Helen Martin

Helen Martin

Born: July 23, 1909
Died: March 25, 2000
in St. Louis, Missouri, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Helen Dorothy Martin (July 23, 1909 – March 25, 2000) was an American actress of stage and television who is perhaps most well known for her role in the sitcom 227 as Marla Gibbs' neighbor Pearl.

Martin was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Amanda Frankie (née Fox) and William Martin, a minister.

Martin was a Broadway character actress for many decades, debuting in Orson Welles' production of Native Son in 1941. She appeared in at least a dozen Broadway shows including Jean Genet's The Blacks, Raisin from 1973 to 1975, Ossie Davis' Purlie Victorious (and later the musical version, which was called Purlie), The Amen Corner and Tennessee Williams' Period of Adjustment. She was an original member of the American Negro Theater.

She first became famous later in life for her guest role as Wanda on the television series Good Times, and later as the wisecracking neighbor Pearl Shay on the television sitcom 227. She also played on the short-run sitcoms Baby, I'm Back (as mother in-law, Luzelle) and That's My Mama; as Loc Dog's grandma, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996), the matronly grandmother Mama Doll in the 1998 film Bulworth, and the no-nonsense grandmother in the film Hollywood Shuffle. Helen Martin died of a heart attack on March 25, 2000.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Helen Martin, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies for Helen Martin...

Something to Sing About
Title: Something to Sing About
Character: Elderly Woman
Released: June 10, 2000
Type: Movie
Tommy is a troubled young man with a history of crime. When he meets Memaw, an elderly lady, the two form a special bond with Memaw encouraging Charlie to sing in the local church choir, a talent he has ignored until now. While Charlie excels in church, his old friend G. Smooth remains skeptical and stays on the streets.
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I Got the Hook-Up
Title: I Got the Hook-Up
Character: Grandmother
Released: May 27, 1998
Type: Movie
Two broke buddies feel lucky when they come upon a truckload of cellular phones and begin selling them out of the back of their van. Trouble arises though, when the phones develop faults. The two friends then not only have to deal with unsatisfied customers but also the FBI.
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Bulworth
Title: Bulworth
Character: Momma Doll
Released: May 15, 1998
Type: Movie
A suicidally disillusioned liberal politician puts a contract out on himself and takes the opportunity to be bluntly honest with his voters by affecting the rhythms and speech of hip-hop music and culture.
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Kiss the Girls
Title: Kiss the Girls
Character: Nana Cross
Released: September 29, 1997
Type: Movie
Forensic psychologist Alex Cross travels to North Carolina and teams with escaped kidnap victim Kate McTiernan to hunt down "Casanova," a serial killer who abducts strong-willed women and forces them to submit to his demands. The trail leads to Los Angeles, where the duo discovers that the psychopath may not be working alone.
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Title: The Jamie Foxx Show
Released: August 28, 1996
Type: TV
Texas native Jamie King is an aspiring actor who heads to Hollywood in hopes to find fame and fortune in the entertainment industry. To support himself, he works at his Aunt Helen and Uncle Junior's Los Angeles hotel, the King's Towers.
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Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
Title: Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
Character: Loc Dog's Grandma
Released: January 12, 1996
Type: Movie
When Ashtray moves to South Central L.A. to live with his father (who appears to be the same age he is) and grandmother (who likes to talk tough and smoke reefer), he falls in with his gang-banging cousin Loc Dog, who along with the requisite pistols and Uzi carries a thermo-nuclear warhead for self-defense. Will Ashtray be able to keep living the straight life?
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Title: The Parent 'Hood
Released: January 18, 1995
Type: TV
The Parent 'Hood is an American sitcom that aired on The WB airing from January 18, 1995 to July 25, 1999. The series starred Robert Townsend and Suzzanne Douglas. Originally to have been titled Father Knows Nothing, the series was one of the four sitcoms that aired as part of the original Wednesday night two-hour lineup that helped launch The WB network.
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Title: The Wayans Bros.
Character: Mother Evans
Released: January 11, 1995
Type: TV
The Wayans Bros. is a situation comedy that aired from January 1995 to May 1999 on The WB. The series starred real-life brothers Shawn and Marlon Wayans. Both brothers were already well-known from the sketch comedy show In Living Color that aired from 1990 to 1994 on Fox. The series also starred John Witherspoon and Anna Maria Horsford.
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Beverly Hills Cop III
Title: Beverly Hills Cop III
Character: Grandma
Released: May 24, 1994
Type: Movie
When his boss is killed, Detroit cop Axel Foley finds evidence that the murderer had ties to a California amusement park called Wonder World. Returning to sunny Beverly Hills once more, Foley reunites with Detective Billy Rosewood to solve the case. Along with Billy's new partner, Detective Jon Flint, they discover that Wonder World is being used as a front for a massive counterfeiting ring.
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House Party 2
Title: House Party 2
Character: Mrs. Deevers
Released: October 23, 1991
Type: Movie
Kid'N'Play leave their neighborhood and enter the world of adulthood and higher education. Play attempts to get rich quick in the music business while Kid faces the challenges of college.
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Doc Hollywood
Title: Doc Hollywood
Character: Maddie, Welcoming Committee
Released: August 2, 1991
Type: Movie
After leaving Washington D.C. hospital, plastic surgeon Ben Stone heads for California, where a lucrative practice in Beverly Hills awaits. After a car accident, he's sentenced to perform as the community's general practitioner.
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Title: The Flash
Character: Sadie Grosso
Released: September 20, 1990
Type: TV
When a bolt of lightening crashes through a police crime lab, a mix of electrically charged substances bathes chemist Barry Allen, transforming him into the fastest man alive--The Flash.
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Night Angel
Title: Night Angel
Character: Sadie
Released: June 2, 1990
Type: Movie
A legendary she-demon, in the updated guise of a beautiful model, infiltrates the offices of a successful fashion magazine with the aim of corrupting the world via mass media.
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A Raisin in the Sun
Title: A Raisin in the Sun
Character: Mrs. Johnson
Released: February 1, 1989
Type: Movie
A substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family.
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Robert Townsend: Partners in Crime: Vol. 2
Title: Robert Townsend: Partners in Crime: Vol. 2
Released: September 24, 1988
Type: Movie
Director Robert Townsend (Hollywood Shuffle) knows how to construct and, when necessary, even milk a laugh for optimal effect. This second riotous volume in the Partners in Crime collection features more ribald moments culled from Townsend's laugh-filled HBO variety show. Sinbad, David Allen Grier and Damon Wayans also star.
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Title: Full House
Character: Shirley
Released: September 22, 1987
Type: TV
After the death of his wife, Danny enlists his best friend and his brother-in-law to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle.
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Hollywood Shuffle
Title: Hollywood Shuffle
Character: Bobby's Grandmother
Released: March 20, 1987
Type: Movie
Aspiring actor and hot-dog stand employee Bobby Taylor catches the ire of his grandmother for auditioning for a role in the regrettably titled exploitation film "Jivetime Jimmy's Revenge." When Tinseltown Studios casts Taylor in the title role, he has a series of conflicted dreams satirizing African-American stereotypes in Hollywood, and must reconcile his career goals with his desire to remain a positive role model for his little brother.
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Amos
Title: Amos
Character: Mrs. McKenzie
Released: September 29, 1985
Type: Movie
Amos Lasher loses his wife and home in an accident, finding himself in the care of the state, or specifically speaking, the Sunset Nursing Home. Here he finds the head nurse, Daisy Daws, ruling the cowed patients with an iron hand, but as his determination to get out of Sunset grows, the more sinister his situation becomes.
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Title: 227
Character: Pearl Shay
Released: September 14, 1985
Type: TV
A housewife sits on the stoop of her apartment building in a black neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and discusses all manner of things with her neighbors.
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Title: The Bill
Released: October 16, 1984
Type: TV
The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats to armed robbery and drug raids to the routine demands of policing this ground-breaking series focuses as much on crime as it does on the personal lives of its characters.
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Repo Man
Title: Repo Man
Character: Mrs. Parks
Released: February 20, 1984
Type: Movie
A down and out young punk gets a job working with a seasoned repo man, but what awaits him in his new career is a series of outlandish adventures revolving around aliens, the CIA, and a most wanted '64 Chevy.
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The Jerk, Too
Title: The Jerk, Too
Character: Grandma Johnson
Released: January 6, 1984
Type: Movie
Navin Johnson heads to Los Angeles to attend the wedding of his pen pal, Marie. On the way, he runs across a gang of hobos whose leader, Diesel, takes him to Las Vegas after learning of his skills at poker.
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Title: Hardcastle and McCormick
Released: September 18, 1983
Type: TV
Hardcastle and McCormick is an American action/drama television series from Stephen J. Cannell Productions, shown on ABC from 1983 through 1986. The series stars Brian Keith as Judge Milton C. Hardcastle and Daniel Hugh Kelly as ex-con and race car driver Mark "Skid" McCormick. The series premise was somewhat recycled from a previous Cannell series, Tenspeed and Brown Shoe.
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Wacko
Title: Wacko
Character: Harbinger's Mother
Released: November 12, 1982
Type: Movie
Thirteen years after the "Lawnmower Killer" killed her sister, high school student Mary Graves and obsessed detective Dick Harbinger are on the lookout for the killer to reappear during the annual Halloween Pumpkin Prom.
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Title: St. Elsewhere
Released: October 26, 1982
Type: TV
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels as teaching doctors at a lightly-regarded Boston hospital who gave interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions.
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Title: T. J. Hooker
Character: Mrs. Sears
Released: March 13, 1982
Type: TV
Sergeant Thomas Jefferson Hooker is a tough-as-nails veteran police officer with the LCPD who turns his back on a gold badge and goes back to patrolling the streets and training recuits. Along with his young partners in blue, Hooker take on Lake City's toughest criminals.
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Title: Hill Street Blues
Released: January 15, 1981
Type: TV
A realistic glimpse into the daily lives of the officers and detectives at an urban police station.
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Title: The Stockard Channing Show
Released: March 24, 1980
Type: TV
The Stockard Channing Show is an American sitcom starring Stockard Channing, Ron Silver, Sydney Goldsmith, Max Showalter and Jack Somack. The show first aired on CBS from March 24 to July 12, 1980. 13 episodes were produced. The series aired at 8:30 P.M. EST, along with WKRP in Cincinnati, M*A*S*H and Flo on the Monday night lineup. After the show ended, Channing would not star in another sitcom until Out of Practice.
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Better Late Than Never
Title: Better Late Than Never
Released: October 17, 1979
Type: Movie
Harry Landers is a feisty senior citizen who refuses to abide by the rules in a stodgy retirement home run by a dour Ms. Davis, in which Harry leads a revolt by the other goated senior citizen residents against the establishment.
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Title: Benson
Released: September 13, 1979
Type: TV
A butler deals with life at the governor's mansion.
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Lawman Without a Gun
Title: Lawman Without a Gun
Character: Mrs. Cartwright
Released: May 30, 1979
Type: Movie
During the 1960s' civil rights movement, a black civil rights worker returns to his small Southern town and runs for sheriff against the incumbent, a popular segregationist.
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Dummy
Title: Dummy
Character: Mrs. Harrod
Released: May 27, 1979
Type: Movie
The real-life account of an illiterate, deaf-and-mute, black youth who was accused of murdering a prostitute, and the relationship that developed between him and his court-appointed attorney, who also was deaf, and the events leading up to his precedent-setting trial.
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Title: The White Shadow
Character: Old Woman
Released: November 27, 1978
Type: TV
The White Shadow is an American drama television series that ran on the CBS network from November 27 1978, to March 16 1981.
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Cindy
Title: Cindy
Character: Flower Lady
Released: March 24, 1978
Type: Movie
A revisionist twist on Cinderella with an all-black cast and set in Harlem during WWII. Cindy is a country bumpkin who moves from South Carolina to live with her father and his new family. When her stepmother and two stepsisters refuse to take her to the Sugar Hill Ball, her draft-dodging, chauffeur neighbor whips up a little "magic" and at the ball she catches the eye of the richest man in Harlem.
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Title: Baby, I'm Back
Released: January 30, 1978
Type: TV
Baby, I'm Back is an American sitcom that aired CBS from January to April 1978. The series stars former Sanford and Son star Demond Wilson, Room 222 alumna Denise Nicholas, Helen Martin, and future Facts of Life co-star Kim Fields.
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A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich
Title: A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich
Character: Mrs. Bell
Released: December 14, 1977
Type: Movie
A troubled boy becomes addicted to heroin, and his mother and foster father help him fight it.
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Title: What's Happening!!
Released: August 5, 1976
Type: TV
What's Happening!! is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from August 5, 1976 to April 28, 1979. The show premiered as a summer series. With good ratings and reviews, and after the failure of several other shows on the network, What's Happening!! returned in November 1976 as a weekly series. It remained a regular show until 1979; ratings were modest. What's Happening!! was loosely based on the motion picture Cooley High, also written by Eric Monte.
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Title: Starsky & Hutch
Character: Vivian Fellers
Released: September 10, 1975
Type: TV
Streetwise Detective David Starsky partners up with a more intellectual partner, Kenneth 'Hutch' Hutchinson, to protect citizens and patrol the streets of Bay City.
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Title: The Jeffersons
Released: January 18, 1975
Type: TV
Sitcom following a successful African-American couple, George and Louise “Weezyö Jefferson as they “move on up” from working-class Queens to a ritzy Manhattan apartment. A spin-off of All in the Family.
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Title: That's My Mama
Released: September 4, 1974
Type: TV
Clifton Curtis has got it made—he runs a successful business he inherited from his late father and he's lucky with the the ladies—but he still lives with his Mama. She rules the roost and dispenses advice to everyone who'll listen—no one at Oscar's Barbershop is spared from Mama's wisdom. And they wouldn't have it any other way.
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Death Wish
Title: Death Wish
Character: Alma Lee Brown
Released: July 24, 1974
Type: Movie
After his wife is murdered by street punks, a pacifistic New York City architect becomes a one-man vigilante squad, prowling the streets for would-be muggers after dark.
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Title: Good Times
Released: February 8, 1974
Type: TV
Good Times is an American sitcom that originally aired from February 8, 1974, until August 1, 1979, on the CBS television network. It was created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans, and developed by Norman Lear, the series' primary executive producer. Good Times is a spin-off of Maude, which is itself a spin-off of All in the Family along with The Jeffersons. The series is set in Chicago. The first two seasons were taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood. In the fall of 1975, the show moved to Metromedia Square, where Norman Lear's own production company was housed.
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Title: Maude
Released: September 12, 1972
Type: TV
Well-educated and upper middle class, Maude Findlay is the archetypal feminist of her generation. She lives in suburban Tuckahoe, New York, with her fourth husband, Walter, their divorced daughter, Carol, and grandson Phillip.
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Title: Sanford and Son
Released: January 14, 1972
Type: TV
The misadventures of a cantankerous junk dealer and his frustrated son.
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J.T.
Title: J.T.
Character: Mrs. Hill
Released: December 13, 1969
Type: Movie
J. T. Gamble, a shy, withdrawn Harlem youngster, shows compassion and responsibility when he takes on the care of an old, one-eyed, badly injured alley cat days before Christmas and secretly nurses it back to health.
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The Phenix City Story
Title: The Phenix City Story
Character: Helen Ward
Released: July 19, 1955
Type: Movie
A crime-busting lawyer and his initially reluctant attorney father take on the forces that run gambling and prostitution in their small Southern town.