Sandra Reaves-Phillips, the actress and singer who appeared in the films ’Round Midnight and Lean on Me and portrayed six legendary divas in a one-woman, tour de force stage show, has died. She was 79.
Reaves-Phillips died Friday at her home in Queens, family spokesperson Sandra Lanman told The Hollywood Reporter. She had been in failing health since falling off a stage during a performance of Raisin in St. Louis in 2004 and enduring serious auto accidents in 2014 and ’15 in New York.
The South Carolina native worked opposite Maurice Hines in his 2006 Broadway musical Hot Feet, and she portrayed Mama Younger and Bertha Mae Little, respectively, in Raisin on Broadway and national and European tours and in a 1999 off-Broadway production of Rollin’ on the T.O.B.A.
Reaves-Phillips was featured with saxophonist Dexter Gordon in Bertrand Tavernier’s ’Round Midnight (1986) in the role of Buttercup, and in the Morgan Freeman-starring...
Reaves-Phillips died Friday at her home in Queens, family spokesperson Sandra Lanman told The Hollywood Reporter. She had been in failing health since falling off a stage during a performance of Raisin in St. Louis in 2004 and enduring serious auto accidents in 2014 and ’15 in New York.
The South Carolina native worked opposite Maurice Hines in his 2006 Broadway musical Hot Feet, and she portrayed Mama Younger and Bertha Mae Little, respectively, in Raisin on Broadway and national and European tours and in a 1999 off-Broadway production of Rollin’ on the T.O.B.A.
Reaves-Phillips was featured with saxophonist Dexter Gordon in Bertrand Tavernier’s ’Round Midnight (1986) in the role of Buttercup, and in the Morgan Freeman-starring...
- 12/31/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Kenneth “Ken” Williams, who wrote or co-wrote more than 500 songs including the classic 1972 hit “Everybody Plays the Fool” recorded by The Main Ingredient with lead vocals by Cuba Gooding Sr., died June 17 following a long non-Covid illness at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, NY. He was 83.
His death was announced by his wife, the Broadway actress and singer Mary Seymour Williams.
Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery
Although most widely known for “Everybody Plays the Fool,” the classic R&b song he co-wrote with Rudy Clark and J.R. Bailey, Williams was a prolific songwriter, record producer, arranger and singer for the past 60 years. Among his songs are “Love, Love, Love” (recorded by Donny Hathaway), “I Can’t See Me Without You” (The Impalas), “Let Me Prove My Love to You” (The Main Ingredient), “Only When You’re Lonely” (Holly Maxwell), “Seven Lonely Nights” (The Four Tops), “Keep on...
His death was announced by his wife, the Broadway actress and singer Mary Seymour Williams.
Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery
Although most widely known for “Everybody Plays the Fool,” the classic R&b song he co-wrote with Rudy Clark and J.R. Bailey, Williams was a prolific songwriter, record producer, arranger and singer for the past 60 years. Among his songs are “Love, Love, Love” (recorded by Donny Hathaway), “I Can’t See Me Without You” (The Impalas), “Let Me Prove My Love to You” (The Main Ingredient), “Only When You’re Lonely” (Holly Maxwell), “Seven Lonely Nights” (The Four Tops), “Keep on...
- 6/27/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
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