Nell Carter

Nell Ruth Hardy was born on September 13, 1948 in Birmingham, Alabama, one of nine children born to Edna Mae and Horace Hardy. She was born into a Catholic family and raised Presbyterian. Carter later self-identified as Pentecostal and as Jewish. As a child, she began singing on a local gospel radio show and was also a member of the church choir. At age 15, she began performing at area coffee houses, and later joined the Renaissance Ensemble that played at coffee houses and gay bars. On July 5, 1965 at the age of 16, Hardy was raped at gunpoint by a man whom she knew. She became pregnant as a result of the rape and gave birth to daughter Tracey the next year. Finding raising a baby alone too difficult, she sent her child to live with her older sister Willie. She later claimed that Tracey was the product of a brief marriage, but she revealed the truth in a 1994 interview. ==Career==

Broadway work At age 19, Hardy changed her surname to Carter and left Birmingham, Alabama, moving to New York City with the Renaissance Ensemble, where she sang in coffee shops, nightclubs and bathhouses before landing her first Broadway role in 1971. Carter made her Broadway debut in the 1971 rock opera Soon, which closed after three performances. She was the music director for the 1974 Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective's production of What Time of Night It Is. Carter appeared with Bette Davis in the 1974 stage musical Miss Moffat, based on Davis' earlier film The Corn Is Green, but the show closed before reaching Broadway. Carter became a star for her role in the musical ''Ain't Misbehavin'', for which she won a Tony Award in 1978. She later won an Emmy for the same role in a televised performance in 1982. In 1978, Carter was cast as Effie White in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls but departed the production during development to take a television role on ''Ryan's Hope. When Dreamgirls'' premiered in late 1981, Jennifer Holliday had taken the lead role. Carter's additional Broadway credits include Dude and the 20th-anniversary production of Annie, in which she played Miss Hannigan. Film and television In 1979, Carter had a part in the Miloš Forman-directed musical adaptation of Hair and her voice is heard on the film's soundtrack. In 1981, she took a role on the NBC action comedy television series The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo before landing the lead role of Nell Harper on the sitcom Gimme a Break!. Gimme a Break! Carter became best known to audiences for her lead role in the NBC television series Gimme a Break!, in which she played a housekeeper for a widowed police chief (Dolph Sweet) and his three daughters. The show earned Carter nominations for a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award. A total of 137 episodes of Gimme a Break! were produced over a run of six seasons, airing from 1981 to 1987. In August 1987 after the cancellation of Gimme a Break!, Carter returned to the nightclub circuit with a five-month national tour with comedian Joan Rivers. Further television and film work In 1989, Carter played the assistant to a banquet-hall owner in an unsuccessful pilot for NBC titled ''Morton's by the Bay'', which aired as a one-time special that May. In October, she performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Game 4 of the 1989 World Series in San Francisco. In 1990, Carter starred in the CBS comedy You Take the Kids. The series, which was perceived as the black answer to Roseanne with its portrayal of a working-class black family, featured Carter as a crass, no-nonsense mother and wife. You Take the Kids faced poor ratings and reviews and only ran from December 1990 to January 1991. During the early 1990s, Carter appeared in low-budget movies, television specials and game shows such as ''Match Game '90 and To Tell the Truth. She costarred in Hangin' with Mr. Cooper'' from 1993 to 1995. Carter was later replaced by Sally Struthers. Later years In 2001, Carter appeared as a special guest star on the pilot episode of Reba and continued with the show, making three appearances in Season 1. The following year, Carter made two appearances on Ally McBeal and a guest appearance on Blue's Clues. Her final recording project was a duet with Jay Levy, produced by Jay Levy for the 1998 Warner/Rhino Album To Life!: Songs of Chanukah and Other Jewish Celebrations. ==Death==

On January 23, 2003, at the age of 54, Carter collapsed and died at her home in Beverly Hills. Her son Joshua discovered her body that night. Per a provision in Carter's will, no autopsy was performed. Using blood tests, X-rays and a cursory physical examination, the Los Angeles County coroner's office ruled that Carter's death was the likely result of "probable arteriosclerotic heart disease, with diabetes a contributing condition." Carter's partner Ann Kaser inherited her property and custody of her two sons. ==Personal life==

Carter attempted suicide in the early 1980s, and around 1985 she entered a drug-detoxification facility to break a longstanding cocaine addiction. Her brother Bernard died of complications from AIDS in 1989. but divorced him the next year. Carter declared bankruptcy in 1995 and again in 2002. ==Stage credits==

• Soon (1971), Broadway • The Wedding of Iphigenia (1971), off-Broadway • Dude (1972), Broadway • Miss Moffat (1974), closed on the road • Be Kind to People Week (1975), off-Broadway • ''Tom Eyen's Dirtiest Musical'' (1975), off-Broadway • ''Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope'' (1976), San Francisco • ''Ain't Misbehavin''' (1978), Manhattan Theatre Club, Broadway and U.S. national tour • One Night Only (1979), workshop • Black Broadway (1979), Avery Fisher Hall • Black Broadway (1980), The Town Hall • ''Ain't Misbehavin''' (1988), Broadway • Hello, Dolly! (1991), Long Beach Civic Light Opera • Annie (1997), Broadway and U.S. national tour • South Pacific (2001), Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera • The Vagina Monologues (2001), Madison Square Garden ==Filmography==

Film Television Video games ==Awards==