Madge Sinclair
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| Madge Sinclair | |||||||
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| Born | Madge Dorita Walters April 28, 1938 Kingston, Jamaica |
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| Died | December 20, 1995 (aged 57) Los Angeles, California |
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Madge Dorita Sinclair, born Madge Dorita Walters (April 28, 1938 in Kingston, Jamaica— December 20, 1995 in Los Angeles, California) was an Emmy-winning Jamaican American actress.
Sinclair received an Emmy Award nomination for her role as Belle in the miniseries Roots. She went on to a long-running stint in the 1980s as nurse Ernestine Shoop on the series Trapper John, M.D. opposite Pernell Roberts. She received three Emmy nominations for her work on the show, and critic Donald Bogle praised her for "maintaining her composure and assurance no matter what the script imposed on her."
In 1988, Sinclair played Queen Aoleon opposite James Earl Jones' King Jaffe Joffer in the Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America. Later, she would reteam with Jones as King and Queen for the role of Sarabi, Simba’s mother, in the blockbuster Disney animated film The Lion King (1994). The film became one of the best selling titles ever on home video. The two also collaborated on the series Gabriel's Fire, which earned Sinclair an Emmy in 1991 for Best Actress in a Dramatic Series.
Sinclair, in her brief role as the captain of the USS Saratoga in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, was the first black and female captain to appear in Star Trek. Years later, she played Geordi La Forge's mother, captain of the USS Hera, in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Interface".
Madge Sinclair died in 1995 of leukemia. She was cremated. Her ashes were buried in her native Jamaica. They were either given to a friend or family.
[edit] Personal Life
Her father was Herbert Walters and her mother was named Jemima Walters. She described her father as an entrepreneur. "He made a comfortable living; we were even rich one or two times." But they also had poor times, when her mother would go without dinner to feed the children. Perhaps this had an effect on her personality, because from childhood she was known as a go-getter. She excelled in speech and drama as a teen and won several awards.
She married her first husband, a policeman named Royston Sinclair, when she was young and had two sons-Garry Sinclair and Wayne Sinclair. She worked as a teacher in Jamaica until she was 30. She eventually left for New York to pursue her dreams of being an actress. The boys initially stayed in Jamaica with their father, and she would see them on visits. She and Sinclair divorced in 1969. She continued to pursue her acting and her young sons later joined her in New York.
She married her second husband, Dean Compton, in 1971.
A capable and versatile businesswoman as well, Sinclair was an art dealer, chairwoman of the women's clothing manufacturer Madge Walters Sinclair Inc., and owner of the Action Income Tax Service.
[edit] References
Internet movie database and Donald Bogle's book Prime Time Blues.
[edit] External links
- Madge Sinclair at the Internet Movie Database
- Madge Sinclair at TV.com
- Madge Sinclair article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
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