Ethel WatersFilmography

Born:: October 31, 1900 in Chester, PA
Occupation:: Actor
Biography:: Ethel Waters was raised by her grandmother in the dismal ghettoes of South Philadelphia. She began working as a hotel chambermaid for $4.75 a week, and at age 12 she married the first of three husbands. Her goal at that time was to become a maid/companion to a wealthy white woman; instead, she...Read More

Sort By:
Title
Release Date

Broadway: The American Musical, Episode 3 - I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' (1929-1942)

2004
Swing Era: Sarah Vaughan

Actors: Sarah Vaughan

Synopsis: Classic performance footage of some of the great women of jazz from the 1930s and '40s appears on this home-video collection. The Swing Era: Sarah Vaughan features rare film clips of Vaughan lending her superlative voice to five songs, including "The Nearness of You," "You're Not the Kind," and Read More

2004
Music and Comedy Masters Series

Synopsis: Review the history of black show-business. Music, dance and comic routines are featured in this six volume set. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

1991
The Ladies Sing the Blues

Synopsis: Lady Sings the Blues was the dramatized life story of legendary songstress Billie Holliday. Ladies Sing the Blues is a documentary containing film footage aplenty of the real Holliday. In addition, the film offers rare clips of such blues greats as Dinah Washington, Bessie Smith, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee Read More

1989
That's Black Entertainment: The Missing Link of American Cinema History

1985
The Sound and the Fury

Actors: Yul Brynner, Joanne Woodward, Margaret Leighton, Stuart Whitman, Ethel Waters

Synopsis: In this filmed adaptation of William Faulkner's seminal work, Yul Brynner stars as Jason Compson, the oldest son of a once-proud Southern family rife with inner turmoil. His promiscuous sister, Caddy (Margaret Leighton), has suddenly rolled back into town with an illegitimate daughter called Read More

1959
Saturday Spectacular: Manhattan Tower

Synopsis: Written in 1944 and expanded upon several times thereafter, composer Gordon Jenkins' classic tone poem "Manhattan Tower" resulted in one of the most popular record albums of all time. Curiously, while the piece was performed in a concert-narration format on innumerable occasions, it was dramatized Read More

1956
Carib Gold

Synopsis: In this adventure, shrimp fishermen in Key West search for a sunken treasure. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1955
The Beulah Show

Synopsis: The much loved housekeeper--played first by Ethel Waters and then by Louise Beavers--from the early '50s TV show features a few domestic adventures in this collection of episodes. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

1952
The Member of the Wedding

Actors: Julie Harris, Ethel Waters, Brandon de Wilde, Arthur Franz, Nancy Gates

Synopsis: 25-year-old Julie Harris convincingly recreates her Broadway role of 12-year-old tomboy Frankie Addams in the 1952 screen version of Carson McCullers' play. Feeling rejected when her older brother goes off on his honeymoon without inviting her along, Frankie runs away from her middle-class Read More

1952
Harlem Swings

1950
Pinky

Actors: Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore, Ethel Waters, William Lundigan, Basil Ruysdael

Synopsis: Elia Kazan directed this, one of Hollywood's early attacks on racism, starring Jeanne Crain as Patricia "Pinky" Johnson. Patricia is a light-skinned black woman who is studying nursing at a New England medical institute. A white doctor, Thomas Adams (William Lundigan), has fallen in love with Read More

1949
Stage Door Canteen

Actors: Cheryl Walker, William Terry, Marjorie Riordan, Lon McCallister, Margaret Early

Synopsis: This star-studded musical drama was largely financed by Theatre Guild, with all proceeds going to various wartime fundraising concerns. Most of the story takes place at the Stage Door Canteen, a Manhattan-based home away from home for soldiers, sailors and marines (the real-life Canteen on 44th Read More

1943
Cabin in the Sky

Actors: Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Rex Ingram

Synopsis: MGM knew it would take a bath on its all-black musical Cabin in the Sky (few Southern theaters of 1943 would touch the film), but the studio still provided its standard A-plus production values to the film; besides, it served as a training ground for up-and-coming director Vincente Minnelli. Based Read More

1943
Tales of Manhattan

Actors: Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton

Synopsis: Tales of Manhattan is a sumptuous multipart film centered around a formal tailcoat. The coat is specially designed for stage actor Charles Boyer, who wears it during a rendezvous with his lady friend (Rita Hayworth). The lady's husband (Thomas Mitchell) shoots Boyer, thus the tailcoat is damaged Read More

1942
Cairo

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Robert Young, Reginald Owen, Grant Mitchell

Synopsis: Written by real-life intelligence agent Ladislas Fodor, Cairo is both a spoof of espionage thrillers and a good-natured refutation of Jeanette MacDonald's established screen image (it was her last film on her MGM contract). MacDonald plays wisecracking movie star Marcia Warren, who while "between Read More

1942
Bubbling Over

1934
Gift of Gab

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Gloria Stuart, Ruth Etting, Phil Baker

Synopsis: In this musical, a radio-announcer is fired after giving a false interview. For consolation he begins to drink heavily. It is his girlfriend who helps him sober up when she provides him with a major scoop--a missing airplane. He enthusiastically sets out after it and eventually finds it. As a Read More

1934
Rufus Jones for President

Synopsis: Made in the Warner studio in Brooklyn, this notorious musical is one of many 20-minute two-reelers created by Roy Mack. Many film historians have voiced the opinion that he would be better known today had he made features. His films often began with naturalistic and even real-life locations Read More

1933
On with the Show

Actors: Betty Compson, Louise Fazenda, Sally O'Neil, Joe E. Brown, Purnell Pratt

Synopsis: This early talkie antique is a backstage musical from Warner Bros. The plot involves the out-of-town tryout of a new musical comedy, and the people who perform therein: a bitchy leading lady (Betty Compson), an arrogant comedy lead (Joe E. Brown), and a starstruck chorus kid (Sally O'Neil). At the Read More

1929