Hidden Figures: Madge Sinclair

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Madge Dorita Walters-Sinclair (April 28, 1938 – December 20, 1995) was a Jamaican American actress, best known for her roles in Cornbread, Earl and Me, Coming to America, Trapper John, M.D., and the ABC TV miniseries Roots. She also voiced the character of Sarabi, Mufasa's mate and Simba's mother, in the animated feature film The Lion King. Born Madge Dorita Walters in Kingston, Jamaica, to Herbert and Jemima Walters. She was a schoolteacher in Jamaica until 1968 when she left for New York to pursue her career in acting at the age of 30.

Her early credits included the role of Clytemnestra in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of "The Wedding of Iphigenia" in 1971. She made her film debut in 1974, opposite Jon Voight in “Conrack,” and in 1977 she played Bell in Roots. Following Roots, she starred in the 1978 film Convoy as the Widow Woman, and she played Leona Hamiltons in Cornbread, Earl and Me. Sinclair received an Emmy Award nomination for her role as Belle in the miniseries Roots. Also in 1978, she co-starred in the short-lived sitcom Grandpa Goes to Washington. Sinclair went on to a long-running stint in the 1980s as nurse Ernestine Shoop on the series Trapper John, M.D. opposite Pernell Roberts. She received three Emmy nominations for her work on the show.

In 1988, Sinclair played Queen Aoleon alongside James Earl Jones' King Jaffe Joffer in the Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America, which reunited her on screen with her Roots husband and co-star John Amos. Later, both Sinclair and Jones would reunite as Queen and King for the roles of Sarabi, Simba’s mother, and Mufasa, Simba’s father, in the blockbuster Disney animated film The Lion King (1994), respectively. The film became one of the best-selling titles ever on home video. It would also be her last film role. The two also collaborated on the series Gabriel's Fire, which earned Sinclair an Emmy in 1991 for Best Supporting Actress in a Dramatic Series, famously beating out the expected winner, L.A. Law's Diana Muldaur.

Sinclair, in her brief role as the captain of the USS Saratoga in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, is commonly cited as the first female Starfleet starship captain to appear in Star Trek. Years later, Sinclair played Geordi La Forge's mother, captain of the USS Hera, in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Interface". Her final acting role was on the sitcom Dream On just one month later before her death.

She received five nominations for Emmy Awards, and won for her work in the critically acclaimed "Gabriel's Fire," which ran on ABC from 1990-92. She played the owner of a cafe frequented by the title character, a former convict played by James Earl Jones, and Sinclair won the 1991 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series for her role as Empress Josephine in Gabriel's Fire.

Sinclair was married to Royston Sinclair, a police officer, and had two sons with him, Garry and Wayne Sinclair. In 1982, she was remarried to actor Dean Compton. She died of leukemia in 1995, after 13 years of battling the disease. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered in her hometown in Jamaica.

#MadgeSinclair #HiddenFigures

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Links:

'Madge Sinclair, 57, TV and Film Actress:'
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/23/art...

'OBITUARY - Madge Sinclair:'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/peo...

'Madge Sinclair Jamaica-born Actress Has No Regrets:'
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1...

Madge Sinclair (Wikipedia):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madge_S...