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Equal Tyme for the Illustrious Ladies Department:
  
Beam forward to the '60s and we can start the visual riches with (among others still to come) Diahann Carroll
 
And, natcherly, advancing even further, no one could overlook Halle
 
And our favorite, supremely talented Janet Maclachlan
 
[ Yeah, we know we can pleasantly predict 99.9% of you are goin'
"WHOOOOOOOOO????!!!". More anon, stick around. ]
Tho, a'course, lovely Lena foreshadowed (hah?) all of them.
 
Tho, we'd lay even odds at this very moment someone's nimple fingers are already at warp seven
typing their response and trumping us with sharing enlightening info that probably pre-dates the illustrious Miss Horne.
G'wan, Sir M, we dare ya. In fact, M.H.H. (Most Honorable Historian), we even welcome ya! ... 
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I think that Miss Horne is the queen of them all. Whatta voice! Only she could have sung a number and looked swell in a bubble bath at the same time, as she did for one movie!
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Posted: |
Nov 26, 2007 - 12:56 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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.....I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked." – from Lena, her 1986 biography.....
Lena---meet Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe, Hedy Lamarr, Jane Russell, Clara Bow and the endless parade of actresses who were more acknowledged for how they looked than what they could deliver as performers over the terms of their careers.
Lena Horne does, indeed, as you say, occupy a place "unmistakably, memorably, and magnificently in a consummate class of her own"---worthy of every accolade.
For me, however, I've never been quite convinced that she was as great a DRAMATIC actress as, say, Dorothy Dandridge.
.....Hollywood, in its usual epic minnow-mindedness, never had the imagination (let alone humanity) to showcase [her] with the same expertise it can expertly exploit).....
So what else is new? Endless highly-talented people have failed in the movie biz because someone didn't see the latent talent there. However, it remains, historically, that the brief musical guest appearances of Horne in MGM films of the forties---accompanied by full glamor regalia---lighting, wardrobe, sets, makeup--- Technicolor, and high-production gloss, is virtually the only case of an African-American performer appearing in a single-studio's films in this form in the forties period on a regular basis---and those appearances remain memorable today.
The MGM machine "gave" Horne class and style, and an audience expectation of her image, the underpinnings of which she has been able to carry through her nearly 60 year career after leaving MGM. The "Lena Horne" of today LOOKS like the "Lena Horne" of the MGM years, with only age taken into consideration. The talent has always been there.
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In Fond Remembrance and Praise of Department:
There are those timeless talents who don't receive the rich (and equally overdue) recognition they've long deserved until the latter part of their career. So it was with the graceful gravity that was Gloria Foster, who didn’t become universally known until her enchanting turn as The Oracle in the original Matrix (plus its first sequel).
Aside from its unexpectedly unorthordox casting – “Not quite what you expected, eh?” she quipped with that marvelous Mona Lisa mystique of a smile -
she intelligently (and craftily) imbued the role with such whimsical charm, subtle substance, ambiguous authority and an overall panache of sparkling personality that she deftly became the mesmerizing center whenever she appeared.
Miss Foster had a long and glorious reputation on the Broadway stage with roles in, among others, “In White America”, “Medea” “The Cherry Orchard” and “Having Our Say”. Aside from a few episodes of “Law and Order” and projects with Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier, she wasn’t seen as often as one might’ve wished due to her own selectivity with when, why, how and in what she appeared in.
Married for years to
of the 60s “Mod Squad”
Miss Foster had only recently finished filming her scenes to "The Matrix Reloaded"
when she died of diabetes.
Her arrival on screen elicited an immediate warm smile of recognition knowing, in advance, the many layers of The Oracle she revealed – concern, surprise, a spot of unexpected hurt when her overtures are rejected (“Well, suit yourself”) - put one in memorable mind how audiences fondly came to view Desmond Llewellyn’s Q.
She leaves behind a luminous legacy whose foundation will always be her magical and consummate contribution as an Oracle utterly unlike any other.
"Our time is up ... Good luck, kiddo."
Rest easy, Dear Lady. There'll ne'er be another like you. 
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