Margaret Avery

Acting

Margaret Avery

Born 1944-01-20 · Mangum, Oklahoma, USA

Margaret Avery (born January 20, 1944) is an American actress and singer. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as Shug in The Color Purple (1985). Description above from the Wikipedia article Margaret Avery, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

The Color Purple poster
7.7

An epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marries her off to the equally debasing 'Mister' Albert Johnson, things go from bad to worse, leaving Celie to find companionship anywhere she can. She perseveres, holding on to her dream of one day being reunited with her sister in Africa.

The Color Purple

1985

Magnum Force poster
7.1

"Dirty" Harry Callahan is a San Francisco Police Inspector on the trail of a group of rogue cops who have taken justice into their own hands. When shady characters are murdered one after another in grisly fashion, only Dirty Harry can stop them.

Magnum Force

1973

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins poster
6.0

When a celebrated TV show host returns to his hometown in the South, his family is there to remind him that going home is no vacation!

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins

2008

White Man's Burden poster
5.1

The story takes place in alternative America where the blacks are members of social elite, and whites are inhabitants of inner city ghettos. Louis Pinnock is a white worker in a chocolate factory, loving husband and father of two children. While delivering a package for black CEO Thaddeus Thomas, he is mistaken for a voyeur and, as a result, loses his job, gets beaten by black cops and his family gets evicted from their home. Desperate Pinnock takes a gun and kidnaps Thomas, demanding justice.

White Man's Burden

1995

Meet the Browns poster
6.7

A single mother living in inner city Chicago, Brenda has been struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street. When she's laid off with no warning, she starts losing hope for the first time - until a letter arrives announcing the death of a father she's never met. Desperate for any kind of help, Brenda takes her family to Georgia for the funeral, but nothing could have prepared her for the Browns, her father's fun-loving, crass Southern clan. In a small-town world full of long afternoons and country fairs, Brenda struggles to get to know the family she never knew existed... and finds a brand new romance that just might change her life.

Meet the Browns

2008

Proud Mary poster
5.5

Mary is a hit woman working for an organized crime family in Boston, whose life is completely turned around when she meets a young boy whose path she crosses when a professional hit goes bad.

Proud Mary

2018

Is That Black Enough for You?!? poster
6.1

A look at the Black revolution in 1970s cinema, from genre films to social realism, from the making of new superstars to the craft of rising auteurs.

Is That Black Enough for You?!?

2022

Something Evil poster
5.4

A young couple moves into a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania. What they don't know is that there is an unseen presence in the house, and that it wants to take possession of the wife.

Something Evil

1972

The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh poster
5.6

The Pittsburgh basketball team is hopeless. Maybe with the aid of an astrologer, and some new astrologically compatible players, they can become winners.

The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh

1979

Night Trap poster
4.0

A New Orleans cop tries to track down and stop a vicious and demonic killer whom has sold his soul to the devil for invulnerability and immortality.

Night Trap

1993

Hell Up In Harlem poster
5.5

A Harlem gangster must rescue his ex-wife, who's been kidnapped by the Mafia.

Hell Up In Harlem

1973

The Return of Superfly poster
5.4

Priest returns to New York from Paris to find his friend's murderer. With a couple of new allies, he attempts to bring the killers to justice while trying not to get into criminal activity like he did years ago.

The Return of Superfly

1990

Which Way Is Up? poster
5.8

Orange picker Leroy Jones inadvertently becomes a union leader and is forced out of town, leaving behind his sex-obsessed father, Rufus, and timid spouse, Annie Mae. He heads for Los Angeles, where he falls for union organizer Vanetta. Annie Mae seeks solace from local preacher Lenox Thomas, who eventually impregnates her. When Leroy catches wind, he heads home for a showdown with Lenox.

Which Way Is Up?

1977

The Set Up poster
4.3

Charlie Thorpe, a security systems expert, gets caught during a robbery. When he is released from jail he is hired by a bank owner to design a fool proof system during the refurbishing of a bank. But shortly after it's finished he is blackmailed into cracking the security.

The Set Up

1995

Heat Wave poster
6.8

A rookie black journalist investigates the tensions of the Watts section of Los Angeles in the bloody summer of 1965.

Heat Wave

1990

Cool Breeze poster
5.1

A paroled crook masterminds a $3 million jewelry theft to fund a bank for businessmen.

Cool Breeze

1972

Block Party poster
6.1

Recent Harvard grad Keke McQueen, 23, is eager to ditch her hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan for her dream job in Atlanta, but when Keke discovers that her once super-sharp Grandma Janice is showing early signs of dementia, Keke puts her career at stake in order to save her Grandma's block party, and in the process, Keke falls back in love with her hometown and its people.

Block Party

2022

The Nana Project poster
4.5

Follows Helen "Nana" Lewis, a feisty chess master, and her grandsons, as they embark on a road trip to support her rise to state championships.

The Nana Project

2023

Single Women, Married Men poster
7.0

After an affair with a married man, a single, female psychologist helps organize a support group for other women who have had similar experiences.

Single Women, Married Men

1989

Love Kills poster
3.5

A masseur gets mixed up in the family plots at the mansion of a recently deceased Beverly Hills millionaire.

Love Kills

1999

Second to Die poster
4.2

Sara escapes a life of poverty and abuse to marry Jim Bratchett, but her joy is short-lived when she discovers that Jim intends her to be a full-time caretaker for his disabled daughter. Sara considers leaving Jim until she discovers a million-dollar life insurance policy.

Second to Die

2002

For Us, the Living: The Story of Medgar Evers poster
7.0

This film is the true story of Medgar Evers, a successful insurance agent who moves to Jackson, Mississippi to direct the regional headquarters of the NAACP. Fighting segregation and racist politics, Evers becomes a leader in the black community.

For Us, the Living: The Story of Medgar Evers

1983

The Sky Is Gray poster
7.0

From Ernest J. Gaines, author of "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," comes a deceptively simple, yet emotionally complex tale of a young boy's discovery of what it's like to be black in Louisiana during the 1940's. James, the boy in question, has a raging toothache that necessitates a trip to the dentist. His mother (played by Emmy-winner Olivia Cole), accompanies James to town on an eye-opening odyssey where the boy gains valuable insights into poverty, racism - and his own sense of pride. With an exciting musical score by Webster Lewis, this multi-award winning film explores a child's discovery that the world is a complicated place... where things are never truly black or white... only shades of gray.

The Sky Is Gray

1980

The Lathe of Heaven poster
6.5

George Orr, a man whose dreams can change waking reality, tries to suppress this unpredictable gift with drugs. Dr. Haber, an assigned psychiatrist, discovers the gift to be real and hypnotically induces Mr. Orr to change reality for the benefit of mankind --- with bizarre and frightening results.

The Lathe of Heaven

1980