Nell Carter (Black History Month)

Nell Carter was an American singer, and film, stage, and television actress.

About Nell Carter

Carter was known for her Emmy-nominated role as the sassy housekeeper on Gimme A Break. She originally made her a name on a Broadway stage winning a Tony award for her performance in Ain’t Misbehavin’.

Carter died in 2003 from complications of diabetes, which she had struggled with for many years.

Big voice and stage presence

At just four-feet-eleven-inches tall, Carter was “Blessed with a big voice and stage presence,” Variety noted in an obituary. Robert Bianco concurred in USA Today.

“Carter was known for a comic verve that leaned heavily on sass, a dance style that sent her entire body shaking, and a powerful, character-filled adenoidal voice that could move the rafters,” he wrote.

Nell Carter was born Nell Hardy on September 13, 1948, in Birmingham, Alabama, to Horace L. and Edna M. Hardy.

One of nine children, she grew up listening to her mother’s Dinah Washington and B.B. King records and her brother’s Elvis Presley records.

She claimed she originally aspired to become an opera singer, but cited such popular singers as Doris Day, the Andrews Sisters, Johnny Mathis, Cleo Laine, and Barbara Streisand among her influences. Carter’s childhood was also marked by trauma.

Her father was electrocuted after accidentally stepping on a live power line when she was young, and she was raped at gunpoint when she was 15.

She grew up singing in her church choir, and began her career singing on the gospel circuit.

“When I grew up, [performing] was not something you aspired to,”

Carter was quoted as saying by the Washington Post.

“I was a weirdo to want to be in show business. Most kids wanted to be teachers or nurses.”

She was featured on a weekly radio show with a group called the Y Teens, and performed in coffeehouses and nightclubs in Birmingham before making her way to New York City at age 19.

Follow Unheard Voices on Twitter for more coverage.