Amanda Randolph

Amanda Randolph (September 2, 1896 - August 24, 1967) was an American actress and singer. She was a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and was the older sister of actress Lillian Randolph.

She began her career in black musical revues in the 1920s, and around 1919-1920 recorded several piano rolls of hot jazz and blues music for the Vocalstyle company of Cincinnati whilst working as a musician in Ohio's Lyric Theatre. These are the only known rolls recorded by a black female pianist, and reveal an impressive mastery of the piano.

She worked in films from the 1930s to the 1960s, and was one of the first black women to become a comedy favorite on television. She briefly starred in her own daytime musical TV program, Amanda, during the 1948 - 1949 season. She also appeared in DuMont's The Laytons, one of the first (if not the first) network-televised series to feature an African-American performer in a regular role.^[1]

Randolph became a regular on the top early black TV show of the decade: Amos 'n' Andy as Sapphire's mother, Ramona Smith, from 1951 to 1953. She was the star and titular character in Beulah during the final part of its last season in 1953. She also appeared in Sidney Poitier's 1950 drama No Way Out. She also had a recurring role as Louise the maid on CBS's The Danny Thomas Show. She guest starred on the NBC anthology series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show.

Amanda's sister Lillian Randolph, another Amos 'n' Andy regular in the role of Madame Queen, was the voice of "Mammy Two-Shoes" in William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Tom and Jerry cartoon short subjects for Metro Goldwyn Mayer during the 1940s and early 1950s.

Randolph died of a stroke in Duarte, California on August 24, 1967 at the age of 70.

References

External links

• Amanda Randolph at the Internet Movie Database
• Amanda Randolph at the Internet Broadway Database
• Amanda Randolph at Find a Grave

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