Zara Frances Cully (January 26, 1892 – February 28, 1978) was an American
actress
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...
. Cully was best known for her role as
Olivia 'Mother Jefferson' Jefferson on the
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
sitcom ''
The Jeffersons
''The Jeffersons'' is an American sitcom television series that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, to July 2, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. ''The Jeffersons'' is one of the longest-running sitcoms in history, ...
'', which she portrayed from the series beginning in 1975 until her death in 1978.
Early life and education
Zara Frances Cully was the eldest of 10 surviving children born to Ambrose E. and Nora Ann (née' Gilliam) Cully in
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...
, on January 26, 1892. The Cully family was musical with Ambrose serving as the music director of the church they attended, Zion AME Church. Zara's younger brother, jazz trumpeter Wendell Cully, played with
Cab Calloway and
Duke Ellington. She graduated from the Worcester School of Speech and Music.
Career
In 1940, after an appearance in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, she became known as "one of the world's greatest
elocutionists". After moving to
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
, she began producing, writing, directing, and acting in numerous plays. For 15 years she was a drama teacher at her own studio as well as at
Edward Waters College
Edward Waters University is a private Christian historically Black university in Jacksonville, Florida. It was founded in 1866 by members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church) as a school to educate freedmen and their children. ...
, a historically black college founded in 1866 to educate freed slaves. She had become known as Florida's "Dean of Drama." Upset by the racism she experienced in the
Jim Crow-era
South, Cully decided to move to
Hollywood, where she became a regular performer at the
Ebony Showcase Theatre
Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus ''Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when po ...
.
By the time she acquired the role of 'Mother' Jefferson, Cully had accumulated a long list of acting credentials spanning a half-century, including such movies as ''
The Liberation of L.B. Jones'' (1970), a starring role in ''
Brother John'' (1971), and the
Blaxploitation films ''
Sugar Hill'' (1974) and ''
Darktown Strutters
''Darktown Strutters'' is a 1975 blaxploitation musical comedy film from New World Pictures. Despite having mixed reviews at the time it has gained cult status over the years with praise from film director Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino called it ...
'' (1975). Her TV career went back to what critics call 'the
Golden Age of Television', including appearances on the highly acclaimed ''Playhouse 90'' series.
Aside from ''The Jeffersons'', her television credits included ''
The People Next Door'' (CBS Playhouse), ''
Run for Your Life'' (NBC Matinee Theater), ''
Cowboy in Africa
''Cowboy in Africa'' is an ABC television series produced in 1967–1968 by Ivan Tors and starring Chuck Connors. A 1966 television pilot turned into a movie and released to cinemas starring Hugh O'Brian as Jim Sinclair was called '' Africa Tex ...
'', ''
The Name of the Game'', ''
Mod Squad
Mod, MOD or mods may refer to:
Places
* Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band
* M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...
'', ''
Night Gallery
''Night Gallery'' is an American anthology television series that aired on NBC from December 16, 1970, to May 27, 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, ''The Twilight Zone ...
'', and ''
All in the Family
''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series ''Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...
'' (in a 1974 appearance in which she originated the "Mother Jefferson" role, which she then carried over to ''The Jeffersons'', when that show
spun off).
She was one of the oldest performers active in television at the time of her death.
''The Jeffersons'' (1975–1978)
Cully's first appearance as 'Mother' Olivia Jefferson was in a guest appearance on an episode of ''
All in the Family
''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series ''Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...
'' entitled "Lionel's Engagement" which aired February 9, 1974. She was 82 years old at the time. All three actors who portrayed
Tom, Helen, and Jenny Willis on that episode were replaced with different actors by the time ''The Jeffersons'' became a spin-off on January 18, 1975, but producers retained Cully as Mother Jefferson. During the first 17 episodes of the third season of ''The Jeffersons'', she was absent due to a severe case of pneumonia caused by a collapsed lung.
Upon her recovery she returned to the show.
Her last credited performance was an appearance in the ninth episode of the fourth season entitled "The Last Leaf", which aired November 12, 1977, three months before her death. No special episode was created to center on her death, but it was addressed in the second episode of the fifth season entitled "Homecoming (pt 1)", which aired September 27, 1978, seven months after her death.
Personal life and death
Cully was married once, to James M. Brown, Jr. from 1914 until his death in 1968. Together, Cully and Brown had four children: Mrs. Mary Gale "Polly" Buggs (wife of John A. Buggs, deputy director of the
U.S. Civil Rights Commission, 1917–2005), Emerson T. Brown (1925–1980), James M. Brown III (1915–1972), and a baby daughter (who died in 1919).
Cully died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over 2 ...
in Los Angeles on February 28, 1978, from lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...
, aged 86. Services were held on March 2, 1978, at the Church of Christian Fellowship, in Los Angeles. She was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) in the Freedom Mausoleum, Columbarium of Victory. In attendance were the cast and crew of ''The Jeffersons'', including show producer Norman Lear. Cully was posthumously awarded an NAACP special Image Award
The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...
on June 9, 1978, at the 11th Annual NAACP Awards ceremony.[
]
Filmography
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cully, Zara
1892 births
1978 deaths
African-American actresses
American stage actresses
American film actresses
American television actresses
Actresses from Worcester, Massachusetts
Actresses from Jacksonville, Florida
Deaths from lung cancer in California
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
20th-century American actresses
20th-century Methodists
American United Methodists
African-American Methodists