September 13, 1948– Nell Carter was a series of contradictions & conundrums: Black, Southern, Jewish, Lesbian, Right Wing Conservative. Carter was a giant talent in a tiny (4’11’’), if expansive frame. Those contradictions in Carter’s personality made her a unique performer. She possessed a little girl voice that was capable of belting to the rafters. An exponent of soul & blues in the tradition of Dinah Washington & Bessie Smith, she could be heartbreaking doing a ballad such as Mean To Me.
Carter had mischievous sense of comedy that she used in both her singing & her acting. Despite her girth, she was light on her feet. In the classic TV special Baryshnikov On Broadway (1980), she shimmied & shuffled, holding her own with the famous dancer to Honeysuckle Rose.
Carter first achieved fame with her Tony winning performance in the musical revue of songs by & associated with Fats Walker Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1978), where she stopped the show nightly. She also won an Emmy Award in 1982 for her performance on the special TV Broadcast of the Broadway musical.
Carter got in to cocaine during the run of Ain’t Misbehavin’. She later claimed that at one point, she was spending $2000 a day on drugs. In the mid-1980s, her pal Liza Minnelli personally accompanied Carter to rehab at Hazelden in Minnesota. Carter got clean, & she later said:
“Thank God I got help. God & Liza Minnelli.”
Carter was cast as Effie in the original 1981 production of Dreamgirls. She left the production before rehearsals began to take a role on the soap opera Ryan’s Hope. We all know how that turned out.
Carter’s starred for 6 seasons playing the “mammy” role to a white family on the off-putting, obnoxious & oddly popular sitcom Gimme A Break!. The cast included a young & closeted Rosie O’Donnell, who fought with Carter on the set.
During the 1990 run of the moppet musical Annie, playing Miss Hannigan, Carter attempted suicide. Even though she had been given a new musical number added to the score, she was distraught when ads promoting the show used a different actor, a white actor, as Miss Hannigan. The producers claimed that the commercials, which were made during an earlier production, were too costly to reshoot. Carter claimed racism:
“Maybe they don’t want audiences to know Nell Carter is black.”
Carter lived a trouble filled life. Born Nell Ruth in Birmingham, Alabama, Carter began performing professionally when she was 11 years old on a weekly radio show in her hometown.
When she was 16 years old, Carter was raped & became pregnant, giving birth to a daughter who was raised by her aunt. She moved to NYC when she was 19 years old & found work as as a nightclub singer playing spots like Reno Sweeney’s & The Village Gate.
Carter expressed interest in having more family, but she experienced 3 miscarriages. She tried to adopt on 2 occasions, once the young woman changed her mind & once there was an attempt by extortionists. In 1989, with her career in an upswing, she was able successfully adopted 2 baby boys within months of each other.
Carter was dogged by drug & alcohol addictions, 2 divorces, & she twice had brain surgery to remove an aneurysm. During that time Carter learned she had diabetes. In the late 1980s, her brother died of HIV complications. Troubles aplenty, Carter twice declared bankruptcy.
Carter had just begun rehearsals for a revival of the musical Raisin, when in January 2003, she took her final curtain call, taken by diabetes, heart disease, & heartbreak. She was just 54 years old. When she left this world, her friends & family were surprised to discover carter had just $200 in her bank account. They were further shocked to discover that Carter had been living as a closeted lesbian for more than a 15 years & that custody of her daughter & 2 sons had been left to her partner Ann Kaser.
The Husband & I saw Carter in Ain’t Misbehavin’ twice, on Broadway & on tour. Her performance was astounding in skill & charisma, & her vocals were hair-raising. I remain a very big fan.
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