Margaret Avery Biography
Margaret is an American actress and singer. She began her career appearing on stage and later has had starring roles in films.
Margaret Avery Age
Avery was born on January 20, 1944, in Mangum, Oklahoma, U.S. She is 75 years old as of 2018.
Margaret Avery Family
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Margaret Avery Education
Avery attended Point Loma High School. She then attended San Francisco State University, where in 1985, she earned her degree in education.
Margaret Avery Marriage | Divorced
Avery married Robert Gordon Hunt in January 1974. The two couple have one daughter, Aisha Hunt, and divorced in 1980.
Margaret Avery Career
Avery is best known for her role as Shug Avery in the 1985 film The Color Purple. Her performance in this screen adaptation of Alice Walker’s prize-winning novel The Color Purple earned Avery an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Among the plays, Avery appeared in were Revolution and The Sistuhs. In 1972 for her performance in Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, she received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress.
In the television movie Something Evil (1972), a horror story with Sandy Dennis and Darren McGavin, Avery was directed by Steven Spielberg. That same year she made her theatrical motion picture debut as Lark in the crime film Cool Breeze with Thalmus Rasulala and Judy Pace. In this blaxploitation remake of The Asphalt Jungle, Avery played the Marilyn Monroe part. The following year she played a prostitute in Magnum Force, the second in the series of Dirty Harry films starring Clint Eastwood, in which her character was murdered by her pimp. The character was killed through the pouring drain cleaner down the victim’s throat which was said to have inspired the notorious Hi-Fi Murders case in 1974.
In the 1977 film Which Way Is Up? directed by Michael Schultz, Avery gave a comedic performance as Annie Mae, the wife of Richard Pryor’s character. That same year, she played Belle Joplin, wife of the ragtime composer Scott Joplin, opposite Billy Dee Williams in the title role.
In 1992 Avery starred in The Jacksons: An American Dream as Martha Scruse, mother of Katherine Jackson, who was played by Angela Bassett.
She has also made guest appearances on TV, including The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Kojak, Sanford and Son, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, A.E.S. Hudson Street, Murder, She Wrote, Miami Vice, Spenser: For Hire, The Cosby Show, Walker, Texas Ranger, and JAG.
In 2008, Avery played Mama Jenkins in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, opposite Martin Lawrence and James Earl Jones, and Sarah Brown in Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, which also stars Angela Bassett.
Currently, Avery plays recurring character Helen Patterson in BET’s series Being Mary Jane.
Margaret Avery Net Worth
Avery is an American actress and singer who has a net worth of $3 million dollars.
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Our view: Theatre festival anticipation
With the remnants of winter still chilling our noses, it may be hard to imagine the heat of summer and this year’s National Black Theatre Festival, which begins July 29. But the announcement earlier this week of the festival’s co-chairs certainly warmed many hearts. The festival, already generating enthusiasm, is one of the premier events of the City of Arts and Innovation.
Margaret Avery and Chester Gregory were announced as this year’s co-chairs to a crowd at an event on Monday at the Benton Convention Center, the Journal’s Lynn Felder reported. Both are veteran performers with extensive careers.
Avery is best known for playing Shug in the film “The Color Purple” and also recently played Helen Patterson on the BET show “Being Mary Jane.” Gregory’s most prominent roles have been on Broadway, where he played Terk in the musical “Tarzan” and Dupree in “Cry-Baby.”
He’s also no stranger to the theatre festival, having portrayed the titular singer in “The Jackie Wilson Story: My Heart Is Crying, Crying,” during the 2001 festival and in subsequent years.
Their energy and celebrity will lend themselves well to what is always an exciting event in Winston-Salem. This is the 15th National Black Theatre Festival — it’s held every other year — and if tradition holds, it will give our city a healthy dose of glamour as visiting luminaries mingle with local fans and volunteers.
And it’s not bad for city coffers. “The happiest time of my year is when my board looks at the occupancy taxes after the National Black Theatre Festival,” Richard Geiger, president of the Winston-Salem Convention and Visitors Bureau, told the Journal. “It has helped establish Winston-Salem as a destination for art, theater and African-American culture. It has an incredible impact on the economy and culture of Winston-Salem.”
Best of all, it brings sharp, thought-provoking theater performances that expand our understanding of the world around us.
The festival will present 25 main-stage plays in about 120 performances as well as collegiate theater in the Fringe component this year, Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin, the current executive producer of the festival and the widow of theatre festival founder Larry Leon Hamlin, said. The festival also includes performances of new works, workships and seminars, a film fest, vendors market and more. Venues are spread around town and will include a 240-seat black box theater being completed now in the Milton Rhodes art center.
It’s a “marvastic” event, as Larry Leon Hamlin would put it, and not to be missed.
Source: WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL