Her trademark sass complemented by a distinctively adenoidal voice that
could out-snarl Eartha Kitt and
Fran Drescher put together, short (4'11"),
round, and robust Nell Carter was one indomitable, in-your-face
firecracker...and it made her a star. She was born Nell Ruth Hardy in
1948 in Birmingham, Alabama and raised there, one of nine children born
to Horace and Edna Hardy. She grew up listening to the sounds of
Dinah Washington and
Elvis Presley and developed an early
interest in singing that led to performances in various youth groups,
her church choir, on local radio and even the gospel circuit. This was
a positive distraction from the major traumas suffered during her early
life which included the tragic death of her father, who was
electrocuted when he accidentally stepped on a live power line, and a
rape at gunpoint when she was a young teenager.
By age 19, Carter had relocated to New York where she found work singing
in assorted niteries (Rainbow Room, Sweeney's), cafés, and musical
revues to her liking. Studying at Bill Russell's School of Drama from
1970 to 1973, she made her Broadway debut in "Soon", a two-act musical
show that lasted two days, and included such up-and-comers as
Richard Gere,
Peter Allen and
Barry Bostwick. Other musical roles came
with "Dude" (1972), "Be Kind to People Week" (1975) and "Don't Bother
Me, I Can't Cope" (1976). Receiving further training in London, Carter,
who continued to gain both in girth and talent, made a star-making leap
when she was cast alongside
Armelia McQueen,
Charlayne Woodard,
André De Shields and
Ken Page in the 1978 ensemble revue, "Ain't
Misbehavin'", a musical catalogue of
Fats Waller songs. The stellar quintet ran
for nearly four years and the scene-stealing Carter, with such
show-stopping songs as "Mean to Me" and "Cash for Your Trash", received
a multitude of awards, including the Theatre World, Drama Desk, Obie
and Tony. The show was taped for TV in 1982 for which Carter also
nabbed the Emmy, and a Broadway revival with all five performers
reunited was restaged in 1988. Later musical vehicles included her own
feisty version of "Dolly Levi" in a 1991 African-American revival.
Tough and temperamental with a larger-than-life presence, Carter was
invariably drawn toward the small screen and was initially featured in
the daytime soap
Ryan's Hope (1975) and
Sheriff Lobo (1979),
the latter perfectly cast as a police sergeant. Audiences took to her
immediately and, eventually, she was handed her own vehicle as the
loving but no-nonsense housekeeper of a white family in the NBC sitcom
Gimme a Break! (1981). That
show, which ran for six seasons, earned her two additional Emmy
nominations for "Best Actress in a Comedy". Following this, she
co-starred on
You Take the Kids (1990),
which fizzled, and the already established
Echt super, Mr. Cooper (1992)
as Mark Curry's boss. Other spunky
guest shots over time included such popular programs as
Amen (1986),
227 (1985),
Ein Hauch von Himmel (1994),
Ally McBeal (1997) and
Reba (2001), as well as quiz show
participations on
Match Game (1990) and
To Tell the Truth (1990).
Her work in films, which included a standout musical song ("White
Boys") in Milos Forman's film adaptation of
Hair (1979) and a touching role as
Piper Laurie's housekeeper in Die Grasharfe (1995), was never fully engaged. Carter was notoriously opinionated
and audaciously candid as a person, a true survivor in her off-stage
life, which was riddled with misfortune. She endured constant weight
problems and severe alcohol/cocaine habits (recovered) as well as two
divorces, a suicide attempt, several miscarriages, bankruptcy, the
death of a brother from AIDS and multiple surgeries after suffering a
near-fatal brain aneurysm in 1992. She battled diabetes for much of her
adult life and once collapsed on stage during a 1997 performance of
"Annie", in which she played the boisterous "Miss Hannigan". To comfort
and complete herself, she studied and adopted Judaism as her religion.
In 1989 and 1990, she adopted two infant sons, Joshua and Daniel, to
her family, which included daughter Tracey.
After a history of ups and downs, the 54-year-old singer/actress
collapsed and died alone on January 23, 2003, in her Beverly Hills
home, subsequently found by her 13-year-old adopted son, Joshua. The
cause of death was not immediately established at the time but it was
later established that she had suffered a fatal heart attack,
complicated by her diabetes and obesity. She was interred in the
Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. At the time
of her death, she was in rehearsals for another musical stage lead,
this time in the Long Beach, California revival of the hit musical
"Raisin". The musical opened a few days later as scheduled with Carter's
understudy taking over the role.
