Alfre Woodard portrays the role of Betty Applewhite on Desperate Housewives.
Biography[]
Alfre Ette Woodard is the youngest of three children born to her parents in Oklahoma. She was named by her godmother, who claimed she saw a vision of Alfre's name in written out in gold letters. A former high school cheerleader and track star, she got the acting bug after being persuaded to audition for a school play by a nun at her school. She went on to study acting at Boston University and enjoyed a brief stint on Broadway before moving to LA. She got her first break in Remember My Name (1978) which also starred Jeff Goldblum. She lives in Santa Monica with her husband, writer Roderick Spencer, and their two adopted children: Mavis and Duncan. She was named one of the Most Beautiful People in America by People Magazine. As of September 13, 2003, she now holds the record of being the most honored African American actress in Primetime Emmy history. Until her win (as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for "The Practice" (1997)), she was tied with Cicely Tyson at three Primetime Emmys apiece. She won her first Primetime Emmy in 1984 as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for a three-episode guest stint on "Hill Street Blues" (1981), as the mother of a young boy accidentally killed by a police officer. Her second Primetime Emmy came in 1986 as Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series (a category which has since been split into male and female equivalents) for the "Pilot" episode of "L.A. Law" (1986) playing a woman dying of leukemia who claims to have been a victim of gang rape. In 1997, she won her third Primetime Emmy for Miss Evers' Boys (1997) (TV) against stiff competition from the likes of Meryl Streep, Glenn Close and Stockard Channing.
Career[]
Woodard has starred or appeared in the following:
- Hill Street Blues
- Sara
- St. Elsewhere
- Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad
- Frasier
- How to Make an American Quilt
- Love & Basketball
- Beauty Shop
- Desperate Housewives
- My Own Worst Enemy
- Maggie Hill
- True Blood
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