Name
Maidie Norman
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1912-10-16
Deathday
1998-05-02 (86 years old)
Place of Birth
Villa Rica, Georgia, USA
Biography
Maidie Norman was born Maidie Ruth Gamble on October 16, 1912, in Villa Rica, Georgia, to Louis and Lila Gamble. She received a B.A. from Bennett College in 1934 and a master's degree from Columbia University three years later. She also attended the Actors Lab in Hollywood from 1946 to 1949.
Norman first appeared on film in The Peanut Man in 1947. Throughout the fifties-not a good time for film roles for black women-she appeared in a number of films, such as Bright Road with Dorothy Dandridge and Sidney Poitier and Torch Song, both in 1953; About Mrs. Leslie and Susan Slept Here in 1954; and 1956's Written on the Wind. These were often servant roles, with a special fifties blandness. Still, Norman was skillful and professional in her execution of them. In 1962, she got a chance to chew up the scenery with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
In 1968-69, Norman was an artist-in-residence at Stanford University and, throughout the seventies, she was lecturer, director, and acting teacher at UCLA. At the same time, Norman was highly visible on television, appearing in Mannix, Adam 12, Streets of San Francisco, Kung Fu, The Jeffersons, and others. She was also part of the cast of Roots: The Next Generation in 1979.
Norman was a founding member of the American Negro Theater West; in 1977, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame; and an award in her name is presented each year for outstanding research by an undergraduate in Black Theater at UCLA. She died on May 6, 1998.
Known For
5.2
After a terrified toy salesman is mysteriously attacked and brought to the hospital clutch...
7.895
A former vaudeville child star viciously torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying ...
5.618
Flight 23 has crashed in the Bermuda Triangle after a hijacking gone wrong. Now the surviv...
5.992
Drunken, has-been rock star John Norman Howard falls in love with unknown singer Esther Ho...
5.952
Three movie genres of the 1930s, boxing films, WWI aviation dramas, and backstage Broadway...
6.956
Mitch Wayne is a geologist working for the Hadleys, an oil-rich Texas family. While the pa...
5.1
In the 1870s, two rival businessmen, Zack Thomas and Joe Jarrett, on a stagecoach heading ...
6.125
A stranger comes to town looking for his estranged wife. He finds her running the local gi...
6.464
In the 70s, actress Delphine Seyrig and director Carole Roussopoulos, both militant femini...
6.081
On Christmas Eve, suffering from a case of writer's block, screenwriter Mark Christopher a...
- 1962 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? as Elvira Stitt
- 1982 Halloween III: Season of the Witch as Nurse Agnes
- 1951 The Well as Martha Crawford
- 1954 Executive Suite as Housekeeper (uncredited)
- 1956 Written on the Wind as Bertha
- 1954 Susan Slept Here as Georgette
- 1955 Tarzan's Hidden Jungle as Suma
- 1953 Bright Road as Mrs. Hamilton - Tanya's Mother
- 1954 About Mrs. Leslie as Camilla
- 1953 Forever Female as Emma (uncredited)
- 1973 The Lie as Janine
- 1977 Airport '77 as Dorothy
- 1976 A Star Is Born as Justice of the Peace (uncredited)
- 1949 Manhandled as Christine, Bennet's Maid (uncredited)
- 1972 Sixteen as Aunt Ada
- 1972 Another Part of the Forest as Coralee
- 1973 Maurie as Mrs. Stokes
- 1956 The Opposite Sex as Violet (uncredited)
- 1947 The Peanut Man as Lucretia
- 1953 Torch Song as Anne
- 1972 Say Goodbye, Maggie Cole as Nurse Ferguson
- 1981 Thornwell as Ruth Thornwell
- 1983 Secrets of a Mother and Daughter as Neddy
- 1963 4 for Texas as Burden's Maid
- 1973 A Dream for Christmas as Jennie Daley
- 1955 Mad at the World as Miss Lovett
- 1974 Sty of the Blind Pig as Weedy Warren
- 1978 Movie Movie as Gussie ("Baxter's Beauties of 1933")
- 1955 Man with the Gun as Sarah (uncredited)
- 1981 Be Pretty and Shut Up! as Self
- 2020 Delphine and Carole as Self (archive footage)
- 1988 Terrorist on Trial: The United States vs. Salim Ajami as Edna
- 1960 No Greater Love as Queto's Mother
- 1974 Good Times ( 1 episode )
- 1974 Rhoda ( 1 episode )
- 1972 Kung Fu ( 1 episode ) as Omar's Mother
- 1974 Little House on the Prairie ( 1 episode ) as Mrs. Henry
- 1965 The F.B.I. ( 1 episode ) as Caregiver
- 1981 Simon & Simon ( 1 episode )
- 1975 The Jeffersons ( 1 episode )
- 1972 The Streets of San Francisco ( 1 episode )
- 1975 Baretta ( 1 episode )
- 1967 Mannix ( 2 episodes )
- 1982 Hotel ( 1 episode ) as Carrie Garland
- 1951 Dragnet ( 1 episode )
- 1982 Cagney & Lacey ( 1 episode ) as Elevator Operator
- 1971 Cannon ( 1 episode )
- 1951 Hallmark Hall of Fame ( 1 episode ) as Lurie
- 1967 Ironside ( 2 episodes )
- 1974 Kolchak: The Night Stalker ( 1 episode ) as Librarian
- 1955 Alfred Hitchcock Presents ( 1 episode ) as Eloise
- 1959 The Twilight Zone ( 1 episode ) as Maid (uncredited)
- 1974 Harry O ( 1 episode )
- 1971 Funny Face ( 1 episode )
- 1974 Police Woman ( 2 episodes )
- 1950 Lux Video Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Flora
- 1982 Matt Houston ( 1 episode )
- 1967 Judd, for the Defense ( 1 episode )
- 1955 Matinee Theater ( 1 episode )
- 1961 Ben Casey ( 1 episode )
- 1952 Cavalcade of America ( 1 episode ) as Aunt Nellie
- 1961 Dr. Kildare ( 1 episode ) as Mrs. Johnson
- 1953 Letter to Loretta ( 2 episodes ) as Flora
- 1968 Adam-12 ( 1 episode ) as Ethel May
- 1953 Letter to Loretta ( 1 episode ) as Josi
- 1968 Adam-12 ( 1 episode ) as Mary Handlin
- 1950 Lux Video Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Maid
- 1952 Four Star Playhouse ( 1 episode ) as Coralee
- 1964 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ( 1 episode ) as Mama Lou
- 1977 The Incredible Hulk ( 1 episode ) as Mrs. Dennison
- 1979 Roots: The Next Generations ( 1 episode ) as Sister Scrap Scott
- 1966 CBS Playhouse ( 1 episode ) as Mrs. Pierce
