Biography
Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her best-known recordings includes, "Dinah", "Birmingham Bertha", "Stormy Weather" "Hottentot Potentate", and "Cabin in the Sky", as well as her version of the spiritual, "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African Ame...
Known For
Complete Filmography
Jazz Voice - The Ladies sing Jazz Vol.1
2006
Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
2003
as Self (archive footage)
Broadway: The Golden Age is the most important, ambitious and comprehensive film ever made about America's most celebrated indigenous art form. Award...
Blues Masters
1999
as Self (archive footage)
In 1966, CBC Television invited some of North America's greatest blues performers to gather in a studio in Toronto, recording together and individuall...
Wild Women Don't Have the Blues
1989
as Self (archive footage)
Wild Women Don't Have the Blues shows how the blues were born out of the economic and social transformation of African American life early in this cen...
That's Entertainment, Part II
1976
as (archive footage)
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical num...
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1975
as Self (archive footage)
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
Black Shadows on a Silver Screen
1975
as Self (archive footage)
Ossie Davis narrates a history of "race films," films made before 1950 which catered to a primarily black audience.
The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli
1973
as Self (archive footage)
The Sound and the Fury
1959
as Dilsey
Drama focusing on a family of Southern aristocrats who are trying to deal with the dissolution of their clan and the loss of its reputation, faith, fo...
The Heart is a Rebel
1958
as Gladys
While struggling with their son’s serious illness, a young couple experiences conflict when her husband does not understand the wife’s acceptance of C...
Saturday Spectacular: Manhattan Tower
1956
as Sunday School Teacher
Gordon Jenkins' record album "Manhattan Tower" was a best seller for 12 years and this spectacular is based on it, with book, music and lyrics by Jenk...
Carib Gold
1956
as Mom
The hard-working but struggling crew of a shrimp boat discover a sunken treasure. Trouble ensues in this dramatic black-cast production.
The Member of the Wedding
1952
as Berenice Sadie Brown
Tomboy, Frances 'Frankie' Addams, dreams of running away with her brother and new fiancée away from the Deep South.
Pinky
1949
as Dicey Johnson
Pinky, a light skinned black woman, returns to her grandmother's house in the South after graduating from a Northern nursing school. Pinky tells her g...
Soundies Festival
1945
From the great era of musical shorts come three gems that feature legendary African-American performers including Ethel Waters, Eddy Green and the inc...
The Voice That Thrilled the World
1943
as Self (segment 'On with the Show!') (archive footage)
This short traces the history of sound in the movies, beginning with French scientist Leon Scott's experiments in 1857. Featured are snippets from ear...
Stage Door Canteen
1943
as Ethel Waters
A young soldier on a pass in New York City visits the famed Stage Door Canteen, where famous stars of the theater and films appear and host a recreati...
Cabin in the Sky
1943
as Petunia Jackson
When compulsive gambler Little Joe Jackson dies in a drunken fight, he awakens in purgatory, where he learns that he will be sent back to Earth for si...
Cairo
1942
as Cleona Jones, Marcia's Maid
Reporter Homer Smith accidently draws Marcia Warren into his mission to stop Nazis from bombing Allied Conwoys with robot-planes.
Tales of Manhattan
1942
as Esther
Ten screenwriters collaborated on this series of tales concerning the effect a tailcoat cursed by its tailor has on those who wear it. The video relea...
Let My People Live
1939
Aimed at African Americans and shot at Tuskegee University, this film instructs viewers in the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis by focusing on...
Gift of Gab
1934
as Herself
Conceited radio announcer irritates everyone else at the station.
Bubbling Over
1934
as Ethel Peabody
In this all-black short musical comedy, a woman has a husband so lazy she can stick a pin in him without him waking up... but announcing lunch gets hi...
Rufus Jones for President
1933
as Mother of Rufus
A fantasy satire on politics in which a little boy dreams that he becomes President of the U.S. and his 'mammy' is Vice President. The film spotlights...
On With the Show!
1929
as Ethel
With unpaid actors and staff, the stage show Phantom Sweetheart seems doomed. To complicate matters, the box office takings have been robbed and the l...