Angelou, Maya: 1928 - 2014

Maya Angelou as Performer in Films

Maya Angelou was the director of the following films:
"Visions", 1976 (TV-Series 1976-1980); directed by Maya Angelou
- Weekly anthology series of original dramas, often with period settings.
Down in the Delta, 1998; directed by Maya Angelou; starring Alfre Woodard, Al Freeman Jr.
- Rating:
- Rosa Lynn sends her druggie daughter Loretta and her children Thomas and Tracy away from the big city to live with their uncle Earl in the ancestral home in rural Mississippi. Earl puts Loretta to work in his restaurant, Just Chicken, while also telling them about the generations of their family, the Sinclairs, dating back to their time in slavery before the the Civil War. (Jon Reeves)
Maya Angelou was an actress in the following films:
"Roots", 1977 (TV-Series); directed by Marvin J. Chomsky; starring Maya Angelou, LeVar Burton.
- Rating:
- A saga of African-American life, based on Alex Haley's family history. Kunta Kinte is abducted from his African village, sold into slavery, and taken to America. He makes several escape attempts until he is finally caught and maimed. He marries Bell, his plantation's cook, and they have a daughter, Kizzy, who is eventually sold away from them. Kizzy has a son by her new master, and the boy grows up to become Chicken George, a legendary cock fighter who leads his family into freedom. Throughout the series, the family observes notable events in U.S. history, such as the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, slave uprisings, and emancipation. (Eric Sorensen)
The Richard Pryor Special, 1977 (TV); directed by Marvin J. Chomsky; starring Maya Angelou, John Belushi.
There Are No Children Here, 1993; directed by Anita W. Addison; starring Oprah Winfrey, Keith David (I)
- Rating:
Poetic Justice, 1993; directed by John Singleton; starring Janet Jackson, Tupac Shakur.
- Rating:
- After witnessing the murder of her first and only boyfriend, young Justice decides to forget about college and become a South Central Los Angeles hairdresser. Avoiding friends, the only way for her to cope with her depression is by composing beautiful poetry. On her way to a convention in Oakland, she is forced to ride with an independent-minded postal worker whom she has not gotten along with in the past. After various arguments between them and their friends, they start to discover that their thoughts on violence, socially and domestically, are the same. Justice may finally feel that she is not as alone as before.
How to Make an American Quilt, 1995; directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse; starring Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft.
- Rating:
- Finn is a young graduate student, finishing a master's thesis, and preparing for marriage to her fiance Sam. But thoughts of the end of the free life, and a potential summer fling, intrude. She goes home to her grandmother, where, over the making of her wedding gift by a group of quilting-bee friends, laughter, bickering, love, and advice lead her toward a more open-eyed examination of her course. (Bruce Cameron)
The Runaway, 2000 (TV); directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman; starring Dean Cain, Pat Hingle.
- Rating:
- Racial tensions flare in 1949 Georgia when an old murder case involving the deaths of three black men is reopened: Two young boys discover a town's secret when they go adventuring and the town must learn to deal with memories that were thought to be long forgotten.
Maya Angelou was an narrator in the following films:
The Journey of August King, 1995; directed by John Duigan; starring Jason Patric, Thandie Newton.
- Rating:
- The Journey of August King is a multi-dimensional drama about a North Carolina farmer in 1815. August King, a widower, is on his way home as he does every year after selling his produce and purchasing the stock and goods he will need to survive the winter. On his journey, he comes upon a run-away slave, a young woman about 19 and August King must decide to violate the law and help this slave to freedom or else leave her to be hunted down and, ultimately, returned to her slave owner. (Joel Schesser)
Elmo Saves Christmas, 1996; directed by Emily Squires ; starring Charles Durning, Harvey Fierstein.
- Rating:

Maya Angelou as Performer Performer on Stage (Singer and Dancer)

Maya Angelou was a singer and dancer, especially during her stays in Los Angeles and San Francisco
The following recordings are available:
Been Found, 2002, 11 songs by Maya Angelou and Ashford & Simpson
She was a dancer in Porgy and Bess, in the touring and movie version
Porgy and Bess, 1959; directed by Otto Preminger; starring Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge.
- Rating:
In this legendary Gershwin opera set among the black residents of a fishing village in 1912 South Carolina, Bess - a woman with a disreputable history - tries to break free from her brutish lover Crown after he becomes wanted for murder. The only person willing to overlook her past and offer her shelter is the crippled Porgy. Their relationship is threatened by the disapproval of the townspeople, the presence of her old drug supplier Sportin' Life - and the threatened return of Crown.