The incredibly talented Lynn Whitfield was one of the most visible and lauded Black actresses of the 1980s.
Beginning the decade with a powerful performance in the screen adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf, she became highly visible with major television roles on Hill Street Blues, Cagney and Lacy, Miami Vice, and St. Elsewhere.
In 1989, she added a major credit to her name with her portrayal of Ciel in Oprah Winfrey’s television miniseries,The Women of Brewster Place. She also appeared in two other major films of the decade, Silverado in 1985 and Jaws: The Revenge in 1987.
The peak of her acclaimed career arguably came in the form of highly popular but deeply troubled Follies Bergere headliner-turned civil rights activist Josephine Baker. In the HBO biopic The Josephine Baker Story (1991), Lynn played the legendary entertainer with Emmy-winning gusto, a role that stretched her to the limits as she played the role from age 18 to 68.
Earning an NAACP Image Award in 1992 for her role in the miniseries Stompin’ at the Savoy (1992), she later appeared in Pauly Shore’s comedy In the Army Now (1994) and went back to series TV alongside Bill Cosby in the short-lived The Cosby Mysteries (1994).
Lynn had an upsurge in the late 90s with roles in the films A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996) with Martin Lawrence and Gone Fishin’ (1997) with “Silverado” co-star Danny Glover. She also earned excellent reviews for her supporting work in Eve’s Bayou (1997), a role that drew on her Louisiana heritage.
More quality TV came her way when she starred as Sophie in Sophie & the Moonhanger (1996), a mini-movie that focused on the relationship of the wife of a Klansman and her longtime black housekeeper. She kept up the momentum with an unsympathetic role in the Oprah Winfrey miniseries The Wedding (1998), where she again had to cover a long life span, this time from 19 to 47, and Redemption (2004) with Jamie Foxx, an urban film that chronicled the turbulent life of (now) imprisoned L.A. Crips gang founder Stan “Tookie” Williams.