Actress.
Born: October 19, 1914; Died: January 1, 2014
Juanita Moore, who has died aged 99, was a ground-breaking actress and an Academy Award nominee for her role as Lana Turner's black friend in the classic film Imitation Of Life.
Moore was only the fifth black performer to be nominated for an Oscar, receiving the nod for the glossy Douglas Sirk film that became a big hit and later gained a cult following.
The 1959 tearjerker, based on a Fannie Hurst novel and a remake of a 1934 film, tells the story of how a struggling white actress achieves stardom, her friendship with a black woman and how they team up to raise their daughters as single mothers.
It brought supporting actress nominations for both Moore and Susan Kohner, who played Moore's daughter as a young adult attempting to pass as a white woman. Kohner's own background is Czech and Mexican. By the end, Turner's character is a star and her friend is essentially a servant. The death of Moore's character sets up the sentimental ending.
Moore said the Oscar nomination was welcome but did not make it easier to find work. "The Oscar prestige was fine," she said, "but I worked more before I was nominated. Casting directors think an Oscar nominee is suddenly in another category. They couldn't possibly ask you to do one or two days' work. You wouldn't accept it. And I'm sure I would."
Born in Los Angeles, Moore got her start in show business as a chorus girl at New York's Cotton Club, then joined the Ebony theatre. She had an active stage career, starting at Los Angeles' Ebony Showcase Theatre in the early 1950s, a leading black-run theatre. She was also a member of the celebrated Cambridge Players, with other performers including Esther Rolle and Helen Martin. Her grandson is currently president and CEO of the Cambridge group.
She appeared on Broadway in 1965 in James Baldwin's play The Amen Corner and in London in a production of Raisin In The Sun.
"The creative arts put a person on another level," she said. "That's why we need to bring our youngsters into the theatre."
Her first film appearance was as a nurse in the 1949 film Pinky. As with other black actresses, many of Moore's early roles were as maids, but she said that real parts, not just in-and-out jobs, were opening up for black performers.
Among Moore's other films were The Girl Can't Help It, 'The Singing Nun, Paternity and The Kid. Her TV work included The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Adam-12, Judging Amy and ER.
She was the widow of Charles Burris and is survived by her grandson and two nephews.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article