She began to work with Fletcher Henderson again in the late 1940s. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1949 for the film Pinky, under the direction of Elia Kazan, after original director, John Ford, quit, due to his disagreements with Waters. According to producer Daryl Zanuck, Ford hated that old...woman (Waters). Ford, Karzan stated, Didnt know how to reach Ethel Waters. Kazan later referred to Waters Truly odd combination of old-time religiosity and free-flowing hatred.. In 1950, she won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for her performance opposite Julie Harris in the play The Member of the Wedding. Waters and Harris repeated their roles in the 1952 film version of Member of the Wedding In 1950, Waters starred in the television series Beulah, but quit after complaining that the scripts portrayal of blacks was degrading. She later guest starred in 1957 and 1959 on NBCs The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. In the 1957 episode, she sang Cabin in the Sky. Despite these successes, her brilliant career was fading. She lost tens of thousands in jewelry and cash in a robbery, and had difficulties with the IRS. Her health suffered, and she worked only sporadically in following years. In 1950-51 she wrote the autobiography His Eye is on the Sparrow with Charles Samuels, in which she wrote candidly about her life. She explains why her age has often been misstated: her mother had had to sign a paper claiming Waters was four years older than she was, and that she was born in 1896. His Eye is on the Sparrow was adapted for a stage production in which she was portrayed by Ernestine Jackson. In her second autobiography, To Me, Its Wonderful, Waters states that she was born in 1900. Rosetta Reitz called Waters a natural ... [Her] songs are enriching, nourishing. You will want to play them over and over again, idling in their warmth and swing. Though many of them are more than 50 years old, the music and the feeling are still there.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 15:29:30 +0000
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