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Butterfly 'Thelma' McQueen |
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(1912-1995)
Butterfly McQueen Remembered Butterfly McQueen died tragically of injuries suffered in a kerosene-heater accident at her Augusta, Georgia home on Dec. 22, 1995.
Ms. McQueen, 84, was best known for depicting Prissy in the movie "Gone With the Wind."
She told Gayle White, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution (Oct. 8, 1989):
"As my ancestors are free from slavery, I am free from the slavery of religion."
Born in Tampa, she gained her unusual name after dancing in a butterfly ballet as a child in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
Interested in purchasing some new furniture, she auditioned for the part of the simple-minded slave Prissy at age 26, and was initially rejected as too old, too plump and too dignified.
"I was the only unhappy one," she reflected years later about the movie shot when she was 28. "It was not a pleasant part to play--I didn't want to be that little slave. But I did my best, my very best."
Thelma McQueen (her birth name) was the daughter of a stevedore and a domestic worker. She was an only child from Tampa, Florida and got the name Butterfly after appearing in a production of A Midsummer Nights Dream, in which she danced in the Butterfly Ballet. Although Gone With The Wind went on to become a huge success, McQueen found it difficult finding work as an actress. She was often typecast in roles as maids and said, I didnt mind playing a maid the first time, because I thought that was how you got into the business. But after I did the same thing over and over, I resented it. I didnt mind being funny, but I didnt like being stupid.
McQueen could not attend Gone With The Winds premiere because it was held in a whites only theater, but she was a guest of honor at its 50th anniversary celebration in 1989. In 1975 at age 64 McQueen earned a bachelors degree in political science from New Yorks City College. In 1980 she won an Emmy for her performance in a childrens production, The Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid.
Her best was very good indeed. Ms. McQueen stole every scene she was in, whether opposite Vivien Leigh or Clark Gable. She was offered a succession of "maid" roles in such movies as "Duel in the Sun," "Mildred Pierce" and "Cabin in the Sky." She once played a WAC sergeant in "Since You Went Away."
She quit movie-acting in 1947 to avoid further typecasting, although she returned as a maid on the TV show "Beulah" in 1950-1953. She appeared occasionally on Broadway, and supported herself in a succession of jobs as a real-life maid, a companion to an elderly white woman, a taxi dispatcher, a saleslady at Macy's, and a seamstress at Sak's.
She told The Guardian during a visit to Great Britain in 1989: "Any honest job I have taken."
"Now I'm happy I did 'Gone With the Wind,'" she once told The Washington Post. "I wasn't when I was 28, but it's part of black history. You have no idea how hard it is for black actors, but things change, things blossom with time."
She returned to films in 1974, playing Clarice in "Amazing Grace" and Ma Kennywick in "Mosquito Coast" in 1986 with Harrison Ford. That same year she appeared in a PBS version of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
She was a continual student, taking classes at five universities and even reading "Gone with the Wind" in Spanish.
In 1975, at the age of 64, Ms. McQueen received a bachelor's degree in political science from New York City College.
An off-stage role she enjoyed was that of Santa Claus at children's hospitals. She reported that children were delighted with a black female Santa with a high voice.
In later years she "adopted" a public elementary school in her beloved neighborhood of Harlem, where she patrolled the playground, picked up litter and looked after the children.
She lived in New York in the summer and Georgia in the winter. Neighbors interviewed after her death said she was known just as "Thelma" by many who did not realize her identity, and as "Momma Mac" to friends.
She liked to ride a bicycle with training wheels around the neighborhood, was a health food advocate and usually lunched at the Belle Terrace Senior Center, where she played and sang from an impressive repertoire of classical music, jazz, and show tunes.
Only the blackened floor and roof of her small wooden cottage, built in back of her larger stucco house which she rented out, remained after the fire. Explosions, probably from two five-gallon containers of kerosene kept for two portable heaters, blew out windows and burned half the house down to the studs.
She ran from her house during the fire, engulfed by flames, suffering second- and third-degree burns over 70% of her body. She was conscious when firefighters arrived and told them how her clothes had caught fire.
One Christian neighbor, Mary Harden, was quoted in the Atlanta Constitution shamelessly exploiting Ms. McQueen's suffering: "I believe she made it into heaven. She threw up both her hands as she was coming out of that burning house, and made it in with Jesus."
"She lived very frugally because actors and actresses work sporadically. I was surprised there was money there to leave anyone.
A cat-lover, Ms. McQueen remembered the Humane Society, among other groups, and deeded property to renters.
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