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A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.
Stanley Kubrick
In 1976 Louise Beavers, along with Josephine Baker and Canada Lee were posthumously inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
Louise Beavers
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Louise Beaver
8 March 1902, Cincinnati, Ohio
26 October 1962, Hollywood, California
Louise Beavers (March 8, 1902 – October 26, 1962) was an American film and television actress. Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s to the 1930s, 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.
Beavers' had stage experience before going into films and sang in many musical comedies. Her most famous and noted role was her portrayal of Delilah Johnson, the housekeeper/cook whose employer transforms her into an Aunt Jemima-like celebrity in the 1934 film Imitation of Life. One of the film's main conflicts was that between Delilah and her light-skinned daughter Peola (played by Fredi Washington), who wanted to pass for white. Imitation of Life was the first time in American cinema history that a black woman's problems were given major emotional weight in a major Hollywood motion picture.
The vast majority of Beavers' other film roles, however, were not as prestigious. Along with Hattie McDaniel, she became the on-screen personification of the "mammy" stereotype: a large, matronly black woman with a quick temper, a large laugh, and a subservient manner. Beavers' employers had her overeat so that she could maintain her "mammy"-like figure. Although Beavers did not approve of how her characters were scripted, she nonetheless continued appearing in films, because, as her contemporary McDaniel once stated, "it's better to play a maid than be a maid."
According to author Donald Bogle's book, Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, Beavers worked as a housekeeper for silent screen star Leatrice Joy before entering films.
Beavers was one of four actresses (including Hattie McDaniel, Ethel Waters, and Amanda Randolph) to portray housekeeper Beulah on the Beulah television show. That show was the first television sitcom to star an African American, even though the role was a somewhat subservient one. She also played Louise the maid on the first two seasons of The Danny Thomas Show (1953–1955).
Louise Beavers died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California on October 26, 1962.
In 1976, she was inducted posthumously into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
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African-American screen, television, and minstrel actress.
Before becoming an actress, Beavers was the maid for actress Leatrice Joy.
Despite the fact that she was given fourth billing in Imitation of Life (1934), her role was nearly equal in importance to Claudette Colbert's, and was the first instance of a Hollywood film in which a black woman's maternal problems were given equal importance to those of the leading white character in a film.
The studio forced her to eat extra servings of food so she could play the "black mammy" roles that were available to actresses of color at the time.
Playing cooks for most her career, in real life Louise detested cooking.
A member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, one of four African-American sororities at the time.
Louise died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California on October 26, 1962, exactly a decade to the day as her famed counterpart Hattie McDaniel.
Louise was only a year older than actress Fredi Washington, who played her daughter in Imitation of Life (1934).
Her husband, Leroy Moore, was a professional chef.
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