Lorraine Toussaint

actor

Personal Information

Born on April 4, 1960, in Trinidad, West Indies.
Education: High School of Performing Arts, Julliard School.

Career

Actress. Appeared in first TV role, The Face of Rage, 1983; first movie role Breaking In, 1989; Television credits: Common Ground, 1990; Queen, 1993; Amazing Grace, 1995; Leaving L.A., 1997; Any Day Now, 1998-. Films: Hudson Hawk, 1992; Bleeding Hearts, 1994; Psalms from the Underground, 1996; The Sky Is Falling, 2000. Stage: Lincoln Center in Measure for Measure; New York Shakespeare Festival; on stage in A Doll's House and Agnes of God; Playboy of the West Indies.

Life's Work

The 2001 television season marked the fourth year for actress Lorraine Toussaint in the Emmy-nominated Any Day Now series on the Lifetime cable network. Costarring with Annie Potts, Any Day Now has been called one of television's most honest and provocative original dramas, and it earned Toussaint an NAACP Image Award nomination for best actress in a drama series. She also produced her first TV movie for Lifetime, based on the book Joyce Ann Brown: Justice Denied. It is the story of a woman in Texas who was tried for murder, convicted in seven days, and sentenced to life imprisonment, where she spent 10 years. Toussaint is also seasoned veteran of both film and stage. In August of 2000, the Trinidad native became an American citizen.

Chose Acting from Yellow Pages

Toussaint was born in Trinidad, West Indies, on April 4, 1960. With her mother, she emigrated to Brooklyn, New York, in 1970, where she promptly became a television addict. It was not so much that her mother wanted her to watch a lot of television, but more that she was not allowed to wander around the streets "with the bad element," as Toussaint told Everybody's: The Caribbean-American Magazine. She added that in addition to television watching while she waited for her mother to return from work, she did a lot of reading: "One day I ran out of things to read and decided to look through the yellow pages ... I figured I could search through the phone book to see what career opportunities I could find. The first thing that caught my eye was 'Acting.'"

Toussaint found an acting school in Brooklyn and asked her mother to enroll her. Her mother refused, citing the cost. But six months later when they happened to be walking near the acting school, Toussaint nagged until they went inside. The result was that Toussaint was enrolled with money that was going to go for a new dress. Acting school paved the way for her to attend the High School of the Performing Arts in Manhattan. She later honed her craft at the prestigious Julliard School.

Began in New York

Toussaint spent the first 12 years of her acting career in New York City before moving to Los Angeles. Her first television appearance was on The Face of Rage (1983). Her first motion picture role was in 1989 when she played Delphine in Breaking In with Burt Reynolds. This off-beat comedy about an aging safecracker who takes on a young protegee proved to be quite inventive and funny. Since that time, Toussaint has made ten movies and 18 television appearances, five of them on a series, in addition to Any Day Now.

Toussaint received raves for her portrayal of Marie St. Martin in the Where I Live TV series that began in 1993. She acknowledged that she was cast in the role for her Caribbean background, since the series depicted innercity life for a family from that vicinity. She was praised for being convincing in the role of mother to two children as well. Although she has no children, Toussaint says she learned the nurturing role from her strong mother.

Among Toussaint's other movie and TV credits were recurring roles on Law and Order and appearances on Bodies of Evidence and Pros and Cons. She performed at Lincoln Center in "Measure for Measure" and "Playboy of the West Indies," in which she played a West Indian character for the first time. She has also performed with the New York Shakespeare Festival and has been on stage in "A Doll's House" and "Agnes of God."

Won Role on Any Day Now

Toussaint's biggest career boost has come from her costarring role in Any Day Now. It is a female-buddy drama based slightly on NBC's short-lived I'll Fly Away (1991). Rene Jackson (Toussaint), who is black, returns to her hometown of Birmingham to practice law. She renews her friendship with her white childhood chum, Mary Elizabeth, or M.E. (Annie Potts). Both now in their forties, they were best buddies growing up in the segregated South of the early 1960s. Rene left to become a high-powered lawyer and M.E. stayed home to marry her childhood sweetheart. Both women are also portrayed as youths by two young girls.

Any Day Now uses the racial divisions that divided the country as a backdrop to race relations today. Said Toussaint in Jet, "It deals with race which is in the upper most of our minds. We do it in a provocative, entertaining and daring way. But it's not just about race. It's also about friendship and relationships."

Since her success on the series, Toussaint has little personal time. Shooting the series takes up about nine months of the year. On her three months off, she says she plays catch up with her life, such as taking a vacation. Toussaint loves her craft but recognized it as hard work. Her advice to would-be actors is to find something else to do if they are not fully dedicated to the craft of acting.

In August of 2000, Toussaint became one of 6,000 to receive American citizenship on that day. Toussaint said in the Christian Science Monitor that the main reason she wanted to become a citizen was so that she could vote. "I wanted to take responsibility for myself as an individual. This is the only country, or one of the few in the world, where the individual can bring about change, peacefully, within the system."

Works

Selected filmography

• Plays
• "A Doll's House."
• "Agnes of God."
• "Playboy of the West Indies."
• "Measure for Measure."
• Television
• The Face of Rage (TV), 1983.
• Bodies of Evidence.
• Pros and Cons.
• Law & Order.
• Where I Live.
• Any Day Now, 1998.
• Joyce Ann Brown: Justice Denied, 2000.
• Films
• Breaking In, 1989.

Further Reading

Periodicals

• Christian Science Monitor, August 4, 2000.
• Entertaiment Weekly, September 3, 1999.
• Everybody's: the Caribbean-American Magazine, May 31, 1993.
• Jet, October 25, 1999.
• People Weekly, August 17, 1998.
• Variety, August 17, 1998.

• Internet Movie Database, http://us.imdb.com.
• www.etonline.com (October 15, 2001).
• www.paramount.com October 15, 2001).

— Rose Blue and Corinne J. Naden