Black History Month Day 24 ~ Claudia McNeil

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Posted: 2/24/11 at 11:15pm

Claudia McNeil (August 13, 1917 – November 25, 1993) was born in Baltimore, to Marvin Spencer McNeil, an African-American, and Annie Mae Anderson McNeil, a Native American. The family moved to New York City soon after her birth. She was raised by her mother after her father left the family. At the age of twelve, McNeil began working for the The Heckscher Foundation for Children. There she met a Jewish couple who later adopted her, and McNeil became fluent in Yiddish.

She became a licensed librarian, but soon began singing in vaudeville theaters, and performing in nightclubs in Harlem, Greenwich Village and on 52nd Street. McNeil also sang for the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe on its South American tour. She was advised by Ethel Waters to begin acting, and made her New York stage debut in 1953, playing Tituba in The Crucible at the Martin Beck Theater. Four years later, Langston Hughes chose her to sing in his musical play Simply Heavenly. She won critical acclaim for this role.

In 1961, she was featured in "A Raisin in the Sun" (for which she received a Tony nomination) and became so identified with the part of the matriarch that she said, “There was a time when I acted the role…Now I live it.”

She also starred in the plays Tiger Tiger Burning Bright (1962 – earning her second Tony nomination), James Baldwin's The Amen Corner (1965), Something Different (1967), Her First Roman (196, Wrong Way Light-Bulb (1969) and "Contributions" (1970).

McNeil acted in films, including: The Last Angry Man (1959) and A Raisin in the Sun (1961), There Was a Crooked Man... (1970), and Black Girl (1972).

She also appeared in many TV series, including: The DuPont Show of the Month (1957), The Nurses (1962), Profiles in Courage (1965), Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (197, and Roots: The Next Generations (1979).

By the time she appeared in the 1959 film The Last Angry Man, she weighed nearly 300 pounds. But in 1978, when she sang at Michael's Pub in Manhattan, she had slimmed down to 159 pounds and famously commented, "I lost a whole person."

McNeil was married when she was 18 to a man who died in World War II. Her second marriage ended in divorce after two years.

She retired in 1983 and two years later moved into the Actors’ Fund Nursing Home in Englewood Bergen County New Jersey. McNeil died there on Nov. 25, 1993 from complications related to diabetes.

(Source: yup.)