Hattie McDaniel

Hattie McDaniel June 10 1893 October 26 1952 was an American actress whose portrayal of Mammy in Gone with the Wind 1939 won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress making her the first black person to win an Academy Award After working as early as the 1910s as a band vocalist Hattie McDaniel debuted as a maid in The Golden West 1932 Her maidmammy characters became steadily more assertive showing up first in Judge Priest 1934 and becoming pronounced in Alice Adams 1935 In this one directed by George Stevens and aided and abetted by star Katharine Hepburn she makes it clear she has little use for her employers pretentious status seeking By The Mad Miss Manton 1938 the character she portrays actually tells off her socialite employer Barbara Stanwyck and her snooty friends This path extends into the greatest role of McDaniels career Mammy in Gone with the Wind 1939 Mammy is in a number of ways superior to most of the white folk surrounding her From that point McDaniels roles unfortunately descended with the characters becoming more and more menial McDaniel played on the Amos and Andy and Eddie Cantor radio shows in the 1930s and 1940s the title character in her own radio show Beulah 194751 and the same part on TV Beulah 1950