- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMadeleine Louise Helene Thornton
- Height5′ 4½″ (1.64 m)
- Madeleine Sherwood was born on November 13, 1922 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She was an actress, known for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), The Changeling (1980) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1962). She was married to Robert Sherwood. She died on April 23, 2016 in Lac Cornu, Quebec, Canada.
- SpouseRobert Sherwood(1940 - ?) (divorced, 1 child)
- A great believer in civil rights, working with Martin Luther King, Jr. and being a member of CORE (Congress on Racial Equality), she was blacklisted. Arrested during a freedom walk, she received a sentence of six months hard labor but evaded deportation although she remained a Canadian national and never took out United States citizenship. Her activities on behalf of the Civil Rights movement landed her in a Southern jail in 1962, a fact which forever remained a source of pride for her. She was, at one point, represented by Fred Grey, the first African American to represent a Caucasian woman in the American South.
- She was one of the first women to direct a short film for the American Film Institute.
- She lost most of her hearing in the 1960s.
- Trained for acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York and made her debut on Broadway in 1952, aged 29. She would go on to appear in eighteen original Broadway productions. She was one of the first women to direct a short film for the American Film Institute. Her The Flying Nun (1967) co-star Sally Field credited her for getting her into the Actor's Studio.
- Was at one time represented by Fred Grey, the first African American to represent a Caucasian woman in the south.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
