Rolle, Esther 1922–

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Esther Rolle 1922–

Actress

Esther Rolle is best remembered by many people for her portrayal of the sympathetic but strict mother of three on the 1970s CBS sitcom Good Times, although she was by then a veteran Broadway actress. She left the show in 1977 citing contractual disputes, but Rolle later admitted that she was embarrassed and angered by the show’s decline into near-minstrel humor. Such outspokenness has been her trademark since a childhood in the Deep South, and reflects a drive that led her into the performing arts in the first place. Rolle entered show business around World War II as a dancer in New York City; later she became a founding member of the Negro Ensemble Theater. Ironically it was a gain in girth that helped her win more roles.

Rolle was born in 1922 in Pompano Beach, Alabama, the tenth in a family that would eventually number 18 siblings. Her father was a vegetable farmer and had a knack for storytelling, a gift that inspired Rolle and her older brothers and sisters into forming their own drama troupe. When she was still a teenager, they performed throughout Florida in the 1930s. At the age of 18, she joined her two older sisters in New York City; they were

aspiring actresses, but Rolle dreamed of becoming a writer. One of the sisters, Estelle Evans, would go on to appear in To Kill a Mockingbird; the other, Ro-sanna Carter, appeared as the judge in She-Devil.Rolle’s writing teacher, however, saw more promise in her acting abilities and suggested she hone them in drama classes.

During the 1940s, Rolle found steady work as a dancer in the Asadata Dafora dance troupe, where she stayed for a dozen years; she later joined a company called the Calypso Carousel. In 1955, by then in her early thirties Rolle settled down and got married. Her husband pressed slacks in a dry cleaner, and Rolle happily assumed the burdens of domesticity. Her enthusiasm was expressed by her cooking, and by the time the marriage ended five years later she had added substantial inches to her previously lean dancer’s frame. Ironically, the extra pounds helped her gain work—”the image of a black woman was always a fat black woman,” she told People magazine in 1990.

By then Rolle had become a founding member of the Negro Theater Ensemble. Over the next several years, she appeared in such Broadway productions as Blues

At a Glance…

Born 1922, in Pompano Beach, AL; daughter of Jonathan (a farmer and Baptist deacon); married once, 1955 (marriage ended, 1960).

Actress. Formed acting troupe that toured Florida with siblings, late 1930s; Asadata Dafora Dance troupe. New York City, dancer, c 1941-53; Calypso Carousel, 1953-c. late 1950s; Negro Ensemble Company, founding member, late 1950s; appeared in Broadway productions of Blues for Mister Charlie, Purlie Victorious, and Horowitz and Mrs. Washington.Appeared in the CBS sitcoms Maude (as Florida Evans, 1972-74) and Good Times (as Florida Evans, 1974-77). Also appeared in television specials including The Kid Who Loved Christmas, To Dance with the White Dog, Message from Nam, Scarlett, a PBS American Playhouse production of A Raisin in the Sun, and as Idella in the 1989 motion-picture film Driving Miss Daisy.

Selected awards: Emmy Award, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, 1978, for The Summer of My German Soldier; Human Rights Award, American Federation of Teachers, 1983; Oscar Micheaux Award, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, 1991 ; Leadership Award, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for community activism.

Addresses: Home— Los Angeles, CA.

for Mister Charlie and Purlie Victorious.In 1972, producers for a proposed CBS sitcom created by Norman Lear of All in the Family fame were searching for someone to play a supporting role as an African American maid in a liberal white household. Rolle won the part of Florida Evans on Maude, the fictional cousin to Archie Bunker of All in the Family on the popular CBS show. Staying two seasons, Rolle’s character often volleyed pointed barbs at the rather naively liberal but well-meaning members of the household. Her talents led to an even greater opportunity when Lear and the producers decided to create another spin-off based around the fictional Florida Evans’ home life.Good Times debuted in early 1974 and made television history as the first African American sitcom; it was an instant success.

Set in a Chicago housing project,Good Times chronicled the ups and downs of a household headed by Rolle’s Evans character and her husband James. The family—artistically inclined son J. J., level-headed teenage daughter Thelma, and youngest son and earnest overachiever Michael—lived in a small apartment and faced continuous economic crises; Rolle’s character provided the right maternal blend of warmth, love, and sassy common sense.

“Clearly, it can be credited with having introduced to national TV a new point of view on black life,” wrote Donald Bogle about Good Times in Blacks in American Film and Television: An Encyclopedia.“The series offered a portrait of a black family living in the slums … and confronted daily with a set of harsh urban realities” that included crime, unemployment, and racism. “Seen at one point in some 18 million homes, the series seemed to elicit viewer identification from blacks and whites alike who saw the struggle for economic and social survival of the Evans family as being part of their own,” noted Bogle.

In the first season, the show appeared on the right track toward giving a relatively accurate television portrayal of African American life, but the popularity of the character J. J., played by Jimmie Walker, proved to be an unexpected success. Soon he was known for his “Dyn-O-Mite!” expression, among others, and his silliness, which seemed to be a parody of the worst white stereotypes about African Americans. The increasingly cartoonish J.J. became the focus of the show, and other characters even made fun of the fact that he could hardly read. “I resent the imagery that says to black kids that you can make it by standing on the corner saying ‘Dyn-O-Mite!’” Rolle told Ebony, according to Blacks in American Film and Television.“He’s 18, and he doesn’t work. He can’t read or write. He doesn’t think. The show didn’t start out to be that. Little by little … they have made J. J. more stupid and enlarged the role. Negative images have been quietly slipped in on us through the character of the oldest child.”

With such convictions it was little wonder that Rolle left Good Times after the end of the 1976-77 season after telling producers, “I did not agree to do a clown show for you to degrade young black men,” she recalled in a 1990People interview about her struggle with the show’s producers. Her departure followed that of John Amos, who played her husband, the previous year. Rolle’s absence in the now-rudderless household was explained by remarriage, but she did return for the 1978-79 season. By then, Rolle had begun to take on other projects, such as her supporting role in the television special The Summer of My German Soldier.

For her performance she won an Emmy.

Rolle appeared on stage in a comedy,Washington and Mrs. Horowitz, and in a revival of Raisin in the Sun.Then, in 1989, she appeared as the housekeeper Idella in the film version of Driving Miss Daisy, opposite Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy. Playing a maid once more did not trouble her. “I’m glad to take on the role of a domestic, because many of your black leaders, your educators, your professionals came from domestic parents who made sacrifices to see that their children didn’t go through what they did,” she told People.

Rolle sustained serious injuries in a car accident in Nevada in 1990, but recovered quickly enough to resume her busy schedule of charitable activities, including involvement with women’s rights issues and urban education reform. Her work in the latter field has earned her several awards, including an NAACP Leadership Award and a Human Rights Award from the American Federation of Teachers. In 1991, Rolle was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, an honor she claimed meant more to her than her 1978 Emmy. The

recognition “was from my own,” as she told Ebony’s Leisha Stewart.“I have never been given the chance I deserve in the mainstream industry. They never got beyond me as a maid. Black film, on the other hand, has seen something in me that the mainstream didn’t see or acknowledge.”

In her spare time, Rolle enjoys long-distance walks, gardening, and cooking. She is philosophical about her life and career, and the sometimes-difficult choices she has made. “I ruffle a lot of feathers,” she told People.“And I’m also selective—that makes you a troublemaker. But so be it. I laid a cornerstone for black actors, and that makes me happy.”