Claudia McNeil

Claudia McNeil was an American actress remembered for playing Lena Younger, the matriarch of A Raisin in the Sun, on stage and in the 1961 film. Born in Baltimore, she grew up in New York City. After Ethel Waters encouraged her to perform, she made her first New York stage appearance in 1953 as understudy for Tituba in The Crucible. She earned Tony Award nominations for her stage work in A Raisin in the Sun and Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright, and received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for the screen adaptation. Her film roles also included Black Girl (1972), The Last Angry Man (1959), and There Was a Crooked Man... (1970). She toured with Sam Levene in Horowitz & Mrs. Washington and appeared on television in The DuPont Show of the Month, Profiles in Courage, The Nurses, and Roots: The Next Generations. She died in 1993.