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For other uses, see Evelyn Ellis (disambiguation).

Evelyn Ellis

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Evelyn Ellis
Born(1894-02-02)February 2, 1894
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedJune 5, 1958(1958-06-05) (aged 64)
Saranac Lake, New York, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1919–1953

Evelyn Ellis (February 2, 1894 – June 5, 1958) was an African American character actress of stage and film. Devoting herself to the theatre, her film roles were few but she appeared in films like The Joe Louis Story and Lady from Shanghai. Towards the end of her career Miss Ellis, as she was called, also directed a few theater plays. The Baltimore Afro American Newspaper on their issue in October 26th, 1929 described her as a “quiet and unassuming young lady with a very charming personality"[1]. An attractive woman who could have been a leading lady, she chose character roles.

Early Life and Work

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Miss. Ellis was born in Boston, Massachusetts on February 2, 1894. Not much is known about her earlier life and introduction to acting, but she became a pretty prominent actor within the black community starting in 1919 until 1955. Her acting and stage debut where at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem, New York in a production of “Othello". She then move up to Broadway making her debut in the production of “Roseanne” by Nan Bagby Stephen. Her next big Broadway Show was “Porgy” in 1927 where she is know for creating the character of Bess. That same year she played a lead role in Ernest Howard Culberston’s production of “Goat Alley” which dealt with black life in the slums of Washington D.C. Here she played the character of Lucy Bell Dorsey and was praised by the New York Times Theatre Review for “her telling portrayal.”(Hodges). There was a few years of inactivity due to the stock market crash of 1929 that led to the Great Depression, but she came right back and even started directing.

Ellis played in various other theatrical plays like “Deep Are the Roots” in 1945 where she played Bella Charles a house keeper, and the “Royal Family” in 1952. Her next big role however was her lead role in Orson Welles’ “Native Son” were she played the Hannah Thomas the mother of Bigger Thomas who was played by actor Canda Lee. She also played the same role a year later in an even more successful revival of the play. The Afro American Newspaper states her role was “so realistic that she had already earned the praised of Broadway critics” (Evelyn Ellis p. 9). Ellis continued to play various lead roles through her year working with the Dunbar Players of Philadelphia. During this year she also started a drama school in Long Island for the youth.

Directing Career

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She directed “Horse Play” in 1937 and then put on the play “Little Woman” in 1938 with the junior department at the Negro Little Theatre. Her most notable work however as a director as well as an actress is in the all black production of “Tobacco Road” in 1950. She played the role of a starving mother which the New York Times singled out as “truthful elements that left a lasting impression”[2]. Through her directing of a youth play and her creation of the drama school Ellis was proactive in getting younger kids interested in the art of drama.

TV Career

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Towards her finals years of acting she entered the TV industry playing in three different films. He first one being in 1948 as Bessie in The Lady from Shanghai and then in 1953 she played the fighters mothers in the movie The Journal Louis Story. Her final film, Interrupted Melody, was in 1955 where she played a maid. Although her active years are seen to be from 1919 to 1953 she continued acting until 1955, however her final broadway play was in 1953

Other Work

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Some of her other work include Blue Holiday (1945), Deep Are the Roots (1945), The Royal Family (1952), and Supper for the Dead (1954). She also appeared in Easy Money (1821) and “Oscar Micheaux’s controversial A Son of Satan (1924)”[3]which are both race films

Death

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Ellis ended her acting career in 1955 with her final film Interrupted Melody and two years later passed away from a heart aliment on June 5, 1958 at the age of 64. She was hospitalized from December 1957 until her death on June 5th, 1958 at the Variety Club’s Will Rogers Memorial Hospital in Saranac Lake, NY.

Selected filmography

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Afro American Newspaper". October 26, 1929.
  2. ^ Hodges, Carolyn (1992). Notable Black American Women. Detroit: Gale Research Inc.
  3. ^ Smith, Jessie (2014). Black Women of the Harlem Renaissance Era. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 74.
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Category:1894 births Category:1958 deaths Category:Actresses from Boston Category:African-American actresses Category:American actresses Category:American stage actresses Category:20th-century American actresses

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