Margaret Avery Biography
Margaret Avery an American actress and singer known for her career appearing on stage and later has had starring roles in films.
Margaret Avery Age
Avery was born on January 20, 1944, in Mangum, Oklahoma, U.S.
Margaret Avery Career
Avery is best known for her role as Shug Avery in the 1985 film The Color Purple. Her performance in this screen adaptation of Alice Walker’s prize-winning novel The Color Purple earned Avery an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Among the plays, Avery appeared in were Revolution and The Sistuhs. In 1972 for her performance in Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, she received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress.
In the television movie Something Evil (1972), a horror story with Sandy Dennis and Darren McGavin, Avery was directed by Steven Spielberg. That same year she made her theatrical motion picture debut as Lark in the crime film Cool Breeze with Thalmus Rasulala and Judy Pace.
In this blaxploitation remake of The Asphalt Jungle, Avery played the Marilyn Monroe part. The following year she played a prostitute in Magnum Force, the second in the series of Dirty Harry films starring Clint Eastwood, in which her character was murdered by her pimp. The character was killed through the pouring drain cleaner down the victim’s throat which was said to have inspired the notorious Hi-Fi Murders case in 1974.
In the 1977 film Which Way Is Up? directed by Michael Schultz, Avery gave a comedic performance as Annie Mae, the wife of Richard Pryor’s character. That same year, she played Belle Joplin, wife of the ragtime composer Scott Joplin, opposite Billy Dee Williams in the title role.
In 1992 Avery starred in The Jacksons: An American Dream as Martha Scruse, mother of Katherine Jackson, who was played by Angela Bassett. She has also made guest appearances on TV, including The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Kojak, Sanford and Son, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, A.E.S.
Hudson Street, Murder, She Wrote, Miami Vice, Spenser: For Hire, The Cosby Show, Walker, Texas Ranger, and JAG. In 2008, Avery played Mama Jenkins in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, opposite Martin Lawrence and James Earl Jones, and Sarah Brown in Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, which also stars Angela Bassett.
Margaret Avery Net Worth
Avery has an estimated net worth of $3 million dollars.
Margaret Avery Family
Information of her family is publicly unavailable. Details will be updated soon.
Margaret Avery Education
Avery joined Point Loma High School. She then attended San Francisco State University, where in 1985, she earned her degree in education.
Margaret Avery Marriage
Avery was married to Robert Gordon Hunt as of January 1974. The two couple have one daughter, Aisha Hunt, and divorced in 1980.