Wednesday, February 18, 2004

By Monica L. Haynes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Actress Beah Richards played the mother of everyone from Sidney Poitier in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" to James Earl Jones in "The Great White Hope."

Beah Richards (undated) Click photo for larger image.

Yet her greatest roles were as teacher, griot, storyteller, truth seeker, poet and activist and are captured in the documentary "Beah: A Black Woman Speaks," which debuts next Wednesday on HBO.

It's the centerpiece of the cable network's "Hearing Her Voice, Telling Her Story" campaign designed to celebrate the contributions of African-American women.

Directed by LisaGay Hamilton, formerly of "The Practice," the 90-minute documentary is a revelation about a woman known by the public as a perpetual mother/grandmother in movie and television roles.

How was anyone to know that:

Richards championed civil rights alongside Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois.

She was friends with Langston Hughes and Communist Party leaders William and Louise Parker.

The FBI kept a file on her from 1951 to 1972, that totaled 100 pages.

She was married for three years before she and her sculptor husband divorced.

Even the Internet Movie Database Web site lists Richards as having never been wed.

"I think for the most part we never know any given public figure particularly well," Hamilton said. "I didn't know anything about her. That's why meeting her was so inspiring."

	Janet Van Ham LisaGay Hamilton directed "Beah: A Black Woman Speaks," an HBO documentary about actress Beah Richards. Click photo for larger image.

The two actresses met on the set of the film "Beloved," which was directed by Jonathan Demme. Richards portrayed Hamilton's mother-in-law. A few years later, Hamilton ran into a mutual friend and discovered that the 80-year-old actress also lived in Los Angeles, just three miles away. She paid her a visit.

Afterward, Hamilton wanted to share the passionate conversations she'd had with Richards.

"I said we really should do something. I'm not quite sure how long she will be living."

Hamilton did not know what that something should be, but noted filmmaker Demme, one of the documentary's producers, pointed her in the right direction.

He called her and asked when was she going to start directing the documentary on Richards. The next day he sent her two digital video cameras and a note that read, "Just go do it."

So Hamilton did.

Richards, sitting Buddha-like on a couch in her den and tethered to an oxygen concentrator due to emphysema, poured forth the blessings of a life never compromised.

Born Beulah Elizabeth Richardson in Vicksburg, Miss., in 1920, she spoke with pride about her family being the only one she knew that called themselves "black" instead of "Negro" or "colored."

"I'm so thankful for that," Richards said. "I'm not afraid of the dark."

By age 30, she headed to Los Angeles and a film industry that even today is not totally appreciative of anything beyond the European aesthetic. Richards appeared in a number of productions at San Diego's Old Globe Theater, playing mostly small parts as maids or old women. She also wrote a play, "One in a Crowd," performed by that theater company.

Six years later, Richards got her first paid acting job, portraying Sister Margaret in James Baldwin's "Amen Corner" on Broadway.

During her 50-year career, she garnered three Emmys and an Academy Award nomination for her role in the 1967 film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." But the 1968 Oscar ceremony was overshadowed by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Throughout the documentary are snippets of Richards performing some of her own works, including "A Black Woman Speaks of White Womanhood, of White Supremacy and Peace."

Pat Shannahan/Associated Press Beah Richards holds Emmy LisaGay Hamilton brought to her 10 days before her death. Click photo for larger image.

Fellow actors Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis and Whitman Mayo appear in the documentary as well, speaking of the dignity Richards brought to every role.

"When a black actor has the opportunity, I don't care what the role is, he has the chance to capture the conscience of the audience," Richards said.

For her final performance, a guest stint on "The Practice," Richards won her third Emmy. Hamilton accepted the award for her mentor and brought it to her in Vicksburg. The ailing actress had moved there because she could no longer care for herself.

Ten days later, Richards died.

Hamilton credits Richards with freeing her from the weight of racism and lies presented as truth.

In the film, Richards states: "It's not about you making a living as an actor, it's about you living as a human being."

What makes the film extraordinary to Hamilton, she said, is that it's doing what the late actress wanted: "It's requiring people to hear her, to absorb what she's saying."

"Beah says that she always won," Hamilton said. "I think that's a fact. She did always win. She won on her terms."

"Beah: A Black Woman Speaks," debuts at 7:30 p.m. next Wednesday on HBO and is also available at the Women Make Movies Web site (www.wmm.com).

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