I told the late Ellen Holly, when I interviewed her a year ago, that the fact that her role in 1959’s Take a Giant Step–I had seen it recently–didn’t lead to more movie roles and a career in Hollywood [no relation indeed!] was an indictment of that culture and community at that time. She’s wonderful in the film and looks gorgeous.
I also told her how I’d seen her in King Lear in Central Park when I was thirteen. Unknown to me at the time, of course, behind-the-scenes maneuvering was going on that figures prominently in our biography of Diana Sands, as she and director John Berry agreed to close down Claudine to wait for James Earl Jones, who was starring as Lear with Holly as Regan in the Park.
Holly died last December 6, at age 92–she is a presence in our biography of Diana. We also highly recommend her memoir, One Life: The Autobiography of an African American Actress.