Ethel Ayler

Ethel Ayler was an American character actress whose career spanned more than five decades. Born in Whistler, Alabama, and educated at Fisk University, she started on the stage, making her off-Broadway debut in 1957 in Langston Hughes's musical Simply Heavenly and reaching Broadway later that same year in Jamaica, where she understudied Lena Horne. She went on to perform often with the Negro Ensemble Company, in shows such as The First Breeze of Summer, Eden and Nevis Mountain Dew, and she appeared in Jean Genet's The Blacks: A Clown Show. She also had a recurring part on The Cosby Show as Carrie Hanks, Clair Huxtable's mother. Her film work included To Sleep with Anger (1990), which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best supporting female, and Eve's Bayou (1997). Her final Broadway appearance came in The Little Foxes in 1997.