Georgia Allen

{{Infobox person

| name = Georgia Allen

| image = File:Georgia_Allen.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Allen around 1997

| birth_name = Georgia Williams Allen

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1919|05|12}}

| birth_place = Beaumont, Texas, United States

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|01|11|1919|05|12}}

| death_place = Atlanta, Georgia, United States

| occupation = Actress

| years_active = 1949–2006

| spouse = Thaddius S. Allen (1942–2009; his death)

| children =

| alma_mater = University of California, Santa Barbara

}}

Georgia Williams Allen (May 12, 1919 – January 11, 2014) was an American actress. She was active from 1949 to 2006, beginning in local theater before progressing to both television and movie roles.

Early life

Allen was born in Beaumont, Texas.[https://books.google.com/books?id=94Vkm-y_3CEC&dq=georgia+allen+midnight+in+the+garden&pg=PA5 Profiles of African American Stage Performers and Theatre People, 1816-1960] - Google Books She later moved, via Cleveland, Ohio, to Atlanta, Georgia, where she became an educator in the public school system.{{cite news |last1=Tilley |first1=Kathy |date=July 6, 1973 |title=Acting a Part-Time Job, Full-Time Love |page=31 |work=The Atlanta Constitution |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61567414/the-atlanta-constitution/ |accessdate=October 22, 2020 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Acting career

Allen was a repertory player with Atlanta University Summer Theater for thirty years (1949 to 1979). In that time, Allen appeared in a political satire musical called Red, White and Maddox about Atlanta's Governor Lester Maddox. The show premiered in Atlanta and followed with a short run on Broadway.{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Clive |date=27 January 1969 |title=Stage: 'Red, White and Maddox' Here: Satire From Atlanta Is at the Cort Theater |page=27 |work=New York Times}} {{Cite web |title=Red, White and Maddox |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/red-white-and-maddox-3452#OpeningNightCast |access-date=23 October 2022 |website=Internet Broadway Database}}

Her first screen role was as the mother of Clifton Davis' character, Gus, in Together for Days (1972). After a five-year break, she returned in 1977 as Mrs. Jones in Greased Lightning. She appeared in four television movies between 1979 and 1982, then several more from the mid-1980s onward. Between 1990 and 1994, she appeared as three different characters in the television series In the Heat of the Night. In 1997, she played Lucille Wright, the real-life cateress of the parties hosted by Kevin Spacey's character, Jim Williams, in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.{{Cite web |title=WashingtonPost.com: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/midnightinthegarden.htm |access-date=2023-09-08 |website=www.washingtonpost.com}}

=Awards=

Allen was awarded the Bronze Jubilee Award by WETV in 1979; the Ray McIver Award by the Just Us Theater in 1993; and the Legacy Award by Jomandi Productions, also in 1993.

Her last-known appearance was as Ruby in Madea's Family Reunion (2006).

Personal life

Allen was educated at Clark College in Atlanta, graduating in 1942. That same year, she married Thaddius S. Allen, with whom she had a daughter and a son during their 67-year marriage.Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 13, 2014

She earned her master's degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara.