Biography

Her most famous role (both on Broadway and in the screen version) was as Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, in 'The Wiz'.

Had one son, Larry, who died in 1996.

In 1986, she lost a toe to diabetes. In 1989, she had a stroke leaving her left side paralyzed and also was virtually speechless for over a year. She lost both her legs. In the 1990s, she almost died in surgery during a hip replacement. She was once dropped by an ambulance crew and another time fell out of her wheelchair face first to the floor. She lost some of her top teeth. She died on November 9, 1999 at 3:55 AM EST at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital. She was cremated.

She was a conservative Republican and in 1984 was a featured speaker at the Lincoln Memorial for a "Blacks for Reagan" rally; she spoke very passionately in support of Ronald Reagan's re-election.