Esther Rolle

The gap-toothed actress with the gravelly voice was born in Pompano Beach, Florida, the 10th child of 18 born to Caribbean farming immigrants. Her first important work came with the Negro Ensemble Company and over the years would earn a solid careworn reputation in such theater plays as "The Blacks," "Blues for Mister Charlie," "The Amen Corner," "A Raisin in the Sun" and "A Member of the Wedding. " Ironically, her father insisted she promise him that she would never become a servant or maid in real life. She didn't, and yet Esther would have her biggest successes playing just those types of roles.

Her sister, Rosanna Carter, passed away in 2001, at age 83, just 3 years after Rolle's death.

Last film was Train Ride (2000), an independent feature-film written and directed by Rel Dowdell, which was shot on location at Cheyney University in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, the oldest Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) college in the United States. She was also in Dowdell's multi-award winning short film version of "Train Ride", done while he was a graduate student at Boston University. She was appearing in "A Raisin in the Sun" at the Huntingdon Theatre in Boston at the time.

When she died in 1998, she left an estate valued in excess of $1.7 million including $200,000 in cash a $400,000 home, $1,072,000 in treasuries. In addition, she owned 1,000 shares of Bethdames Corporation, several Mutual Funds, and 2% interest in El Toro, Ltd.

Afflicted with diabetes, Esther's health failed in the 1990s and toward the end of her life she was on kidney dialysis.

Rolle's family gathered in the Bahamas for her family reunion in 1986.

Her sister Estelle Evans lived to age 78, before her death in 1985.

Originated the role of 'Dorcas Moulineaux' in Steve Carter's play, 'Dame Lorraine, " at the Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago on 27 March 1981.

In other assignments, she won an Emmy Award for the TV movie Summer of My German Soldier (1978) and gained further respect for her work in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979) and for her film work in Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Rosewood (1997). Two of her sisters, Estelle Evans and Rosanna Carter, were also character actresses.

Audiences loved her so much as the feisty domestic who stood her ground, and then some, against her volatile and liberal-minded employer Maude Findley (Bea Arthur), that Esther earned her own spin-off series with Good Times (1974). Compelled to fight racial stereotypes, she insisted before accepting the series that a strong father figure be central in the show (actor John Amos). And while she still played the role of a lower middle-class maid, the show's emphasis was to be on her home and family life, not her outside work. Still, Esther left the show for one season when she was unhappy about the negative role model perpetuated by Jimmie Walker's jive-talking J. J. character, but later returned after the producers assured her that more responsibility would be taken.

She caught the attention of TV producer Norman Lear while performing on stage who cast her in the Maude (1972) supporting role in 1972.

Best known for the role of Florida Evans on the 1970s sitcoms Maude (1972) and Good Times (1974), African-American actress Esther Rolle proved to be as spirited and iron-willed off-camera as well.

Graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1942.

In 1939, when Rolle was age 18, she followed her two sisters to New York City. Her writing teacher talked her into taking acting classes instead.

1938 graduate from Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach, Florida, USA, a school still in operation as of 2020.