Pioneer actress Juanita Moore finally gets her star

Wave Wire Services

HOLLYWOOD — A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame honoring the late Juanita Moore, the fifth Black actor to be nominated for an Oscar, was unveiled Oct. 18.

Actress/director Debbie Allen, actresses Margaret Avery and Jayne Kennedy and film critic Leonard Maltin were among those on hand for the ceremony at 6100 Hollywood Blvd. at the corner of Gower Street.

“Juanita Moore stood tall as an incredible actor that gave us a footprint and a light and a path upon which we could find our own,” Allen told the crowd. “And I’m talking about the incredible wonderful actors that we all love, some here today. 

“Juanita Moore stands tall in a world where we need it and she reminds us of a time that we cannot go back to,” she said. “So today is a day of real light to give her her flowers that she so has earned and so deserved. And I’m very proud to be here with this glorious group of incredible people.”

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The star was accepted by Arnett Moore, a nephew of Juanita Moore who nominated her and raised the money for the star.

Moore received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination in 1960 for her portrayal of the nanny, housekeeper, confidante and best friend of Broadway star Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) in “Imitation of Life,” a drama dealing with race, class and gender.

Born on Oct. 19, 1915, in Itta Bena, Mississippi, the youngest of nine children. Moore’s mother, Willie Ella Dunn Moore, moved the family to Los Angeles after the death of her husband Harrison Moore.

In elementary school, Moore sang in the glee club and formed a female trio at Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles. Moore moved to New York at 17 to pursue a career in show business. She sang and danced throughout Harlem as a chorus girl and in 1933 appeared in the films “Roman Scandals” and “So This Is Africa,” as a dancer.

When she was 20, Moore moved to Europe to perform with Josephine Baker and other Black performers in chorus lines.

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Moore sang and danced with chorus troupes in Black cinema and appeared such films as “Shine” with Louis Armstrong and “Paper Doll” with the Mills Brothers and Dorothy Dandridge.

Moore had her first speaking part in a film in the 1949 drama “Pinky,” which starred Jeanne Crain as a young light-skinned Black woman who passes for white. Moore’s film career would continue through the 2000 Disney fantasy comedy-drama “The Kid.”

Moore’s other film credits included “Walk on the Wild Side,” “A Child is Waiting,” “The Singing Nun” and “Uptight.” Her television credits include “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Wagon Train,” “Gentle Ben,” and a 1973 two-part “Adam-12” episode as Police Commissioner Edna Dixon.

Moore died on Dec. 31, 2013 at age 93.

       
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