Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1895–October 26, 1952) was an American singer and actress.

She was born in Wichita, Kansas, and made her first appearance in motion pictures in 1932. She spent much of her twenty-year career playing maids, mainly owing to the paucity of roles available to African American actresses. It was one such role, the part of Mammy in Gone With the Wind (1939), opposite Vivien Leigh, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress on February 29, 1940, the first African American performer to win an Oscar.

Hattie McDaniel died on October 26, 1952, and was interred in the Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. It had actually been her wish to be buried with her fellow movie stars in Hollywood Cemetery in Hollywood, but Jack Roth, the cemetery's owner at the time, refused to allow her to be buried there because she was not white. Thus, she was interred in Rosedale Cemetery.

In 1999, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery (now Hollywood Forever Cemetery) wanted to right that wrong. As McDaniel's family did not want to disturb her remains after all that time, the cemetery did the next best thing and built a memorial to Hattie McDaniel on the lawn overlooking the lake. It is one of the most popular sites for visitors to the cemetery.

Hattie McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one for her contributions to radio at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for motion pictures at 1719 Vine Street.

External links