African-American* Actresses

Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer are the front-runners to win the two female acting awards this month. It will be the first time two African-American actresses won for the same film, and they will become only the sixth and seventh African-American actresses to win in Oscar's 84 years. Here is a look at all the actresses of African descent (*two of them are not American) who have been recognized by the Academy, in the lead and supporting categories:

















1939: Hattie McDaniel, Gone With the Wind (supporting, winner)
1949: Ethel Waters, Pinky (supporting)
1954: Dorothy Dandridge, Carmen Jones (lead)
1959: Juanita Moore, Imitation of Life (supporting)
1967: Beah Richards, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (supporting)




















1972: Diana Ross, Lady Sings the Blues (lead)
1972: Cicely Tyson, Sounder (lead)
1974: Diahann Carroll, Claudine (lead)
1983: Alfre Woodard, Cross Creek (supporting)









1985: Whoopi Goldberg, The Color Purple (lead)
1985: Margaret Avery, The Color Purple (supporting)
1985: Oprah Winfrey, The Color Purple (supporting)















1990: Whoopi Goldberg, Ghost (supporting, winner)
1993: Angela Bassett, What's Love Got to Do With It? (lead)
1996: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Secrets and Lies (supporting)
2001: Halle Berry, Monster's Ball (lead, winner)
2002: Queen Latifah, Chicago (supporting)

















2004: Sophie Okonedo, Hotel Rwanda (supporting)
2006: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls (supporting, winner)
2007: Ruby Dee, American Gangster (supporting)
2008: Viola Davis, Doubt (supporting)
2008: Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (supporting)




















2009: Gabourey Sidibe, Precious (lead)
2009: Mo'Nique, Precious (supporting, winner)
2011: Viola Davis, The Help (lead)
2011: Octavia Spencer, The Help (supporting)










It's worth noting that while Hattie McDaniel is famously the first African-American Oscar winner, she did not receive an actual Oscar. The picture above left is one of the most famous images of Ms. McDaniel, but she did not collect one of those statuettes on the table. For the first seven years of the Supporting Actor and Actress categories (1936-1942), winners received plaques with a miniature likeness of the statuette, as seen in the picture above right.




















Here's to hoping that the list of Hattie McDaniel, Whoopi Goldberg, Halle Berry, Jennifer Hudson, and Mo'Nique expands to include Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. But of course the Oscars are only a microcosm of the film industry; here's to more quality roles for African-American actresses, so that some day soon, the list will be too big for a single blog post.