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Mary Alice, an Emmy-winning actor for I’ll Fly Away and a Tony winner for her performance in 1987’s Broadway production of August Wilson’s Fences, died yesterday in New York City.

Her age has been variously reported as 80, 84 and 86. Her death was confirmed to Deadline by the New York Police Department. No additional details were immediately available.

Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery

“A shoulder we all stood on,” tweeted actor Colman Domingo today.

A prolific character actor on screen and stage, and a pioneer in the representation of Black actors on the Off Broadway and Broadway scenes, Alice is perhaps most widely known to TV audiences for her two-season run as a main character on NBC’s Cosby Show spin-off A Different World, in which she played dorm director Leticia “Lettie” Bostic. In 2003, she featured prominently in The Matrix Revolutions, portraying The Oracle, who imparts words of wisdom to Keanu Reeves’ Neo.

Emmy-winning actress Mary Alice, known for her roles as Leticia “Lettie” Bostic on NBC‘s “A Different World” and as Effie Williams in the 1976 musical drama “Sparkle,” died Wednesday in New York City, according to the NYPD. Her birth year had been reported both as 1936 and 1941 in various sources.

In “The Matrix Revolutions,” she played the Oracle and also played the role in the video game “Enter the Matrix.”

She appeared in “A Different World” for two seasons, and also played Ellie Grant Hubbard on “All My Children” in the 1980s.

In films, she appeared in “Malcolm X,” “The Inkwell,” “Down in the Delta,” “Beat Street,” “To Sleep With Anger,” “Awakenings,” “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “Sunshine State,” among many others.

Born Mary Alice Smith in Indianola, Miss., she pursued acting at a very early age, starting her stage career in her hometown. After a brief stint as an elementary school teacher,...

Exclusive: Oscar-nominated actress Alfre Woodard is joining New Line’s Salem’s Lot bunch in the big-screen take of the 1975 Stephen King vampire novel, we can tell you first.

She’ll play Dr. Cody, who in the novel is a guy, Dr. Jimmy Cody. Cody assists Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman in the film), Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh) and Matt Burke (Bill Camp) in fighting the spread of vampires. Spencer Treat Clark also stars as Mike Ryerson, as Deadline first reported. In King’s first New York Times No. 1 bestseller, author Ben Mears returns to his childhood home of Jerusalem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his next book, only to discover his hometown is being preyed upon by a bloodthirsty vampire.

Woodard recently starred in the critically acclaimed feature Clemency, for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination and a Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead. On the small screen,...

The Criterion Collection on Thursday joined the wave of industry supporters who’ve come out in the past week to help fight systemic racism, and help advocate for police reform and support protesters across America. From A24 to Bad Robot, film’s leading voices are stepping up in response to current events. In an email from Criterion president Peter Becker and CEO Jonathan Turell, the company announced a $25,000 initial contribution, followed by an ongoing $5,000 monthly commitment for organizations supporting Black Lives Matter.

But Criterion also announced that it’s lifting the paywall on select titles from Black filmmakers, and white filmmakers who’ve captured the Black experience through documentary, so that audiences at home can stream them for free, with no need for a subscription.

Titles streaming for free on Criterion Channel include Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust,” Maya Angelou’s “Down in the Delta,” Shirley Clarke’s “Portrait of Jason,...

Coming to Film Forum in New York City is “Black Women,” a 70-film screening series that spotlights 81 years – 1920 to 2001 – of trailblazing African American actresses in American movies.

Scheduled to run from January 17 to February 13, the series is curated by film historian and professor Donald Bogle, author of six books concerning blacks in film and television, including the groundbreaking “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films” (1973).

“Last year, Bruce Goldstein, the repertory programmer at Film Forum, asked me if there was something I was interested in doing, and this was a topic that I had been thinking about, because I recently updated my book on the subject, ‘Brown Sugar,’ which dealt with African American women in entertainment from the early years of the late 19th century to the present,” said Bogle. “That’s really the way it came about, and it just developed from there.

The time has come for Hulu to release its list of everything coming and going in the month of August.

This will come in handy after the “Bachelorette” season finale in late July leaves us in desperate need of something else to watch.

In August, a new episode of Hulu’s horror anthology “Into The Dark” arrives, in which a group of social outcasts who are stuck in weekend detention are confronted by the school’s legendary hauntings.

Also Read: 'Mrs. Maisel' Star Alex Borstein Is Frequently Asked to Sign Plungers, and She Thinks It's Weird

Other Hulu originals include: “The Amazing Johnathan Documentary,” in which a filmmaker profiles a dying magician on his final tour, but the lines between reality and magic begin to blur; Season 2 of “Find Me in Paris,” and “Jawline,” a Hulu original documentary that follows 16-year-old Austyn Tester, a rising star in the live-broadcast ecosystem...

The African American Film Critics Association (Aafca) is launching a new summer screening series to pay homage to timeless Hollywood films. The organization will 30, 25, and 20-year old anniversary titles that celebrate Black culture including Coming To America, Poetic Justice, and the Maya Angelou-directed classic Down In the Delta.

In addition, Poetic Justice helmer John Singleton will be present for a Q&A session which will take place June 18th at the Mark Taper Room in downtown Los Angeles.

“We are very happy to celebrate these landmark films that not only entertain but also raise awareness of the African American experience, says Aafca Programs Director, Nicholas Maye. “The fact that these films are still impactful 30, 25 and 20 years later speaks to the long-lasting power of Black film and its images and themes.”...

Reel-Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies who have left us in recent weeks. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in his or her own way. Maya Angelou (1928-2014) - Author and poet. Her classic book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was adapted into a 1979 TV movie. She also scripted the film Georgia, Georgia and scripted Down in the Delta. She appears in Poetic Justice (see below), How to Make an American Quilt, Madea's Family Reunion (pictured above), Porgy and Bess and the documentaries Under African Skies and Good Hair. She died on May 28. (CNN...

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Today's Picture To Gawk At

This one goes out to my podcast pals via Theater Mania because we know you've always wanted to see a photo of Julianne Moore with Sophie Okonedo!

Juli with the cast of the 2 millionth revival of "Raisin in the Sun"

Linkages

New York Times Maya Angelou, the famous author and poet, sometime actress, and one time director (Down in the Delta, 1998) has died

Pajiba Charlie Cox, who killed my beloved Pfeiffer in Stardust will be the new Daredevil for 2015's Netflix series. I haven't seen him in act in like seven years (no really)... so I have no idea what to say about this. Kept a low profile he has as a once rising star. Thoughts?

Playbill Best Picture winner The Sting (1973) will become a musical on Broadway. (That's mandatory now for famous movies)

Av Club HBO going further back with its gay content and...

Award-winning author, renowned poet, civil rights activist and one of the most respected voices in America, Dr. Maya Angelou, has died. She was 86. A statement from her family was posted on her Facebook page Wednesday morning: "Dr. Maya Angelou passed quietly in her home before 8:00 a.m. Est. Her family is extremely grateful that her ascension was not belabored by a loss of acuity or comprehension. She lived a life as a teacher, activist, artist and human being. She was a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace. The family is extremely appreciative of the time we had with her...

Hillel Italie, Associated Press

New York (AP) - Maya Angelou was gratified, but not surprised by her extraordinary fortune.

"I'm not modest," she told The Associated Press in 2013. "I have no modesty. Modesty is a learned behavior. But I do pray for humility, because humility comes from the inside out."

Her story awed millions. The young single mother who worked at strip clubs to earn a living later danced and sang on stages around the world. A black woman born poor wrote and recited the most popular presidential inaugural poem in history. A childhood victim of rape, shamed into silence, eventually told her story through one of the most widely read memoirs of the past few decades.

Angelou, a Renaissance woman and cultural pioneer, died Wednesday morning at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, her son, Guy B. Johnson, said in a statement. The 86-year-old had been a professor of...

The Hallmark Channel is launching an unscripted lifestyle series with author and icon Maya Angelou.

The new 13-episode series is called The Spirit Table and will feature the host and well-known guests sharing life stories and cooking. The show is slated for prime-time airing and is expected to be launched in early 2012.

Ms. Angelou is no novice to television having made appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show as well as acted in several films and TV shows including Touched By An Angel, Roots, Poetic Justice and Madea’s Family Reunion.

She also made her debut as a director with Down In The Delta. The 1998 film stars Alfre Woodard, Al Freeman Jr., Esther Rolle, Loretta Devine and Wesley Snipes.

Actor Al Freeman Jr. is 77 today. The accomplished actor, who began his career in an episode of the 1958 TV series Suspicion, became the first African-American actor to be honored with an Emmy award in the Best Lead Actor category. His credits include a long list of various television programs and movies such as Kojak, Roots: The Next Generation, Dutchman, soap opera One Life To Live and Down In The Delta. Playing Elijah Muhammed in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X may be considered his most memorable role.

Actress Sabrina LeBeauf will be 53 today. The actress is probably best known for her role as Sondra Huxtable on The Cosby Show. She beat out Whitney Houston for that role. She earned a BA in Theatre Arts from UCLA and an Mfa in acting from the Yale School of Drama where she was a classmate of John Turturro, Charles S. Dutton and Oscar-nominee Angela Bassett.

We're looking at each Meryl Streep Oscar nod and its competitive field.

Previously: 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 87, 88, 90 and 95

Twenty years after her first nomination for The Deer Hunter (1978) Meryl Streep replaced Bette Davis as runner up to Katharine Hepburn's Oscar throne with her cancer victim in One True Thing. For a very short time period (i.e. twelve months) the three legends had a 10-11-12 Oscar nomination spread. Streep would soon leave both Hepburn and Davis in the dust. But we'll get to her #1 status when it rolls around.

1998 the nominees were

Cate Blanchett, ElizabethFernanda Montenegro, Central Station *Nathaniel's vote*

Gwyneth Paltrow, Shakespeare in LoveMeryl Streep, One True ThingEmily Watson, Hilary & Jackie

The Blanchett vs. Paltrow contest has arguably been the most discussed in modern Oscar Actress history with the possible exception of Swank vs. Bening (both rounds). People still get hot under their ruffs about this one a full dozen years later.