Lonette Rita McKee (born July 22, 1954) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Sister Williams in the original 1976 musical-drama film ''
Sparkle
Sparkle may refer to:
* Sparkle (catamaran), a catamaran designed by Angus Primrose
* Sparkle (drink), a lemon-flavored soft drink
* Sparkle, a brand of paper towels owned by Georgia-Pacific
* Sparkle Plenty, a character in the ''Dick Tracy'' c ...
''. McKee also had notable roles in such movies as '' The Cotton Club'', ''
Jungle Fever
''Jungle Fever'' is a 1991 American romantic drama film written, produced and directed by Spike Lee. The film stars Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra, Lee, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson, Lonette McKee, John Turturro, Frank Vincent, ...
Honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
''.
Biography
Early life and education
Born in
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, McKee was the second of three daughters of Dorothy McKee, of Swedish descent, and Lonnie McKee, an
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
bricklayer and auto manufacturer employee. McKee's older sister, Katherine "Kathy" McKee, is also an actress and performer. McKee attended St Martin De Porres High School, but dropped out after her freshman year, moving to Los Angeles, California, to live with her older sister.
Career
McKee's career began in the music business in Detroit as a child prodigy, where she started writing music/lyrics, singing, playing keyboards and performing at the age of seven. In 1968, McKee, then aged 14, recorded her first record entitled "Don't Worry About It". It became an instant regional pop/ R&B hit. McKee wrote the title song for the film ''Quadroon'', in which her sister Katherine McKee starred, when she was fifteen.
Several years later, McKee was launched to stardom with her critically acclaimed performance in the hit 1976 musical drama film ''
Sparkle
Sparkle may refer to:
* Sparkle (catamaran), a catamaran designed by Angus Primrose
* Sparkle (drink), a lemon-flavored soft drink
* Sparkle, a brand of paper towels owned by Georgia-Pacific
* Sparkle Plenty, a character in the ''Dick Tracy'' c ...
''. She has written and produced three solo LPs. ''Natural Love'' was produced for
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 Columbia 40 Acres and A Mule label in 1992. Ed Hogan, reviewing for ''AllMusic'', wrote, "'Natural Love' shows that the singer/songwriter's muse knows no stylistic bounds. As with her earlier effort, McKee co-writes all of the songs while sharing production credits with Bryant McNeil, Gene Lake Jr., and labelmate Raymond Jones of State of Art." McKee scored the music for the well-received cable documentary on the
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
African Burial Ground
African Burial Ground National Monument is a monument at Duane Street and African Burial Ground Way (Elk Street) in the Civic Center section of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Its main building is the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway. ...
, as well as numerous infomercials. McKee has toured extensively throughout the world singing concert performances, including the
JVC Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hir ...
at
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
. McKee studied film directing at
The New School
The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
in New York and apprenticed directing with the filmmaker
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 ...
. McKee also studied singing with Dini Clark and ballet with Sarah Tayir, both in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. She also appeared on the CW sitcom '' The Game'' as Mrs. Pitts, the mother of Jason (played by
Coby Bell
Coby Scott Bell (born May 11, 1975) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Jesse Porter on the USA Network original series '' Burn Notice'' and professional football player Jason Pitts on The CW/BET comedy-drama '' The Game''. ...
), in 2007.
McKee won critical acclaim for her
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
debut performance in the musical ''
The First The First may refer to:
* ''The First'' (album), the first Japanese studio album by South Korean boy group Shinee
* ''The First'' (musical), a musical with a book by critic Joel Siegel
* The First (TV channel), an American conservative opinion ne ...
'' in 1981, co-starring in the role of
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...
's wife
Rachel
Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aun ...
."Lonette McKee" ''Playbill''. Retrieved May 10, 2020. She became the first African American to play the coveted role of Julie in the
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is an American opera company located in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1955 by German-born impresario Walter Herbert and three local Houstonians,Giesberg, Robert I., Carl Cunningham, and Alan Rich. ''Houston Grand Opera at ...
's production of ''
Show Boat
''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock worke ...
'' in 1983 on Broadway, for which she received a
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...
nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. McKee's tragic portrayal of jazz legend
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop si ...
in the one-woman drama with music, ''
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill
''Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill'' is a musical with music by Lanie Robertson, recounting some events in the life of Billie Holiday. The play premiered in 1986 at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, and soon played Off-Broadway. The p ...
'', won critical acclaim, standing ovations, and a 1987
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Fo ...
nomination (Outstanding Actress in a Musical). She reprised the role of Julie on Broadway in the 1994 revival of ''Show Boat'' directed by
Hal Prince
Harold Smith Prince (born Harold Smith; January 30, 1928 – July 31, 2019), commonly known as Hal Prince, was an American theatre director and producer known for his work in musical theatre.
One of the foremost figures in 20th century America ...
.
In 2013, McKee expressed a desire to establish a performance arts center in the New York tri-state area. She performs her one-woman memoir with music on stages throughout the US. She produced her first feature film, ''Dream Street'', which she wrote and directed.
Personal life
McKee has been married once and has no children. She dated the actor and stand-up comedian
Freddie Prinze
Frederick James Prinze Sr. (born Frederick Karl Pruetzel; June 22, 1954 – January 29, 1977) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Prinze was the star of the NBC-TV sitcom ''Chico and the Man'' from 1974 until his suicide in 1977. Prinze ...
for a time during 1976.David Henry, Joe Henry, Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and the World that Made Him ', Algonquin Books, 2013 McKee was married to Leo Compton, a youth counselor, from February 1983 to 1990. In the mid-1990s, she lived in an Upper East Side
brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material.
Type ...
with her companion, the musician Bryant McNeil. They met while they were working together on McKee's ''Natural Love'' album. McKee teaches a master acting workshop at
Centenary College of New Jersey
Centenary University is a private liberal arts university in Hackettstown, New Jersey. Founded as a preparatory school by the Newark Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1867, Centenary evolved into a Junior College for women and later ...
, where she is an adjunct professor in the Theater Arts department.
Discography
* ''Lonette'' (
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, 1974)
* ''Words and Music'' (
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, 1978)
* ''Natural Love'' (
40 Acres and a Mule
Forty acres and a mule was part of Special Field Orders No. 15, a wartime order proclaimed by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 16, 1865, during the American Civil War, to allot land to some freed families, in plots of land no la ...