Get Ready For A Biopic About Hattie McDaniel, The First Black Oscar Winner

[hlthe2b]

Count me THRILLED! Hattie has deserved much better for her accomplishments than she has gotten up to now

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hattie-mcdaniel-biopic_us_5a57a204e4b068abc338babd?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

?cache=nahpzj4whj&ops=crop_33_0_4861_3062,scalefit_720_noupscale

Hattie McDaniel, the first black person to win an Oscar, is reportedly the subject of a forthcoming biopic.

Producers Aaron Magnani and Alysia Allen have obtained the rights to Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, a biography Jill Watts published in 2007, Variety reported earlier this week. McDaniel won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1940 for her role as the house servant “Mammy” in “Gone With The Wind.” It wasn’t until 1964 that the next black actor, Sidney Poitier, would win an Academy Award.

“Gone With The Wind” won eight Oscars, but all of its black actors ― including McDaniel ― were prohibited from attending the movie’s premiere in Georgia.

snip---

Civil rights groups criticized the actress for commonly taking on roles portraying domestic workers such as cooks and maids, and the NAACP said her characters often embodied negative racial stereotypes.

“I have never apologized for the roles I play,” she wrote in a 1947 article later published in The Hollywood Reporter.

As to the latter points, I have never thought much of Halle Berry after her 2002 acceptance speech which went out of its way to exclude McDaniel from discussion of the achievements of African Americans who came before... She's never apologized for it, either, though I saw her asked about it once and merely blew it off.

[monmouth4]

1. Ms. McDaniel was so gracious and lovely. I'm glad they're doing this..n/t