Biography

Actress Margaret Avery, spellbinding in her role of Shug in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985), is certainly no "one-hit wonder". Although filmgoers may be able to trace her back only to that once-in-a-lifetime part, Margaret has been a talented player on the large and small screens for well over three decades.

Born in Mangum, Oklahoma, the daughter of a Navy man, she was raised in San Diego, California, where she completed high school. Margaret demonstrated a certain passion for acting while in her teens but decided to pursue a more stable career in teaching. Graduating from San Francisco State University, she joined the Los Angeles public school system as a substitute teacher, but the "acting bug" continued to nibble away at her. She auditioned for commercials on the sly and managed to also segued into stage work and singing jobs. Her early 1970s L.A. plays included "Revolution", "Sistuhs", and 1973's "Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?", the last for which she nabbed the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award. Her skills as an actress helped her to move into TV roles, appearing in such established 1970s and 1980s series as The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971), Kojak (1973), Sanford and Son (1972), Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), The Rookies (1972), Baby... I'm Back! (1977), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Miami Vice (1984), Spenser: For Hire (1985), a recurring part in Harry O (1973), and a regular role in the short-lived series A.E.S. Hudson Street (1977).

Her film career ignited during the popular "blaxploitation" era. She somehow managed to avoid the pitfalls of many a black actress of that time, however, despite her sexy and revealing roles in her first two films, Cool Breeze (1972) starring Thalmus Rasulala and Lincoln Kilpatrick, and Hell Up in Harlem (1973), in which she found herself in the clutches of brawny former footballer Fred Williamson. Margaret carried on with Magnum Force (1973) (as a hooker) and the comedies Which Way Is Up? (1977) and The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979), establishing herself as a solid, reliable actress.

Music was never far away from Margaret as attested by her roles in Louis Armstrong - Chicago Style (1976), starring Ben Vereen as "Satchmo", and Scott Joplin (1977), which showcased Billy Dee Williams. However, it was her riveting supporting turn as the drug-riddled, fly-by-night singer Shug Avery in The Color Purple (1985) that put her on the map. Stories have long circulated that Spielberg wanted a star singer in the role and that Margaret received the role only after both Patti LaBelle and Tina Turner were approached and turned it down. She had previously worked with Spielberg in her first TV movie Something Evil (1972). He remembered her from this and cast her. Earning an Academy Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actress", it was expected that her career would hit major cinematic heights. Unfortunately, Margaret didn't make another film for three years, when she played a jazz singer in the little-seen Blueberry Hill (1988) with Carrie Snodgress.

On TV she continued to grace episodes of Amen (1986), The Cosby Show (1984), Roc (1991), JAG (1995), MacGyver (1985), Bones (2005), enhanced such commendable made-for-TV movies as Heat Wave (1990) with Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones, and has been seen sporadically in films. She co-starred in The Return of Superfly (1990) -- a nod to her old blaxploitation days--Lightning in a Bottle (1993), White Man's Burden (1995) with John Travolta, the Mario Van Peebles feature Love Kills (1998)

Into the millennium, Margaret has been seen in Waitin' to Live (2006), directed by Travolta's brother, Joey Travolta; Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins (2008) as well as Meet the Browns (2008) with Martin Lawrence and Angela Bassett, respectively; the crime drama Proud Mary (2018) and the family comedy Grand-Daddy Day Care (2019). She also appearing regularly alongside Gabrielle Union and Richard Roundtree on BET's Being Mary Jane (2013).

Divorced (74-80) from director Robert Gordon Hunt, Margaret has one daughter, Aisha.
- IMDb mini biography by: Gary Brumburgh

She was cast in the role of Shug Avery in The Color Purple (1985) just after Tina Turner turned it down and because Steven Spielberg had previously worked with her on the television film Something Evil (1972).

She waged a controversial personal campaign for an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress in The Color Purple (1985), highlighted by her taking out an ad in an industry trade magazine. A born-again Christian, she wrote the ad in the vernacular of her character, "Shug", and made her plea directly to God. Many Academy members, reputedly including the film's director Steven Spielberg, were put off by this approach and by her using her professed faith to campaign for an award. She was nominated but lost to Anjelica Huston.

While still a teenager, she joined the civil-rights campaign known as the Freedom Riders.

Has one daughter, Aisha.

The fact that I didn't work for a couple years after The Color Purple (1985) is not unique. It not only happens to white actors sometimes, but with Black actors, too, but more so for women of color. At the time, most women of color who were in the business were limited to Black film, whereas my counterpart like Danny Glover went on to Lethal Weapon (1987), Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), and Lethal Weapon 3 (1992). He didn't have to be limited to a Black film; he didn't have to be married to a family, or related to somebody, like we women have to. I didn't work for a couple years after 'The Color Purple'. What saved me was the college lecture circuit. I kind of got a backlash for two reasons: one, no one would even think of me for a television role because they figured she's too big to do TV now. That was the pattern.