Virginia Capers

With plenty of heart and soul, singer/actress 'Virginia Capers' (qv) served up loads of music in a career that spanned several decades. The benevolent, plus-sized talent was born Eliza 'Virginia Capers' (qv) on September 22, 1925, in South Caroline. She attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., then studied voice at Juilliard in Manhattan.By happenstance, Virginia was introduced to band leader 'Abe Lyman' (qv) who hired her for his radio program and for on-the-road tours. In the late 50s, she had made it to all the way to Broadway with productions of "Jamaica" (1957) and then "Saratoga" (1959) albeit in chorus/understudy roles. Playing older than she was, at age 34, she went on to take over the role of Grandma Obeah) in "Jamaica."Moving to TV and occasional film roles into the 1960's, Virginia found work on such TV programs as "Have Gun, Will Travel," "General Electric Theatre," "The Untouchables," "Daniel Boone," "Death Valley Days," "Judd for the Defense," "My Three Sons," "Marcus Welby," "Bracken's World," "Longstreet," "The Rookies," "Mannix" and a recurring role on "Julia." Infrequent movie work included minor roles in _House of Women (1962)_ (qv), _The Ride to Hangman's Tree (1967)_ (qv), _The Lost Man (1969)_ (qv), _Norwood (1970)_ (qv), _The Great White Hope (1970)_ (qv), _Big Jake (1971)_ (qv), _Trouble Man (1972)_ (qv) and as Billie Holiday's mother in _Lady Sings the Blues (1972)_ (qv) starring 'Diana Ross' (qv) and the tragic jazz singer.The singer would cap things off with a huge Broadway musical role in 1974. Handed the role of her career as matriarch Lena Younger in the musical "Raisin," the stage version of the 'Lorraine Hansberry' (qv) classic drama "Raisin in the Sun," Virginia copped the Tony Award for "lead actress in a musical role" and was given the right to later perform the part in a straight dramatic version of the 'Lorraine Hansberry' (qv) play.With this success, Virginia worked diligently in its aftermath to fight off rigid Hollywood stereotypes and, on occasion, played judges, nurses and other professional types. Just the same, she found herself often typecast, along as poor, husband-less mothers or proud domestic help. Nevertheless, her nationwide recognition led to plentiful work on such TV dramas as "The Waltons," "Quincy," "Dynasty," "Highway to Heaven," "Murder, She Wrote," "St. Elsewhere," "Knot's Landing," "Party of Five," ER" and a recurring role on _Downtown (1986)_ (qv), as well as the TV comedies "Mork & Mindy," "227," "The Golden Girls," "Evening Shade," "Married...with Children," and recurring roles on both _The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990)_ (qv) and _The Hughleys (1998)_ (qv).On the film front, Virginia had latter roles in the film _The Toy (1982)_ (qv), _Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)_ (qv) (as Nurse Sparrow), _Howard the Duck (1986)_ (qv), _Backfire (1987)_ (qv), _Pacific Palisades (1990)_ (qv), _Beethoven's 2nd (1993)_ (qv), _Dependent (1994)_ (qv) and _Bad City Blues (1999)_ (qv).Having long made her move from New York to Hollywood, Virginia went on to found in 1984 the Lafayette Players West, a performing arts repertory troupe that provided stage work for (primarily) black actors. She also received the National Black Theatre Festival Living Legend Award, the 'Paul Robeson' (qv) Pioneer Award and the NAACP's Image Award for theatre excellence. The unmarried actress died complications from pneumonia on May 6, 2004. She was 78.::Gary Brumburgh / [email protected]