Madge Sinclair

Madge Sinclair
Born	Madge Dorita Walters 28 April 1938(1938-04-28) Kingston, Jamaica
Died	20 December 1995 (aged 57) Los Angeles, California, USA
Years active	1972–1995
Spouse(s)	Dean Compton (1982–1995) (her death) Royston Sinclair (?–1969) (divorced)

Madge Dorita Sinclair (28 April 1938 – 20 December 1995) was a Jamaican American character actress.

Early years

Sinclair was born Madge Dorita Walters in Kingston, Jamaica, to Herbert and Jemima Walters. She was a teacher in Jamaica until 1968 when she left for New York to pursue her career in acting.

Career

In 1978 she starred in the movie Convoy as the Widow Maker. She would later receive an Emmy Award nomination for her role as Belle in the miniseries Roots. She went on to a long-running stint in the 1980s as nurse Ernestine Shoop on the series Trapper John, M.D. opposite Pernell Roberts. She received three Emmy nominations for her work on the show, and critic Donald Bogle praised her for "maintaining her composure and assurance no matter what the script imposed on her."

In 1988, Sinclair played Queen Aoleon opposite James Earl Jones' King Jaffe Joffer in the Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America. Later, she would reteam with Jones as King and Queen for the role of Sarabi, Simba’s mother, in the blockbuster Disney animated film The Lion King (1994). The film became one of the best selling titles ever on home video. The two also collaborated on the series Gabriel's Fire, which earned Sinclair an Emmy in 1991 for Best Supporting Actress in a Dramatic Series. In 1994, Sinclair also played a supporting role in the short-lived ABC-TV sitcom Me and the Boys, which starred Steve Harvey.

Sinclair, in her brief role as the captain of the USS Saratoga in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, was the first female starship captain to appear in Star Trek. Years later, she played Geordi La Forge's mother, captain of the USS Hera, in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Interface".

A capable and versatile businesswoman as well, Sinclair was an art dealer, chairwoman of the women's clothing manufacturer Madge Walters Sinclair Inc., and owner of the Action Income Tax Service.

Personal life

Sinclair was first married to Royston Sinclair, a police officer, with whom she had two sons, Garry and Wayne. In 1982, she married actor Dean Compton and remained with him until her death in 1995 from leukemia. She was cremated. Her ashes were urned in Jamaica.

References

• Bogle, Donald (2001). Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television (First edition ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0374237204. 

External links

• Madge Sinclair at Find a Grave
• Madge Sinclair at the Internet Movie Database
• Madge Sinclair at the Internet off-Broadway Database
• Madge Sinclair at TV.com
• Madge Sinclair at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)