Butterfly McQueen facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Butterfly McQueen
McQueen in Affectionately Yours (1941)
Born	Thelma McQueen (1911-01-08)January 8, 1911 Tampa, Florida, U.S.
Died	December 22, 1995(1995-12-22) (aged 84) Augusta, Georgia, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	City College of New York
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1935–1989
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Butterfly McQueen (born Thelma McQueen; January 8, 1911 – December 22, 1995) was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer. She became famous for her first film role as "Prissy" in the movie Gone with the Wind (1939). Sadly, she couldn't go to the movie's premiere because it was held at a theater that only allowed white people.

Butterfly McQueen often played characters who were maids. She once said that she didn't mind playing a maid at first because she thought it was a way to start in the acting business. But she didn't like playing the same kind of role over and over. She continued acting in films during the 1940s and then moved to television in the 1950s. She won an Daytime Emmy Award in 1980 for her acting in an episode of ABC Afterschool Special called "Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid".

Early Life and Education

Thelma McQueen was born on January 8, 1911, in Tampa, Florida. Her father, Wallace McQueen, worked on the docks, and her mother, Mary McQueen, was a maid. After her parents separated, Thelma lived with her mother in Augusta, Georgia. Nuns at a convent taught her there. She first planned to become a nurse. However, a high-school teacher suggested she try acting instead.

Thelma started studying dance with Janet Collins. She also danced with the Venezuela Jones Negro Youth Group. Around this time, she got the nickname "Butterfly." This was because her hands moved constantly when she performed the Butterfly Ballet in a play called A Midsummer Night's Dream. She didn't like her birth name, so she later legally changed it to Butterfly McQueen. Before becoming a professional actress, she performed with Katherine Dunham's dance group. Her first professional acting job was in a play called Brown Sugar.

Acting Career

In 1938, Butterfly McQueen was acting in a play called What a Life on Broadway. A talent scout named Kay Brown saw her. Kay Brown worked for David O. Selznick, who was getting ready to make the movie Gone With the Wind. Brown suggested that McQueen try out for the film. After Selznick saw her audition, he knew she was perfect for the role.

McQueen was cast as "Prissy," a simple housemaid. This role became her most famous. She said the well-known line: "Oh, Miss Scarlett! I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!" People described her voice as very high-pitched and unique. Even though the role was very popular, McQueen didn't enjoy playing Prissy. She felt the character was demeaning to African-Americans.

She had a small, uncredited part as a sales assistant in the movie The Women (1939). This movie was filmed after Gone with the Wind but released before it. In the 1940s, she also played Butterfly, a maid, on Jack Benny's radio show. She appeared in other films like Mildred Pierce (1945) and Duel in the Sun (1946). By 1947, she was tired of always playing the same kinds of roles, which were often stereotypes. So, she decided to stop making movies. During World War II, McQueen often performed as a comedian on a radio show for soldiers called Jubilee.

From 1950 to 1952, she acted in the TV series Beulah. She played Oriole, a friend of the main character. In 1969, she appeared on the TV show The Dating Game.

In 1974, McQueen was in the first version of the musical The Wiz in Baltimore, Maryland. She played the Queen of the Field Mice, a character from the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. However, her role was removed when the show was changed before moving to Broadway.

As acting roles became less frequent, she started focusing on other interests, including studying politics. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science from City College of New York in 1975. McQueen played Aunt Thelma, a fairy godmother, in two TV specials: "The Seven Wishes of Joanna Peabody" (1978) and "Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid" (1979). Her performance in the second special won her a Daytime Emmy Award. Her last movie role was in The Mosquito Coast (1986). Her very last acting job was in the TV movie Polly, which was a new version of the Pollyanna story with an all-Black cast.

Personal Life

Butterfly McQueen never married and did not have any children. She spent her summers in New York and her winters in Augusta, Georgia.

She was a member of the Democratic Party. She supported Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election.

In 1975, when she was 64 years old, McQueen earned her bachelor's degree in political science from City College of New York.

In 1983, Butterfly McQueen won a lawsuit against two bus terminal security guards. She had sued them for harassment after they wrongly accused her of being a pickpocket and a homeless person. A jury awarded her $60,000.

Death

Butterfly McQueen passed away at age 84 on December 22, 1995. She died at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. Her death was caused by burns she received when a kerosene heater she tried to light caught fire. McQueen donated her body to medical science after her death.

Filmography

See also

In Spanish: Butterfly McQueen para niños