Cindy Ann "Cynda" Williams (born May 17, 1966) is an American actress.

Early life and education

Williams was born Cindy Ann Williams in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to Charles, a police officer and Beverly, a medical lab technician.Entertainment Weekly – Cynda Williams: Breakout star -- The actress stars in Spike Lee's ''Mo' Better Blues'' – August 24, 1990
/ref> She was raised in the Pullman neighborhood on the city's south side. She spent parts of her early childhood in Indiana, where she sang in her grandfather's church. Williams attended Bennett Elementary School before she moved with her mother to

Muncie, Indiana Muncie ( ) is an incorporated city and the county seat, seat of Delaware County, Indiana, Delaware County, Indiana. Previously known as Buckongahelas Town, named after the legendary Delaware Chief.http://www.delawarecountyhistory.org/history/docs ...

, as a teenager. While in Indiana, Williams attended Northside High School; graduating in 1984.Northside High School (Muncie, Indiana) 1984 yearbook
/ref> After high school, Williams attended

Ball State University Ball State University (Ball State, State or BSU) is a public university, public research university in Muncie, Indiana. It has two satellite facilities in Fishers, Indiana, Fishers and Indianapolis. On July 25, 1917, the Ball brothers, indust ...

, studying theater and was crowned Ms. Ball State in 1987. She graduated in 1989.

Career

In 1989, Williams changed her first name to "Cynda" to avoid conflicts with ''

Laverne & Shirley ''Laverne & Shirley'' (originally ''Laverne DeFazio & Shirley Feeney'') is an American sitcom television series that played for eight seasons on ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of ''Happy Days'', ''Laverne & Shirley'' star ...

'' actress

Cindy Williams Cynthia Jane Williams (born August 22, 1947) is an American actress and producer, known for her role as Shirley Feeney on the television sitcom ''Happy Days'' (1975–1979), and '' Laverne & Shirley'' (1976–1982). Early life Williams was b ...

, who was also listed by the same name with the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

. Williams has acted in films on both television and in the cinema. Her first appearance in a feature film was in

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...

's 1990 ''

Mo' Better Blues ''Mo' Better Blues'' is a 1990 American musical comedy-drama film starring Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, and Spike Lee, who also wrote, produced, and directed. It follows a period in the life of fictional jazz trumpeter Bleek Gilliam (played ...

''. "In the Midwest, I was told by casting directors that I wasn’t the right type because I didn’t look black enough, and I didn’t look white," says Williams. "But everything changed when I moved to New York, because my look could cross different lines." IndieWire. "‘Mo’ Better Blues’ at 30: Spike Lee’s Fourth Joint, as Told by Female Leads Cynda Williams and Joie Lee" September 24, 2020.
/ref> She was also in ''

One False Move ''One False Move'' is a 1992 American crime thriller film directed by Carl Franklin and co-written by Billy Bob Thornton. The film stars Thornton alongside Bill Paxton and Cynda Williams. The low-budget production was about to be released strai ...

'' (1992) as well as the ''

Tales of the City ''Tales of the City'' is a series of nine novels written by American author Armistead Maupin from 1978 to 2014, depicting the life of a group of friends in San Francisco, many of whom are LGBT. The stories from ''Tales'' were originally serial ...

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

miniseries. While most well known for her involvement in the movie industry, Williams had a brief stint in the music industry in 1990 with her appearance on the soundtrack to ''Mo' Better Blues'', on the song "Harlem Blues". The single was popular, reaching No. 9 on the R&B charts on November 17, 1990. With the success of the single, Williams had been lined up with

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

to produce her own album. While she was trained in a variety of genres, jazz became pressed on her after the success of "Harlem Blues". The album was shelved following internal disagreements at Sony.

Personal life

Williams has been married three times and has one child. Her first marriage was to actor

Billy Bob Thornton Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an American actor, filmmaker and musician. He had his first break when he co-wrote and starred in the 1992 thriller ''One False Move'', and received international attention after writing, directing, a ...

from 1990 until 1992. A year after divorcing Thornton, she married actor Arthur Louis Fuller in 1993 before divorcing in 1998. Williams was married to former

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

star and television producer, Roderick Plummer from July 2001 until 2019.

Filmography

Film

Television

Award nominations

References

External links

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Cynda Williams Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Cynda 1966 births Living people African-American actresses American television actresses American film actresses Dunbar Vocational High School alumni Actresses from Chicago Actresses from Illinois Ball State University alumni 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women