Helen Martin
1909 - 2000Helen Dorothy Martin (July 23, 1909 – March 25, 2000) was an American actress of stage and television who is perhaps most well known for her role in the sitcom 227 as Marla Gibbs' neighbor Pearl.
Martin was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Amanda Frankie (née Fox) and William Martin, a minister.
Martin was a Broadway character actress for many decades, debuting in Orson Welles' production of Native Son in 1941. She appeared in at least a dozen Broadway shows including Jean Genet's The Blacks, Raisin from 1973 to 1975, Ossie Davis' Purlie Victorious (and later the musical version, which was called Purlie), The Amen Corner and Tennessee Williams' Period of Adjustment. She was an original member of the American Negro Theater.
She first became famous later in life for her guest role as Wanda on the television series Good Times, and later as the wisecracking neighbor Pearl Shay on the television sitcom 227. She also played on the short-run sitcoms Baby, I'm Back (as mother in-law, Luzelle) and That's My Mama; as Loc Dog's grandma, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996), the matronly grandmother Mama Doll in the 1998 film Bulworth, and the no-nonsense grandmother in the film Hollywood Shuffle. Helen Martin died of a heart attack on March 25, 2000.
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Cindy
William A. Graham
Charlayne Woodard, Scoey Mitchell
A revisionist twist on Cinderella with an all-black cast and set in Harlem during WWII. Cindy is a country bumpkin who moves from South Carolina to live with her father and his new family. When her stepmother and two stepsisters refuse to take her to the Sugar Hill Ball, her draft-dodging, chauffeur neighbor whips up a little "magic" and at the ball she catches the eye of the richest man in Harlem.
Cindy
Dummy
Frank Perry
LeVar Burton, Paul Sorvino
The real-life account of an illiterate, deaf-and-mute, black youth who was accused of murdering a prostitute, and the relationship that developed between him and his court-appointed attorney, who also was deaf, and the events leading up to his precedent-setting trial.
Dummy
Something to Sing About
Charlie Jordan
Irma P. Hall, Tamera Mowry-Housley
Tommy is a troubled young man with a history of crime. When he meets Memaw, an elderly lady, the two form a special bond with Memaw encouraging Charlie to sing in the local church choir, a talent he has ignored until now. While Charlie excels in church, his old friend G. Smooth remains skeptical and stays on the streets.
Something to Sing About
Amos
Michael Tuchner
Kirk Douglas, Elizabeth Montgomery
Amos Lasher loses his wife and home in an accident, finding himself in the care of the state, or specifically speaking, the Sunset Nursing Home. Here he finds the head nurse, Daisy Daws, ruling the cowed patients with an iron hand, but as his determination to get out of Sunset grows, the more sinister his situation becomes.
Amos
Hollywood Shuffle
Robert Townsend
Robert Townsend, Craigus R. Johnson
Aspiring actor and hot-dog stand employee Bobby Taylor catches the ire of his grandmother for auditioning for a role in the regrettably titled exploitation film "Jivetime Jimmy's Revenge." When Tinseltown Studios casts Taylor in the title role, he has a series of conflicted dreams satirizing African-American stereotypes in Hollywood, and must reconcile his career goals with his desire to remain a positive role model for his little brother.
Hollywood Shuffle
Kiss the Girls
Gary Fleder
Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd
Forensic psychologist Alex Cross travels to North Carolina and teams with escaped kidnap victim Kate McTiernan to hunt down "Casanova," a serial killer who abducts strong-willed women and forces them to submit to his demands. The trail leads to Los Angeles, where the duo discovers that the psychopath may not be working alone.
Kiss the Girls
Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
Paris Barclay
Shawn Wayans, Марлон Л. Уэйанс
When Ashtray moves to South Central L.A. to live with his father (who appears to be the same age he is) and grandmother (who likes to talk tough and smoke reefer), he falls in with his gang-banging cousin Loc Dog, who along with the requisite pistols and Uzi carries a thermo-nuclear warhead for self-defense. Will Ashtray be able to keep living the straight life?
Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
Better Late Than Never
Richard Crenna
Harold Gould, Strother Martin
Harry Landers is a feisty senior citizen who refuses to abide by the rules in a stodgy retirement home run by a dour Ms. Davis, in which Harry leads a revolt by the other goated senior citizen residents against the establishment.
Better Late Than Never
Doc Hollywood
Michael Caton-Jones
Michael J. Fox, Julie Warner
After leaving Washington D.C. hospital, plastic surgeon Ben Stone heads for California, where a lucrative practice in Beverly Hills awaits. After a car accident, he's sentenced to perform as the community's general practitioner.
Doc Hollywood
