Talented Alfre Woodard Stars in a New CBS Series
Three Rivers Brings the Emmy Award Winning Actress to Television
Aug 16, 2009
Alfre Woodard has been portraying complex characters in multi-layered television and major motion picture plots for more than three decades. Her early works include television shows The Trial of the Moke and Freedom Road.
Alfre Woodard’s Early Television Works
Freedom Road told the true story of a former slave, Gideon Jackson, who went on to become a United States senator representing the state of Virginia. Although Gideon won the support of the state’s citizens enough to earn a seat in Congress, he was made to put up a fierce battle in order to keep the land and the civil rights that he and other former slaves had worked hard to acquire.
The film takes place during the Reconstruction era and depicts the dark shift that came across America’s landscape after fear resurrected the urgency for racial superiority and a white power structure took over the government. In the television show, Alfre played the role of Katie, an African American woman struggling to find her place in a changing South. Starring Muhammad Ali, Kris Kristofferson, Edward Herman and Ossie Davis, Freedom Road set the tone for the types of meaty roles Alfre Woodward would take on in the future.
Early Life of Actress Alfre Woodard
A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Alfre Woodard was born on November 8, 1952. The daughter of Constance and Marion Woodard, following an active life of track and cheerleading in high school, the actress studied drama at Boston University. After she graduated from college, Alfre headed to California.
While on the coast, she acted on the hit television series, Hill Street Blues. Playing the role of a grieving mother who had recently lost her child to a murder, Alfre depicted the depth and breadth of her acting range. Her work on the television series earned her an Emmy Award, her first. She would earn three more Emmy Awards over the coming years.
Television Series and Major Motion Pictures
The actress’ next Emmy Award came after she portrayed a rape survivor on the television series LA Law. Following LA Law came her portrayal of registered nurse, Eunice Evers, in the Home Box Office (HBO) series, Miss Evers’ Boys. For the work, Alfre picked up her third Emmy Award.
Featuring actors Laurence Fishburne and Ossie Davis, Miss Evers’ Boys told the tragic, real life story of the 1932 Tuskegee syphilis experiment that involved more than 400 African American men. Struggling through the complications brought on by syphilis, the men were deliberately, but to their own unawares, given ineffective placebo treatments so that the government could monitor their reactions to the devastating disease as compared to white citizens.
More than half of the men who participated in the study died. Nearly twenty years passed before the medical study was discontinued. Alfre Woodard brilliantly portrayed registered nurse Eunice Ever’s rare balance of compassion and unfortunate ignorance on the silver screen.
Award Winning Performances by Alfre Woodard
Woodard’s fourth Emmy Award came for her work on the television series The Practice. The actress has also won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Black Reel Award and one Golden Globe Award.
For her many other television and major motion picture projects, she has been nominated for 10 additional Emmy Awards over the span of her active career. She has also been nominated for two Black Reel Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and an Oscar Award. Her Oscar Award nomination came for her work on the 1984 major motion picture, Cross Creek.
Recent projects Alfre Woodard has taken on include Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys, Reach for Me and American Violet. Starting October 4, 2009, the talented actress will portray Dr. Sophia Jordan on CBS’ Three Rivers. The show examines the lives of organ donors, physicians and organ donor recipients at a medical facility based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Sources:
“Alfre Woodard.” Hollywood.com. 16 August 2009.
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