From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Theresa Harris (December 31, 1906 - October 8, 1985) was an African-American actress.

Early life

Theresa Harris was born on New Years Eve 1906 in Houston, Texas.^[1]

Hollywood career

In 1929, she came out to Hollywood and lent her singing voice to the talkie Thunderbolt. This role was uncredited. As she entered the 1930s she found herself playing maids to ficticious Southern belles, Socialites, and female molls played by such actresses as Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Frances Dee, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, Esther Williams, Kay Francis, and Barbara Stanwyck^[2]. These parts, however, were almost always uncredited and she also floated around studios doing bit-parts; preferably Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer^[2]; aside from maids, she also specialized in playing blues singers, waitresses, and hat check girls.^[2]

In 1933, she starred as Chicko in the Warner Bros. Pre-code production of Baby Face opposite an up and coming Barbara Stanwyck. In the movie, she played a friend of Stanwyck's who helps the main heroine to establish her place in the upper crust of the New York banking world.^[2]

Between the early 1930s and into the 1950s, Harris found herself playing many uncredited parts in such big name films as Cat People, Miracle on 34th Street, Out of the Past, The Big Clock, Gold Diggers of 1933, Hold Your Man, Mary Stevens, M.D. and Morning Glory. She is perhaps also remembered for her role of the maid Zette to Bette Davis in Jezebel (1938).^[2]

Later life and death

Harris appeared several times on television on such shows as Lux Video Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Letter to Loretta. Her last film role was the uncredited one of Dora in The Gift of Love (1958).^[2]

On October 8, 1985 Theresa Harris died of natural causes at her home in Inglewood, California. She was laid to rest in Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Theresa Harris," findagrave.com.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Theresa Harris," imdb.com.