As readers of this column know so well, the writer is a film buff and last week’s profile — remembering the life and legacy of Rudy Render — is indicative of that passion. Once again, I am provoked by a cameo appearance of an actress; this time, Clarice Taylor for her role in “Play Misty for Me” (1971), Clint Eastwood’s directorial film debut that brought jazz, drama, violence, tension, and terror together in an unforgettable motif.
Taylor has only two scenes in the film. In one, she is a comforting housekeeper for Eastwood’s character and the other, she’s a victim of a ghastly murder. The horror she expressed was so stark and riveting that it makes Janet Leigh’s death in “Psycho” almost bearable. In her other films, Taylor is much less horrified and bloody, and her comedic style left a lasting impression of her ability as an actor.
She was born Sept. 20, 1917 in Buckingham County, Va., but raised in Harlem. Like her father, Leon B. Tayor, Sr., she earned her early livelihood working for the post office. She began her acting career at the (American Negro Theater (ANT) in the early 1960s, as Sophie Slow in “On Strivers Row,” in 1942. She was one of the founding members of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC), then located at St. Mark’s Place in New York’s East Village. There is a long list of credits with the NEC, Including as Weedy in “The Sty of the Blind Pig.”
It was while performing with NEC that Taylor made her film debut — in “Change of Mind” in 1969. This was followed by her role as Minnie in Otto Preminger’s “Tell Me that You Love Me, Junie Moon.” Then she played Birdie in “Play Misty for Me,” and later appeared as Mrs. McKay in “Such Good Friends.” She also starred with Roscoe Lee Browne in “The High Five.”
Taylor’s real acclaim as a performer came via television, particularly as Anna Huxtable, mother of Bill Cosby’s character Dr. Cliff Huxtable. In 1986, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for that show. An earlier recurring role for her was on “The Doctors” in 1968 as Hope Stark. She was a nurse on “Sesame Street” over a 13-year period. Her cameo appearances on “Sanford and Son,” playing Grady’s (Whitmore Mayo) Cousin Emma were always rewarding and hilarious moments.
In 1972, Taylor participated in a major tour of U.S. cities in “To Be Young Gifted and Black.” Two years later, she was featured in “Willie Dynamite.”
Along with her television and screen performances, Taylor resumed her stage career in 1973 in a film role she had pioneered off-Broadway, portraying Gladys Brooks in “”Five on the Black Hand Side.” In successive order, she was Addaperle in “The Wiz” and Idella Landy in Ossie Davis’s “Purlie Victorious.” She truly hit her mark by practically inhabiting Moms Mabley in her one-woman show of the famous comedienne. This role earned her an Obie Award in 1987 for best performance by an actress.
Taylor’s other films included “Nothing Lasts Forever” (1984), “Sommersby” (1993), and Wayne Wang’s “Smoke” (1995), a small role and her last film appearance.
Taylor died on May 30, 2011, in Englewood, N.J., although many of her fans and neighbors remember her living on Harlem’s Sugar Hill, next door to Butterfly McQueen. She was 93 when she succumbed to congestive heart failure. She is survived by her two adopted sons, William and James Thomas.