A Vicksbury, Mississippi, native, Ms. Richards began her professional stage career almost 40 years ago in New York in the production Take A Giant Step. She subsequently appeared the United Artists film version three years later. She has nationally performed her one-woman show A Black woman Speaks and received an Emmy Award for the televised production. Ms. Richards is probably best known to both Los Angeles and New York audiences for her memorable role as Sister Margaret in James Baldwin’s Amen Corner which garnered her the Antoinette Perry Award for Best Actress. Her memorable role as mother to Sidney Poitier in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner earned her both an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress as well as an NAACP Image Award. Other stage credits include A Raisin in the Sun, Medea and Purlie Victorious. Ms. Richards has numerous television and film credits and still teaches acting for Theatre of Being perspective. She currently recurs on NBC’s highly regarded ER as mother to Dr. Benton.

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