise and her parents moved to Pasadena, California.
In Pasadena, she attended school and engaged in several after school activities, such as basketball and church choir. Her mother also worked as a voice teacher and taught Louise how to sing for concerts. In June 1920, she graduated from Pasadena High School and “worked as a dressing room attendant for a photographer and served as a personal maid to white film star Leatrice Joy”.
There is some ambiguity how Beavers began her acting career. She was in a group called the Lady Minstrels who were "a group of young women who staged amateur productions and appeared on stage at the Loews State Theatre". It was either her performance in this group or in a contest at the Philharmonic Auditorium, which occurred later. Charles Butler from the Central Casting Bureau, who was known for being an agent for African American actors, saw the performance and recommended that Louise try out for a role for a movie.” At first she was hesitant to try out for movies because of how African Americans were portrayed in movies and how Hollywood encouraged these roles. She once said, “In all the pictures I had seen… they never used colored people for anything except savages.” Despite this, she tried out for a role in the film Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1927 and landed the part.
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