Olivia Cole obit

Olivia Cole, Actress in ‘Roots’ and ‘Backstairs at the White House,’ Dies at 75

The respected Emmy winner also appeared in films like 'Coming Home' and alongside Oprah Winfrey in 'The Women of Brewster Place.'

 

She was not on the list.

Olivia Cole, the Emmy-winning actress best known for her performances in the 1970s miniseries Backstairs at the White House and Roots, has died. She was 75.

Cole died Friday at her home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, her agent, Susie Schwarz at SDB Partners, told The Hollywood Reporter. The New York Times reported that she had suffered a heart attack.

Cole also portrayed the gossipy Miss Sophie alongside Oprah Winfrey on the 1989 ABC miniseries The Women of Brewster Place and on a subsequent, short-lived series.

Cole received her supporting actress Emmy for her turn as Matilda — the wife of Ben Vereen’s Chicken George and mother of Georg Stanford Brown’s Tom — on Alex Haley’s Roots, which was broadcast on ABC in January 1977 on eight consecutive nights and watched by an estimated 140 million people.

On the nine-hour 1979 NBC miniseries Backstairs at the White House, Cole was perhaps even more memorable as Maggie Rogers, the mother of Leslie Uggams’ Lillian Rogers Parks. Both real-life women spent years working as maids for U.S. presidents over several decades.

For that performance, Cole received another Emmy nom, for outstanding lead actress in a limited series or special, and “established her, with the possible exception of Cicely Tyson, as the finest black dramatic actress in Hollywood,” People magazine noted in a 1979 profile.

Cole also appeared as Corrine in the best picture Oscar nominee Coming Home (1978); in Some Kind of Hero (1982), with Richard Pryor; opposite Paul Winfield in James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain (1984); and with Ice Cube in First Sunday (2008).

Cole was born on Nov. 26, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee, the only daughter of parents who moved with her to Harlem. She attended Hunter College High School, Bard College in New York and then the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

She returned to the U.S. in 1964 and appeared in Romeo and Juliet at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut.

In 1966, Cole made her Broadway debut in a revival of The School for Scandal — just one of the many stage appearances during her career — and then landed a gig as Deborah Mehren on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light.

Cole bossed around Ned Beatty on the CBS series Szysznyk in 1977-78 and also appeared on television on Police Woman, North and South, Family, L.A. Law and Murder, She Wrote.

Cole was married to actor Richard Venture, who died just last month; they met when starring in a play at the Arena Stage in Washington, and he discovered the town of San Miguel de Allende while filming the Costa-Gavras drama Missing (1982) there. The couple divorced a couple of years later, and she lived in Mexico for some 30 years, Schwarz said.

She did not have any known survivors.

Actress (31 credits)

 2008 First Sunday

Momma T

 1985-1995 Murder, She Wrote (TV Series)

Yvette Dauphin / Melinda Coop / Callie Coleman

- Big Easy Murder (1995) ... Yvette Dauphin

- Judge Not (1991) ... Melinda Coop

- Murder to a Jazz Beat (1985) ... Callie Coleman

 1995 Christy (TV Series)

Esther Scott

- Echoes (1995) ... Esther Scott

 1993 Arly Hanks (TV Movie)

Estelle

 1989-1993 L.A. Law (TV Series)

Judge Julie McFarlane

- Cold Shower (1993) ... Judge Julie McFarlane

- Noah's Bark (1990) ... Judge Julie McFarlane

- America the Beautiful (1989) ... Judge Julie McFarlane

 1990 Brewster Place (TV Series)

Miss Sophie

- County General (1990) ... Miss Sophie

- Say It Loud (1990) ... Miss Sophie

- Family Album (1990) ... Miss Sophie

- The Poet (1990) ... Miss Sophie

- Bernice Sands Comes Home (1990) ... Miss Sophie

1989 A Man Called Hawk (TV Series)

Ruth

- Intensive Care (1989) ... Ruth

 1989 The Women of Brewster Place (TV Mini Series)

Miss Sophie

- Episode #1.2 (1989) ... Miss Sophie

- Episode #1.1 (1989) ... Miss Sophie

 1987 The Fig Tree (TV Movie)

 1987 Big Shots

Mrs. Newton

 1985 North & South: Book 1, North & South (TV Mini Series)

Maum Sally

- Episode #1.6 (1985) ... Maum Sally (credit only)

- Episode #1.5 (1985) ... Maum Sally (credit only)

- Episode #1.4 (1985) ... Maum Sally

- Episode #1.3 (1985) ... Maum Sally (credit only)

- Episode #1.2 (1985) ... Maum Sally

 1985 American Playhouse (TV Series)

Elizabeth

- Go Tell It on the Mountain (1985) ... Elizabeth

 1984 Go Tell It on the Mountain

Elizabeth

 1984 Something About Amelia (TV Movie)

Ruth Walters

 1982 Report to Murphy (TV Series)

Blanche

- Papillon (1982) ... Blanche

- Baker vs. Murphy (1982) ... Blanche

- High Noon (1982) ... Blanche

- Charlie Goes Awry (1982) ... Blanche

- The Girl Most Likely (1982) ... Blanche

1982 Some Kind of Hero

Jesse

 1981 Mistress of Paradise (TV Movie)

Victorine

 1981 Fly Away Home (TV Movie)

Sarah Brookford

 1980 The Sky Is Gray (TV Movie)

Octavia

 1980 Children of Divorce (TV Movie)

Betty Williams

 1979 The Lazarus Syndrome (TV Series)

Pamela Quinn

- A Brutal Assault (1979) ... Pamela Quinn

 1979 Backstairs at the White House (TV Mini Series)

Maggie Rogers

- Episode #1.4 (1979) ... Maggie Rogers

- Episode #1.3 (1979) ... Maggie Rogers

- Episode #1.2 (1979) ... Maggie Rogers

- Episode #1.1 (1979) ... Maggie Rogers

 1979 Insight (TV Series)

Karen Clay

- When, Jenny? When? (1979) ... Karen Clay

 1977-1978 Szysznyk (TV Series)

Ms. Harrison

- Youth of the Year (1978) ... Ms. Harrison

- Norton's Head Trip (1978) ... Ms. Harrison

- Hell on Wheels (1978) ... Ms. Harrison

- A Star Is Burned (1978) ... Ms. Harrison

- You Stomped on My Heart (1978) ... Ms. Harrison

1978 Family (TV Series)

Frances Rossmore

- Fear of Shadows (1978) ... Frances Rossmore

 1978 Coming Home

Corrine

 1977 Heroes

Jane Adcox

 1977 Rafferty (TV Series)

Sara Radley

- Brothers & Sons (1977) ... Sara Radley

 1977 Roots (TV Mini Series)

Mathilda / Matilda Moore

- Part VIII (1977) ... Mathilda

- Part VII (1977) ... Mathilda

- Part VI (1977) ... Matilda Moore

 1975-1976 Police Woman (TV Series)

Head Nurse / Dr. Dorothy Bailey / Dr. Georgia Kimberly

- Father to the Man (1976) ... Head Nurse

- Glitter with a Bullet (1975) ... Dr. Dorothy Bailey

- The Score (1975) ... Dr. Georgia Kimberly

 1952 Guiding Light (TV Series)

Deborah Mehren (1969-1971)

Archive footage (2 credits)

 2010 Jeopardy! (TV Series)

Self

- Episode #26.130 (2010) ... Self

 1979 Roots: The Next Generations (TV Mini Series)

Matilda Moore

- Part VII (1960-1967) (1979) ... Matilda Moore (uncredited)