Leslie Uggams

Leslie Uggams (born May 25, 1943 in New York City, New York) is an American actress and singer, known for her work in ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallelujah,_Baby! Hallelujah, Baby!] and as Kizzy Reynolds in the 1977 television miniseries Roots''.



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[hide]  *1 Biography  ==Biography[ edit] == Uggams was born in New York City. Her father was a singer with the Hall Johnson choir and her mother was a dancer.[1] She attended the Professional Children's School of New York and Juilliard.[1] [2]  She met her husband, Grahame Pratt while she was performing in Sydney, Australia; they married in 1965. After their wedding, the couple decided to reside in New York, in part to avoid Australia's racial segregation laws of that time.[2] ===Early career[ edit] === Uggams started in show business as a child in 1950, playing the niece of Ethel Waters on Beulah. Uggams made her singing debut on the Lawrence Welk Show and was a regular on Sing Along with Mitch, starring record producer-conductor Mitch Miller.[1]  In 1960, she sang, off-screen, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" in the film Inherit the Wind. Uggams came to be recognized by TV audiences as an upcoming teen talent in 1954 on the NBC/CBS hit musical quiz show series Name That Tune (1953-9), along with child hitmaker Eddie Hodges. Her records "One More Sunrise"(an English-language cover of Ivo Robic's "Morgen", 1959) and "House Built On Sand" made Billboard magazine's charts. ===Television and film<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">She appeared in her own television variety show, The Leslie Uggams Show in 1969. This was the "first network variety show to feature an African-American host since the mid-1950s Nat "King" Cole Show."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[3]  She had a lead role in the 1977 miniseries Roots, for which she received an Emmy nomination, as Kizzy.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[4]  In 1979, she starred as Lillian Rogers Parks in Backstairs at the White House, a miniseries for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Actress. She also made guest appearances on such television programs as Hollywood Squares, Fantasy, The Muppet Show, and Magnum, P.I.. In 1996, Uggams played the role of Rose Keefer onAll My Children.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-allmusic_1-3" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[1]  Uggams starred in the 1975 film Poor Pretty Eddie, in which she played a popular singer who, upon being stranded in the deep South, is abused and humiliated by the perverse denizens of a backwoods town.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[5] ===Stage<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Uggams was picked to star in Hallelujah, Baby! after Lena Horne declined the role of Georgina. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1967 and "created a new star" in Uggams.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[6]  She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a musical (in a tie with Patricia Routledge).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[7]  She appeared on Broadway in the revue Blues in the Night in 1982 and in the musical revue of the works of Jerry Herman, Jerry's Girls in 1985.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[8]  Uggams replaced Patti LuPone as Reno Sweeney in the Lincoln Center revival ofCole Porter's musical Anything Goes on Broadway in March 1989. She had played Reno in a US tour in 1988-1989.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[9]  Later Broadway roles include Muzzy inThoroughly Modern Millie (2003 - 2004) and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond at the Kennedy Center in 2004<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[10]  and on Broadway at the Cort Theatre in 2005.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[11]  In 2001 she appeared in the August Wilson play King Hedley II,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[12]  receiving a nomination for the Tony Award, Best Actress in a Play.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[13]  In January 2009, Uggams playedLena Horne in a production of the stage musical Stormy Weather at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[14]  In June 2012, Uggams played Muzzy in a production of "Thorougly Modern Millie" at The Muny in Saint Louis, Missouri.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[15] ==Discography<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == ==Awards and nominations<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Ovation Awards
 * 1.1 Early career
 * 1.2 Television and film
 * 1.3 Stage
 * 2 Discography
 * 3 Awards and nominations
 * 4 References
 * 5 External links
 * The Eyes of God (Columbia CS8174, 1959)
 * So In Love! (Columbia CS8871, 1963)
 * A Time to Love (Atlantic 8128, 1966)
 * What's An Uggams? (Atlantic SD8196, 1968)
 * Just to Satisfy You (Atlantic SD8241, 1969)
 * Leslie (Columbia CS9936, 1970)
 * Try To See It My Way (Sonday SL8000, 1972)
 * Leslie Uggams (Motown M6846S1, 1975)


 * 2009: Nominated for Lead Actress in a Musical for the role of Lena Horne in the Pasadena Playhouse production of "Stormy Weather"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[16]