Known For
Acting
Born
Oct 16, 1912
Died
May 02, 1998
Place of Birth
Villa Rica, Georgia, USA
Credits
69 titles
Maidie Norman
Biography
Maidie Norman was born Maidie Ruth Gamble on October 16, 1912, in Villa Rica, Georgia, to Louis and Lila Gamble. She received a B.A. from Bennett College in 1934 and a master's degree from Columbia University three years later. She also attended the Actors Lab in Hollywood from 1946 to 1949. Norman first appeared on film in The Peanut Man in 1947. Throughout the fifties-not a good time for film roles for black women-she appeared in a number of films, such as Bright Road with Dorothy Dandridge and Sidney Poitier and Torch Song, both in 1953; About Mrs. Leslie and Susan Slept Here in 1954; and 1956's Written on the Wind. These were often servant roles, with a special fifties blandness. Still, Norman was skillful and professional in her execution of them. In 1962, she got a chance to chew up the scenery with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? In 1968-69, Norman was an artist-in-residence at Stanford University and, throughout the seventies, she was lecturer, director, and acting teacher at UCLA. At the same time, Norman was highly visible on television, appearing in Mannix, Adam 12, Streets of San Francisco, Kung Fu, The Jeffersons, and others. She was also part of the cast of Roots: The Next Generation in 1979. Norman was a founding member of the American Negro Theater West; in 1977, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame; and an award in her name is presented each year for outstanding research by an undergraduate in Black Theater at UCLA. She died on May 6, 1998.
Known For
Filmography
Delphine and Carole
Self (archive footage)
Terrorist on Trial: The United States vs. Salim Ajami
Edna
Secrets of a Mother and Daughter
Neddy
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Nurse Agnes
Matt Houston
Hotel
Carrie Garland
Cagney & Lacey
Elevator Operator
Simon & Simon
Be Pretty and Shut Up!
Self
Thornwell
Ruth Thornwell
Roots: The Next Generations
Sister Scrap Scott
Movie Movie
Gussie ("Baxter's Beauties of 1933")
The Incredible Hulk
Mrs. Dennison
Airport '77
Dorothy
A Star Is Born
Justice of the Peace (uncredited)
The Jeffersons
Baretta
Police Woman
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Librarian
Harry O
Little House on the Prairie
Mrs. Henry
Rhoda
Sty of the Blind Pig
Weedy Warren
Good Times
A Dream for Christmas
Jennie Daley
Maurie
Mrs. Stokes
The Lie
Janine
Kung Fu
Omar's Mother
Another Part of the Forest
Coralee
Say Goodbye, Maggie Cole
Nurse Ferguson
The Streets of San Francisco
Sixteen
Aunt Ada
Funny Face
Cannon
Adam-12
Ethel May
Mannix
Judd, for the Defense
Ironside
CBS Playhouse
Mrs. Pierce
The F.B.I.
Caregiver
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Mama Lou
4 for Texas
Burden's Maid
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Elvira Stitt
Ben Casey
Dr. Kildare
Mrs. Johnson
No Greater Love
Queto's Mother
The Twilight Zone
Maid (uncredited)
The Opposite Sex
Violet (uncredited)
Written on the Wind
Bertha
Man with the Gun
Sarah (uncredited)