Virginia Capers

Eliza "Virginia" Capers (September 22, 1925 – May 6, 2004) was an American actress.^[1] She won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical in 1974 for her performance as Lena Younger in Raisin, a musical version of Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun.^[2]

Virginia Capers
Born	Eliza Capers (1925-09-22)September 22, 1925 Sumter, South Carolina, U.S.
Died	May 6, 2004(2004-05-06) (aged 78) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1957–2003
Children	1

Career

She made her Broadway debut in the musical Jamaica in 1957 as a replacement for Adelaide Hall in the role of Grandma Obeah, taking over the role when Hall left the musical.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} Capers went on to appear in Saratoga^[8] and Raisin.^[9]

Capers was a familiar face to television audiences. In addition to a recurring role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as Hattie Banks, she appeared in many television shows, including Have Gun – Will Travel, Dragnet, Marcus Welby, M.D., My Three Sons, Mannix, The Waltons, Mork & Mindy, Highway to Heaven, St. Elsewhere, Murder, She Wrote, Evening Shade, The Golden Girls, Unsub, Booker, Married... with Children, The Practice and ER.

Capers appeared in such films as Norwood (1970), The Great White Hope (1970), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), The North Avenue Irregulars (1979), The Toy (1982), Teachers (1984), Howard the Duck (1986), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Beethoven's 2nd (1993) and What's Love Got to Do with It (1993).^[10]

Capers founded the Lafayette Players, a Los Angeles repertory theatre company for African-American performers. She was the recipient of the National Black Theatre Festival Living Legend Award, the Paul Robeson Pioneer Award, and the NAACP Image Award for theatre excellence.^[11]

Capers provided the narration for the 1993 adventure game Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.^[12][13] For her performance, she won Computer Gaming World's award for Best Female Voice-Over Acting; the editors had expected to give the award to someone portraying a specific character but were "totally overwhelmed" by Capers as the narrator, stating that "Her performance alone makes it worthwhile to purchase the CD version" (as voice acting is absent from some versions of the game).^[14]

Death

Capers died on May 6, 2004, of complications from pneumonia in Los Angeles, California, aged 78.^[15]

Filmography

Film and television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1962	House of Women	Sarah
1967	The Ride to Hangman's Tree	Teresa Moreno	Uncredited
1969	The Lost Man	Theresa
1970	There Was a Crooked Man...	Cook	Uncredited
1970	Norwood	Ernestine
1970	The Great White Hope	Sister Pearl
1971	Support Your Local Gunfighter	Effie
1971	Big Jake	Delilah
1971	The Late Liz	Martha
1972	Lady Sings the Blues	Mama Holiday
1972	Trouble Man	Macy
1973	The World's Greatest Athlete	Native Woman
1973	Five on the Black Hand Side	Ruby
1979	The North Avenue Irregulars	Cleo
1982	The Toy	Ruby Simpson
1984	Teachers	Landlady
1984	Highway to Heaven	Miss Hendrickson
1985	Da Capo	Da Capo
1986	Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling	Emma Ray
1986	Ferris Bueller's Day Off	Florence Sparrow
1986	Howard the Duck	Cora Mae, Secretary
1987	Off the Mark	Velma
1988	Backfire	Maxine
1988	The Golden Girls	Greta Wagner
1990	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Hattie "Grandma" Banks	6 episodes
1990	Pacific Palisades	Shirley
1992	Batman: The Animated Series	Judge	(voice only)
1993	What's Love Got to Do with It	Choir Mistress
1993	Knots Landing	Adele Carter	3 episodes
1993	Beethoven's 2nd	Miss Linda Anderson
1995	A Last Goodbye	The Principal
1995	Truman	Elizabeth Moore
1997	The Practice
1999	Bad City Blues	Mrs. Green

Video games

Year	Title	Role
1993	Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers	Narrator