Helen Martin

Born: 1909-07-23

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Helen Dorothy Martin (July 23, 1909 – March 25, 2000) was an American actress of stage and television who is perhaps most well known for her role in the sitcom 227 as Marla Gibbs' neighbor Pearl. Martin was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Amanda Frankie (née Fox) and William Martin, a minister. Martin was a Broadway character actress for many decades, debuting in Orson Welles' production of Native Son in 1941. She appeared in at least a dozen Broadway shows including Jean Genet's The Blacks, Raisin from 1973 to 1975, Ossie Davis' Purlie Victorious (and later the musical version, which was called Purlie), The Amen Corner and Tennessee Williams' Period of Adjustment. She was an original member of the American Negro Theater. She first became famous later in life for her guest role as Wanda on the television series Good Times, and later as the wisecracking neighbor Pearl Shay on the television sitcom 227. She also played on the short-run sitcoms Baby, I'm Back (as mother in-law, Luzelle) and That's My Mama; as Loc Dog's grandma, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996), the matronly grandmother Mama Doll in the 1998 film Bulworth, and the no-nonsense grandmother in the film Hollywood Shuffle. Helen Martin died of a heart attack on March 25, 2000. Description above from the Wikipedia article Helen Martin, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.


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Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

as Loc Dog's Grandma
Released: 1996-01-12

When Ashtray moves to South Central L.A. to live with his father (who appears to be the same age...

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Kiss the Girls

as Nana Cross
Released: 1997-09-29

Forensic psychologist and detective Alex Cross travels to North Carolina and teams with escaped...

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as Grandma
Released: 1994-05-24

When his boss is killed, Detroit cop Axel Foley finds evidence that the murderer had ties to a...

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Don't See

Death Wish

as Alma Lee Brown
Released: 1974-07-24

After his wife is murdered by street punks, a pacifistic New York City architect becomes a...

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Doc Hollywood

as Maddie, Welcoming Committee
Released: 1991-08-02

After leaving Washington D.C. hospital, plastic surgeon Ben Stone heads for California, where a...

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Repo Man

as Mrs. Parks
Released: 1984-03-02

A down and out young punk gets a job working with a seasoned repo man, but what awaits him in...

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Wacko

as Harbinger's Mother
Released: 1982-11-12

Thirteen years after the "Lawnmower Killer" killed her sister, high school student Mary Graves...

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House Party 2

as Mrs. Deevers
Released: 1991-10-23

Kid'N'Play leave their neighborhood and enter the world of adulthood and higher education. Play...

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Bulworth

as Momma Doll
Released: 1998-05-15

A suicidally disillusioned liberal politician puts a contract out on himself and takes the...

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Hollywood Shuffle

as Bobby's Grandmother
Released: 1987-03-20

Aspiring actor and hot-dog stand employee Bobby Taylor catches the ire of his grandmother for...

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Deal of the Century

as Baptist #3
Released: 1983-11-04

Arms dealers from several companies vie to sell the most expensive and highest tech weapons to a...

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A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich

as Mrs. Bell
Released: 1977-12-14

A troubled boy becomes addicted to heroin, and his mother and foster father help him fight it.

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Night Angel

as Sadie
Released: 1990-06-02

A legendary she-demon, in the updated guise of a beautiful model, infiltrates the offices of a...

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I Got the Hook-Up

as Grandmother
Released: 1998-05-27

Two broke buddies feel lucky when they come upon a truckload of cellular phones and begin...

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The Jerk, Too

as Grandma Johnson
Released: 1984-01-06

Navin Johnson heads to Los Angeles to attend the wedding of his pen pal, Marie. On the way, he...

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The Phenix City Story

as Helen Ward
Released: 1955-07-19

A crime-busting lawyer and his initially reluctant attorney father take on the forces that run...

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A Raisin in the Sun

as Mrs. Johnson
Released: 1989-02-01

A substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a...

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Something to Sing About

as Elderly Woman
Released: 2000-06-10

Tommy is a troubled young man with a history of crime. When he meets Memaw, an elderly lady, the...

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Lawman Without a Gun

as Mrs. Cartwright
Released: 1979-05-30

During the 1960s' civil rights movement, a black civil rights worker returns to his small...

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Amos

as Mrs. McKenzie
Released: 1985-09-29

Amos Lasher loses his wife and home in an accident, finding himself in the care of the state, or...

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Better Late Than Never

as uncredited
Released: 1979-10-17

Harry Landers is a feisty senior citizen who refuses to abide by the rules in a stodgy...

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Cindy

as Flower Lady
Released: 1978-03-24

A revisionist twist on Cinderella with an all-black cast and set in Harlem during WWII. Cindy is...

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Robert Townsend: Partners in Crime: Vol. 2

as uncredited
Released: 1988-09-24

Director Robert Townsend (Hollywood Shuffle) knows how to construct and, when necessary, even...

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Dummy

as Mrs. Harrod
Released: 1979-05-27

The real-life account of an illiterate, deaf-and-mute, black youth who was accused of murdering...

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J.T.

as Mrs. Hill
Released: 1969-12-13

J. T. Gamble, a shy, withdrawn Harlem youngster, shows compassion and responsibility when he...

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Full House

as Shirley
First aired: 1987-09-22

After the death of his wife, Danny enlists his best friend and his brother-in-law to help raise...

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St. Elsewhere

as uncredited
First aired: 1982-10-26

St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from...

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T. J. Hooker

as Mrs. Sears
First aired: 1982-03-13

Sergeant Thomas Jefferson Hooker is a tough-as-nails veteran police officer with the LCPD who...

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Starsky & Hutch

as Vivian Fellers
First aired: 1975-09-10

Streetwise Detective David Starsky partners up with a more intellectual partner, Kenneth 'Hutch'...

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Hill Street Blues

as uncredited
First aired: 1981-01-15

A realistic glimpse into the daily lives of the officers and detectives at an urban police station.

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Sanford and Son

as uncredited
First aired: 1972-01-14

The misadventures of a cantankerous junk dealer and his frustrated son.

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The Flash

as Sadie Grosso
First aired: 1990-09-20

When a bolt of lightening crashes through a police crime lab, a mix of electrically charged...

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The Bill

as uncredited
First aired: 1984-10-16

The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the...

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The Jamie Foxx Show

as uncredited
First aired: 1996-08-28

Texas native Jamie King is an aspiring actor who heads to Hollywood in hopes to find fame and...

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Benson

as uncredited
First aired: 1979-09-13

A butler deals with life at the governor's mansion.

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The Wayans Bros.

as Mother Evans
First aired: 1995-01-11

The Wayans Bros. is a situation comedy that aired from January 1995 to May 1999 on The WB. The...

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Maude

as uncredited
First aired: 1972-09-12

Well-educated and upper middle class, Maude Findlay is the archetypal feminist of her...

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Hardcastle and McCormick

as uncredited
First aired: 1983-09-18

Hardcastle and McCormick is an American action/drama television series from Stephen J. Cannell...

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The Jeffersons

as uncredited
First aired: 1975-01-18

Sitcom following a successful African-American couple, George and Louise “Weezyö Jefferson as...

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Good Times

as uncredited
First aired: 1974-02-08

Good Times is an American sitcom that originally aired from February 8, 1974, until August 1,...

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The White Shadow

as Old Woman
First aired: 1978-11-27

The White Shadow is an American drama television series that ran on the CBS network from...

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227

as Pearl Shay
First aired: 1985-09-14

A housewife sits on the stoop of her apartment building in a black neighborhood of Washington,...

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What's Happening!!

as uncredited
First aired: 1976-08-05

What's Happening!! is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from August 5, 1976 to...

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The Parent 'Hood

as uncredited
First aired: 1995-01-18

The Parent 'Hood is an American sitcom that aired on The WB airing from January 18, 1995 to July...

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That's My Mama

as uncredited
First aired: 1974-09-04

Clifton Curtis has got it made—he runs a successful business he inherited from his late father...

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Baby, I'm Back

as uncredited
First aired: 1978-01-30

Baby, I'm Back is an American sitcom that aired CBS from January to April 1978. The series stars...

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The Stockard Channing Show

as uncredited
First aired: 1980-03-24

The Stockard Channing Show is an American sitcom starring Stockard Channing, Ron Silver, Sydney...

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