Connection
Ethel Ayler is a Actor American born on 1 may 1930 at Whistler (USA)
Ethel Ayler (born 1934) is a veteran African-American character actress with a career spanning over five decades.
Another notable early performance was in Jean Genet's play, The Blacks: A Clown Show, which ran off-Broadway for 1,408 performances and received three Obie Awards including for Best New Play. The impressive cast of black actors included three future Academy Award nominees: James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson and Louis Gossett, Jr..
Throughout her career, Ayler has appeared frequently with the Negro Ensemble Company. This includes notable performances in The First Breeze of Summer, Eden and Nevis Mountain Dew.
On television, Ayler had a recurring role as Carrie Hanks, Claire Huxtable's mother on The Cosby Show. She has also made memorable performances in the films To Sleep with Anger (1990) and Eve's Bayou (1997).
For her work in To Sleep with Anger, Ayler received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best supporting female.
Ayler's most recent Broadway appearance was in another Tony-nominated production, The Little Foxes in 1997.
Source : Wikidata
Ethel Ayler
Birth name Ethyl Spraggins Ayler
Nationality USA
Birth 1 may 1930 at Whistler (USA)
Death 18 november 2018 (at 88 years)
Nationality USA
Birth 1 may 1930 at Whistler (USA)
Death 18 november 2018 (at 88 years)
Ethel Ayler (born 1934) is a veteran African-American character actress with a career spanning over five decades.
Biography
Ayler was born in Whistler, Alabama in 1934. In 1957, she made her off-Broadway debut in the Langston Hughes musical, Simply Heavenly. Later that year, she debuted on Brodway in the multiple Tony Award-nominated musical, Jamaica as an understudy for Lena Horne (also making her Broadway debut).Another notable early performance was in Jean Genet's play, The Blacks: A Clown Show, which ran off-Broadway for 1,408 performances and received three Obie Awards including for Best New Play. The impressive cast of black actors included three future Academy Award nominees: James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson and Louis Gossett, Jr..
Throughout her career, Ayler has appeared frequently with the Negro Ensemble Company. This includes notable performances in The First Breeze of Summer, Eden and Nevis Mountain Dew.
On television, Ayler had a recurring role as Carrie Hanks, Claire Huxtable's mother on The Cosby Show. She has also made memorable performances in the films To Sleep with Anger (1990) and Eve's Bayou (1997).
For her work in To Sleep with Anger, Ayler received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best supporting female.
Ayler's most recent Broadway appearance was in another Tony-nominated production, The Little Foxes in 1997.
Usually with
Filmography of Ethel Ayler (6 films)
Actress
Add to a movie list
The Wedding (1998)
, 2h15Directed by Charles Burnett
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Romance
Actors Halle Berry, Lynn Whitfield, Carl Lumbly, Shirley Knight, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Cynda Williams
Roles Eunice
Rating61%
Shelby Cole (Halle Berry) returns to Martha's Vineyard and the Cole family home, affectionately known in town as 'The Oval', to wed her white fiancé, jazz pianist and composer Meade Howell (Eric Thal). While her black high-society parents initially accept the pair, even arranging the wedding to be held at the mansion, they have growing misgivings as to the pair's ability to withstand the racial prejudice of the time, only made stronger after Meade admits that his own middle-class parents will not be attending the wedding because of their prejudice against their daughter-in-law-to-be. Through frequent flashbacks throughout, we see the racial, societal and class choices made by Shelby's white great-grandmother on her mother's side (Shirley Knight), her grandparents and parents to insure the family's standing, even while those choices may have robbed them of the very happiness they sought. While Shelby dismisses and even rebuffs much of their advice, her own doubts grow as she and Meade go through their own current experiences of racism and racial expectations. Seeing her growing misgivings, Lute McNeil (Carl Lumbly), local architect, father and neighbor of the Coles, sees an opportunity to try to win Shelby's heart, having loved her from afar for some time. With Lute's persistent, sometimes unwanted, attentions, Shelby starts to question her marrying Meade. After a racist incident at a local restaurant, Shelby even confesses to Meade that she doesn't want to spend the rest of her life defending their relationship and asks him to give her time to finally decide.
Eve's Bayou (1997)
, 1h49Directed by Kasi Lemmons
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action
Themes Films about families
Actors Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Debbi Morgan, Lynn Whitfield, Meagan Good, Samuel L. Jackson, Lisa Nicole Carson
Roles Gran Mère
Rating71%
Eve Batiste (Jurnee Smollett), a ten-year-old girl, lives in a prosperous African American community in Louisiana with her younger brother Poe (Jake Smollett) and her older sister Cisely (Meagan Good), a pretty girl who is just entering puberty. Their parents are Roz (Lynn Whitfield) and Louis (Samuel L. Jackson), a well respected doctor in Louisiana's "colored" community who claims descent from the French aristocrat who founded the town of Eve's bayou. One night after a raucous party, Eve accidentally witnesses her father having sex with family friend Matty Mereaux (Lisa Nicole Carson). However, Cisely, who has a very affectionate relationship with her father, convinces Eve that she misinterpreted an innocent moment. The unreliability of memory and observation remain important themes throughout the film.
The Bodyguard (1992)
, 2h9Directed by Mick Jackson
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy-drama, Action, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians
Actors Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston, Gary Kemp, Bill Cobbs, Michele Lamar Richards, Ralph Waite
Roles Emma
Rating64%
Rachel Marron (Whitney Houston) is an Academy Award-nominated music superstar who is being stalked and sent death threats. Things get dangerously out of hand when a bomb disguised as a doll explodes in her dressing room. Rachel's manager, Bill Devaney (Bill Cobbs), seeks the services of a professional bodyguard, Frank Farmer (Kevin Costner), to protect her. He is a highly successful private bodyguard, mostly protecting corporate VIPs. Formerly he was a Secret Service agent who served as part of the presidential protection detail during two presidencies. Frank is reluctant to accept the offer to guard Rachel as he sees her as a spoiled diva who is oblivious to the threats against her life.
Stormy Weathers (1992)
Directed by Will Mackenzie
Origin USA
Genres Crime
Actors Cybill Shepherd, Robert Beltran, Charlie Schlatter, Kurt Fuller, Diane Salinger, Roy Thinnes
Roles Clara Wilkes
Rating56%
To Sleep with Anger (1990)
, 1h42Directed by Charles Burnett
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Actors Danny Glover, Richard Brooks, Mary Alice, DeVaughn Nixon, Reina King, Sheryl Lee Ralph
Roles Hattie
Rating71%
Harry (Danny Glover), an enigmatic old friend from the South, comes to visit Gideon (Paul Butler) and his wife Suzie (Mary Alice), who haven't seen him for many years, who are delighted to see him again, and who insist that he stay with them for as long as he would like. Gideon and Suzie live in South Central Los Angeles, though they retain some of their rural southern ways, including raising chickens in the backyard. Harry has a charming, down-home manner, but his presence brings to a crisis the simmering trouble that is already in the family—especially as regards the younger son, Samuel or "Baby Brother," and his relation to his parents, wife, and older brother, Junior (Carl Lumbly). His disruptive presence is dangerous (his influence threatens to break up Samuel's marriage and seems to be related to the illness that puts Gideon in bed in serious condition for a couple weeks), but ultimately purgative: Gideon's extended family is much more cohesive as a result of Harry's visit. The storm accompanying the wound Suzie suffers when she grasps the knife that Samuel and Junior are struggling over during their climactic fight clears while the two brothers quietly reconcile (during a long wait in an emergency room) and, similarly, the simmering anger that Harry seemed to bring to a boil is also dissipated. Harry's death just before the end of the film suggests, ambiguously, that he has been to a degree a self-sacrificing savior of the family.
Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986)
, 1h52Directed by Adrian Lyne
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Erotic, Romance, Erotic thriller
Themes Films about sexuality, Erotic films, BDSM in films, Erotic thriller films, Striptease
Actors Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Margaret Whitton, Christine Baranski, David Margulies, Karen Young
Roles Jewelry Saleswoman
Rating59%
The title of the film refers to the duration of a relationship between Wall Street arbitrageur John Gray (Mickey Rourke) and divorced SoHo art gallery employee Elizabeth McGraw (Kim Basinger). John initiates and controls the various experimental sexual practices of this volatile relationship to push Elizabeth's boundaries. In doing so, Elizabeth experiences a gradual downward spiral toward emotional breakdown.