This post is written in conjunction with the What A Character! blogathon hosted by Once Upon a Screen, Outspoken and Freckled, and Paula's Cinema Club. Louise Beavers' career as one of the best character actresses of classic Hollywood spanned from 1927-1960. She is unfortunately best known for playing the quintessential African American house servant, playing characters who were literally named "Mammy" or "Mamie" nine times, and countless other Cleos, Gussies, and Berthas. Although Beavers often played the mammy role on screen, she resisted being defined by the characters she played:
“Beavers responded to her marginalization by negotiating her screen representations. Recognizing that screen roles available to African American women (mulatto or not) were limited, she used her histrionic talent to elevate her roles to a level of unquestionable dignity. Although she represented the quintessential “Mammy” on screen, in her private life she was not the subservient figure her screen roles signified.” (Charlene Regester, 72)
