Hattie McDaniel Biography

McDaniel began her career as a teen, performing for traveling black minstrel shows in the West, and later sang in theaters and clubs. She made her film debut in 1932's The Golden West, and thereafter played a number of mammy-maid parts, many of them assertive and independent-minded. In 1939 she received the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind, becoming the first African American to win an Academy Award. She also appeared on a number of radio shows, including Amos 'n' Andy, and she starred in her own radio show, Beulah, from 1947 to 1951.