Hattie McDaniel 1893 – 1952

Biography

Hattie McDaniel broke Hollywood’s color line with a single role and never gave the ground back. As Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress — the first Black performer ever to win an Oscar — accepting it at a segregated ceremony where she was seated apart from her white castmates. A singer-songwriter and comedian before Hollywood found her, she built a long career in film and radio, earning two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She died of breast cancer on October 26, 1952, at 59, and her legacy has only grown since: she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, and in 2006 became the first Black Oscar winner honored with a U.S. postage stamp. She holds two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 2010.