Gertrude Jeannette

Gertrude Jeannette was an American playwright and stage and film actress who came to acting through a speech class at the American Negro Theater in Harlem, where she studied with Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis. After her first lead role in Our Town in 1945, she made her Broadway debut in Lost in the Stars in 1949. She wrote five plays, beginning with The Way Forward in 1950, and in 1979 she set up the H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players in Harlem, mentoring young black actors. Her Broadway credits included The Long Dream, Nobody Loves an Albatross, The Amen Corner, The Skin of Our Teeth and Vieux Carré, and her films included Cotton Comes to Harlem (1969), Shaft (1971) and Black Girl (1972). She acted into her 80s, retired from directing theater at 98, and in 2002 received the Paul Robeson Award from the Actors' Equity Association.