Leslie Uggams

A singer and actress perhaps best known for her work in the landmark television miniseries Roots, Leslie Uggams was born May 25, 1943 in New York City. The product of a showbiz family -- her father sang with the Hall Johnson Choir, and her mother was a chorus dancer -- she began her own career while still a child, making her TV debut at the age of six on the series Beulah. A year later, Uggams began performing regularly at the famed Apollo Theatre in Harlem, opening for such legends as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dinah Washington; she subsequently attended the Professional Children's School of New York, and frequently guested on television variety programs including The Milton Berle Show, The Arthur Godfrey Show and Your Show of Shows. At the age of 12, Uggams retired from performing; her absence from the spotlight was relatively brief, however, and three years later she appeared as a vocalist on the TV quiz show Name That Tune. While a student at Juilliard, Uggams was tapped to join the cast of Sing Along with Mitch, becoming the first female singer and the first African-American talent to join the Mitch Miller-hosted variety program; in 1962, she also made her on-screen film debut with a cameo in Two Weeks in Another Town, and after signing to Columbia scored a hit single with "Morgan." She spent the next several years alternating nightclub dates with stage performances, also appearing in the theatrical production The Boyfriend. In 1968, Uggams was chosen to replace Lena Horne in the lead role in the Broadway musical Hallelujah, Baby!; the performance earned her a Tony Award and culminated her rise to stardom. In 1970, she was named the host of her own CBS variety series, the first black female since Hazel Scott a decade earlier to be given such an...