Profile
Ethel Waters
Actress + Vocalist
Female
Born
Oct 31, 1896
Hometown
Chester, Pennsylv...
Died
Sep 1, 1977
Death Place
Chatsworth, Calif...
Instruments
Vocals
Performed With
Fletcher Henderso...
Ethel Waters was an American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her best-known recordings… Read More
Romance
Check out the latest love interests for Ethel Waters.
News + Updates
Browse recent news and stories about Ethel Waters.
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The Civil Wars, Missy Higgins Show Their True Blue Colors At Folks Fest Huffington PostGoogle News - Aug 26, 2011
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The Carolina Chocolate Drops: A Sweet Treat, Indeed The Seattle TimesGoogle News - Aug 18, 2011
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Joanne Woodward On Tcm: Rachel, Rachel; Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams Alt Film Guide (Blog)Google News - Aug 16, 2011
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'Nannette & Her Hotsy Totsy Boys' The Record GazetteGoogle News - Aug 15, 2011
Timeline
Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Ethel Waters.
CHILDHOOD
1896
Birth
Ethel Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania on October 31, 1896, as a result of the rape of her teenaged mother, Louise Anderson (believed to have been thirteen years old at the time, although some sources indicate she may have been slightly older) by John Waters, a pianist and family acquaintance from a mixed-race middle-class background, who played no role in raising Ethel.
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TWENTIES
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Around 1919, Waters moved to Harlem and there became a celebrity performer in the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s.
Jazz historian Rosetta Reitz points out that by the time Waters returned to Harlem in 1921, women blues singers were among the most powerful entertainers in the country.
In early 1924, Paramount bought the Black Swan label, and she stayed with Paramount through 1924.
1925
28 Years Old
Waters then first recorded for Columbia Records in 1925, achieving a hit with her voicing of "Dinah"—which was voted a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998.
THIRTIES
1933
36 Years Old
In 1933, Waters made a satirical all-black film entitled Rufus Jones for President, which featured then-child performer Sammy Davis Jr. as Rufus Jones.
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1934
37 Years Old
She signed with Decca in late 1934 for only two sessions, as well as a single session in early 1938.
1935
38 Years Old
She recorded for the specialty label "Liberty Music Shops" in 1935 and again in 1940.
FORTIES
1938
41 Years Old
Between 1938 and 1939, she recorded for Bluebird.
1942
45 Years Old
MGM hired Lena Horne as the ingenue in the all-Black musical Cabin in the Sky, and Waters starred as Petunia in 1942, reprising her stage role of 1940.
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FIFTIES
1949
52 Years Old
She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1949 for the film Pinky.
1950
53 Years Old
In 1950, she won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for her performance opposite Julie Harris in the play The Member of the Wedding.
1952
55 Years Old
Waters and Harris repeated their roles in the 1952 film version of Member of the Wedding In 1950, Waters starred in the television series Beulah but quit after complaining that the scripts' portrayal of blacks was "degrading."
LATE ADULTHOOD
She later guest starred in 1957 and 1959 on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.
1973
76 Years Old
Recordings of Ethel Waters were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
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1977
81 Years Old
Waters is the great-aunt of singer-songwriter Crystal Waters. Waters often toured with Billy Graham on his crusades. She died on September 1, 1977, aged 80, from uterine cancer, kidney failure, and other ailments in Chatsworth, California.
Original Authors of this text are noted on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Waters.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.