Francine Everett (born Franciene Williamson; April 13, 1915 – May 27, 1999) was an American actress and singer. Everett is best known for her performances in

race films Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

, independently produced motion pictures with all-black casts that were created exclusively for distribution to cinemas that catered to African-American audiences.

Early life

She was born in

Louisburg, North Carolina Louisburg is a town in Franklin County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 3,064. It is the county seat of Franklin County. The town is located approximately 29 miles northeast of the state capital, Ral ...

in 1915, and her father Noah was a tailor. She married Booker Everett in 1933 when she was 18. This marriage was dissolved,and she later married actor Rex Ingram. They divorced three years later in 1939. She studied and acted with the Federal Theater in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

, which was sponsored by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

.Watkins, Mel (NY Times)
"Star of all-black-cast movies of '30s and '40s"
''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette''. June 21, 1999. p. C-4. Retrieved June 12, 2023.

Career

Among Everett's starring roles were the films ''

Paradise in Harlem ''Paradise in Harlem'' is a 1939 American musical comedy-drama film written by Frank H. Wilson and directed by Joseph Seiden. It was first shown in 1939 starring Frank H. Wilson. It was released by Jubilee Production Co. Premise An actor sees a ...

'' (1939), ''Keep Punching'' (1939) co-starring

Canada Lee Canada Lee (born Leonard Lionel Cornelius Canegata; March 3, 1907 – May 9, 1952) was an American professional boxer and then an actor who pioneered roles for African Americans. After careers as a jockey, boxer and musician, he became an actor ...

and

Dooley Wilson Arthur "Dooley" Wilson (April 3, 1886 – May 30, 1953) was an American actor, singer and musician who is best remembered for his portrayal of Sam in the 1942 film ''Casablanca (film), Casablanca''. In that romantic drama, he performs its theme ...

, ''Big Timers'' (1945) co-starring

Moms Mabley Loretta Mary Aiken (March 19, 1894 – May 23, 1975), known by her stage name Jackie "Moms" Mabley, was an American stand-up comedian and actress. Mabley began her career on the theater stage in the 1920s and became a veteran entertainer of the ...

and

Stepin Fetchit Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (May 30, 1902 – November 19, 1985), better known by the stage name Stepin Fetchit, was an American vaudevillian, comedian, and film actor of Jamaican and Bahamian descent, considered to be the first black a ...

, ''Tall, Tan and Terrific'' (1946) with

Mantan Moreland Mantan Moreland (September 3, 1902 – September 28, 1973) was an American actor and comedian most popular in the 1930s and 1940s. He starred in numerous films. His daughter Marcella Moreland appeared as a child actress in several films. E ...

and Dots Johnson, and ''

Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. ''Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.'' is a 1946 race film directed by Spencer Williams and produced and distributed by Sack Amusement Enterprises. This film is in the public domain. Plot Gertie LaRue ( Francine Everett) is a nightclub entertainer ...

'' (1946), directed by

Spencer Williams Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", "Royal Garden Blues", "I've Found a New B ...

. Everett appeared as a singer in more than 50 short musical films that were produced in the 1940s, notably '' Ebony Parade'' (1947), which co-starred

Dorothy Dandridge Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was an American actress, singer and dancer. She is the first African-American film star to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, which was for her performance in ''Ca ...

Cab Calloway Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist ...

and the

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

band. She also worked as a model in print advertisements for clothing and cosmetics."Francine Everett, Striking Star Of All-Black Movies, Is Dead". New York Times obituary, June 20, 1999
/ref>

Hollywood

Everett's association with

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

was brief and desultory. She first arrived in Hollywood in the mid-1930s with husband Rex Ingram, but refused to accept racially demeaning stereotypical roles. After starring in ''

'', she had bit parts in two Hollywood films: ''

Lost Boundaries ''Lost Boundaries'' is a 1949 American film starring Beatrice Pearson, Mel Ferrer (in his first leading role), and Susan Douglas Rubeš. Directed by Alfred L. Werker, it is based on William Lindsay White's story of the same title, a nonfiction ...

'' (1949) and

Sidney Poitier Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was an American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive ...

's first film, '' No Way Out'' (1950). At the height of her career, Everett was dubbed "the most beautiful woman in Harlem" by columnist Billy Rowe in ''The Amsterdam News'', a black-owned newspaper in New York City. Looking back at her career, filmmaker

William Greaves William Greaves (October 8, 1926 – August 25, 2014) was an American documentary filmmaker and a pioneer of film-making. He produced more than two hundred documentary films, and wrote and directed more than half of these. Greaves garnered many ...

commented: "She would have been a superstar in Hollywood were it not for the apartheid climate in America and the movie industry at the time.""Obituary: Francine Everett," The Independent (London), June 25, 1999
/ref>

Later life

Retirement

After retiring from the entertainment industry, Everett took a clerical job at

Harlem Hospital Harlem Hospital Center, branded as NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, is a 272-bed, public teaching hospital affiliated with Columbia University. It is located at 506 Lenox Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City and was founded in 1887. The hosp ...

in New York.Wilson, Sondra Kathryn. ''Meet Me at the Theresa''. Atria Books, 2004. She retired from her hospital job in 1985, and in her later years she spoke about the race films at seminars sponsored by the International Agency for Minority Artist Affairs.

Death

Everett died at a nursing home in

The Bronx, New York The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New York ...

, aged 84, on May 27, 1999.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Everett, Francine 1915 births 1999 deaths Actresses from North Carolina 20th-century African-American women singers Works Progress Administration workers African-American actresses American film actresses 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers People from Louisburg, North Carolina