Zara Cully

At 86 years old, Zara Cully has this physical status:

Zara Frances Cully (January 26, 1892-1978) was an American actress.

Cully was best known for her role as Olivia "Mother Jefferson" Jefferson on CBS sitcom The Jeffersons, which she portrayed from 1975 to 1978.

Early life and education

Zara Frances Cully was the oldest of ten children born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on January 26, 1892. Ambrose served as the music director of the church they attended, Zion AME Church, and the Cully family was a performer. Wendell Cully, Zara's younger brother, was a member of Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. She attended the Worcester School of Speech and Music.

Personal life and death

Cully was married before, but James M. Brown, Jr., was his son from 1914 to his death in 1968. Cully and Brown had four children together: Mrs. Mary Gale "Polly" Buggs (wife of John A. Buggs, deputy director of the United States Civil Rights Commission, 1917–1972), James T. Brown III (1925–1972), and a baby girl (who died in 1919). Cully died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on February 28, 1978, at the age of 86. The Church of Christian Fellowship in Los Angeles held services on March 2, 1978. In the Freedom Mausoleum, Columbarium of Victory, she was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale). The cast and crew of The Jeffersons were on hand, as well as show producer Norman Lear. At the 11th Annual NAACP Awards ceremony in June 9, 1978, Cully was honoured with a special Image Award from the NAACP.

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Career

She became "one of the world's best elocutionists" in 1940 after a performance in New York City. She began producing, writing, directing, and appearing in many plays after moving to Jacksonville, Florida. She was a drama teacher at her own studio as well as at Edward Waters College, a historically black college established in 1866 to educate slaves. "Dean of Drama" had been a staple in Florida. Cully, who was traumatized by Jim Crow's South, moved to Hollywood, where she became a regular performer at the Ebony Showcase Theatre.

Cully had accumulated a long list of acting experience by the time she first appeared in 'Mother' Jefferson,' including films such as The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970), a starring role in Brother John (1971), and Blaxploitation's Sugar Hill (1974) and Darktown Strutters (1975). Her television career spanned what critics refer to as 'the Golden Age of Television,' with appearances on the highly acclaimed Playhouse 90 series. Aside from The Jeffersons, she starred in The People Next Door (CBS Playhouse), Run for Your Life (NBC Matinee Theater), Cowboy in Africa, The Name of the Game, Mod Squad, Night Gallery, and All in the Family (in a 1974 appearance in which she performed "Mother Jefferson" (which she later transferred to The Jeffersons)). At the time of her death, she was one of the oldest actresses on television.

Olivia Jefferson's first appearance as 'Mother' appeared on an episode of All in the Family titled "Life" on February 9, 1974. At the time, she was 82 years old. By the time the Jeffersons became a spin-off on January 18, 1975, the three actors who played Tom, Helen, and Jenny Willis were drafted with new actors. She was out of town for the first 17 episodes of The Jeffersons due to a severe case of pneumonia caused by a collapsed lung. Following her recuperation, she returned to the show. She appeared in the ninth episode of the fourth season titled "The Last Leaf" on November 12, 1977, three months before her death. No special episode was set up to focus on her death, but it was addressed in the second episode of the fifth season's "Homecoming (pt 1)," which aired on September 27, 1978, seven months after she died.

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