Frances Helen Foster (née Brown; June 11, 1924 – June 17, 1997) was an American

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

and stage actress. In addition to being an actress, Brown was also an award–winning stage director.

Life and career

Foster was born Frances Helen Brown in

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as en ...

, the daughter of George H., a postal worker, and Helen E. Brown. She studied acting at American Theater Wing in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

from 1949 to 1952. In 1955, she made her stage debut as Dolly May in ''The Wisteria Trees'' at the City Center Theater in more than 25 of its productions. Foster won an

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the ...

in 1985 for sustained excellence of performance. She was also a recipient of two AUDELCO Awards, one as an actress and the other as a director for work at the New Federal Theatre in Manhattan. In 1978, she received the best actress award for ''Do Lord Remember Me'', and the best director award in 1983 for ''Hospice''. She also appeared in several films, including '' Malcolm X'', '' Crooklyn'', and '' Clockers'', as well as the recurring role of Vera on the soap opera '' Guiding Light'' from 1985-94. She's also known from one of the most infamous episodes of ''

Good Times ''Good Times'' is an American television sitcom that aired for six seasons on CBS, from February 8, 1974, to August 1, 1979. Created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans and developed by executive producer Norman Lear, it was television's first Afric ...

'', as Gertie Vinson, a neighbor of the Evans family who was forced to eat dog food in the episode "The Dinner Party". She died in Fairfax, Virginia, from

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

, June 17, 1997, aged 73.

Selected credits

Theatre

References

External links

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Biography
at filmreference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Frances 1924 births American film actresses American television actresses American stage actresses Actresses from New York (state) 1997 deaths 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American singers