Gloria Foster, a classically trained actress of stage and film

by Herb Boyd

This week, we recall Gloria Foster’s sterling performances in films, particularly in the miniseries “The Atlanta Child Murders,” which is reminiscent of James Baldwin’s book “The Evidence of Things Not Seen,” as the world celebrates the centennial of his birth on August 2, 1924. Baldwin died in 1987 at 63.

In the miniseries about the Atlanta tragedy, Foster’s role was the mother of Yusef Bell, but she is perhaps best remembered for her powerful performance in Martin Duberman’s play “In White America,” in which he noted how she embodied her role: “… at the end of the scene each night, tears were streaming down her face, her body was trembling, but her dignity was intact.” He said she “had to be covered with blankets to calm her shaking.”

Foster was born on November 15, 1933, in Chicago. She was a young child when her maternal grandparents began caring for her. We have little information about her early years or who her parents were. 

Her desire to perform emerged by the time she was a student at the University of Illinois—she participated in plays, but acting was not her major or focus at this time. Later, though, when her godmother introduced her to the Goodman Theater, she immediately decided that the stage was a place she wanted to be. She was among the few African Americans at the theater, seriously committed to acting, and “learning professional acting skills in the Court Theater at the University of Chicago,” she said.  Bella Itkin was one of her most influential instructors and cast her in many classical roles.

In 1963, Foster began her journey on Broadway. Her first role was as Ruth in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.” Her first professional role was “In White America,” in which she portrayed one of the teenagers attempting to integrate Central High School in Little Rock. Her performance earned her an Off-Broadway (Obie) Theater Award. Soon, she was in demand and even had some parts designed for her. Her work with Joseph Papp earned her even wider recognition. Memorable among several productions was her feature role in Ntozake Shange’s adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage.”

Her performances in such classics as Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” and Chekov’s “The Cherry Orchard” sharpened Foster’s theatrical skills and her artistic determination. During an interview, she said, “Young people today, I think, are thinking in terms of stepping stones…I don’t know that I ever thought that way. It sounds ridiculous, but I was always thinking in terms of a more difficult role.”

Moving from the stage to the screen was no difficulty for Foster,  and it was similarly easy to make the transition to television. In “The Cool World” (1964), directed by Shirley Clarke and shot on location in Harlem and dramatized the story of street gangs, she played the role of the mother of one of the gang members. This was her debut in a full-length feature film. 

It was during this production that Foster met her future husband, Clarence Williams III, and they would star together in several films and television, most notably in “I Spy” and episodes of “Law & Order.” Most of her fans will recall her role with Williams in “Nothing But a Man,” starring Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln—film critic Donald Bogle said both Lincoln and Foster were striking and remarkable—and in the television drama “The Mod Squad.” Her role as Satima Tate in a “Law & Order” episode was based on Betty Shabazz, Malcolm’s widow. Three years later, in 1995, she was back on stage with Mary Alice in “Having Our Say,” about the Delany sisters, for which she received rave reviews. Then it was back on the screen as the Oracle in “The Matrix.”

Foster was in the process of making a sequel to “The Matrix” when she succumbed to diabetes on September 29, 2001, at the age of 67. She is buried in the Cypress Cemetery in Brooklyn.