Sadie Gray: Difference between revisions

'''Sadie Gray''' is a [[character (arts)|fictional character]] from the American soap opera ''[[One Life to Live]]'', played by [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] actress and singer [[Lillian Hayman]] from 1968 to 1986.<ref name="Ebony1978">{{cite magazine |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Blacks In The Soaps |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oACqry5GZ-sC&pg=PA36 |magazine=[[Ebony (magazine)|Ebony]] |location=[[Chicago]] |publisher=[[Johnson Publishing Company]] |date=March 1978 |access-date=September 30, 2016 }}</ref> Sadie regularly sings at special functions and occasions during her appearance on the [[serial (radio and television)|serial]].

''One Life to Live'' creator [[Agnes Nixon]] cast Lillian Hayman in the leadingsupporting role of "Sadie" shortly after the show premiere in July [[1968 in television|1968]]. Nixon named the role on her actual family housekeeper, Sadie Gay, and based the character's founding plotline on the [[1959 in film|1959 film]] ''[[Imitation of Life (1959 film)|Imitation of Life]]''.<ref name="Nixon2017">{{cite book|last=Nixon |first=Agnes |author-link=Agnes Nixon|title=My Life to Live: How I Became the Queen of Soaps When Men Ruled the Airwaves|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TDQLDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA156|date=21 March 2017|publisher=Crown/Archetype|isbn=978-0-451-49825-0|pages=156–}}</ref>

Hayman played the character role for 18 years until 1986, when show executive producer [[Paul Rauch]] declined to renew her [[contract]] with [[ABC Daytime]] at a time when she was the longest-tenured actor with the show and after the firing of her onscreen daughter [[Ellen Holly]] ([[Carla Gray]]).<ref name="Times1995">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/02/obituaries/lillian-hayman-72-actress-and-singer.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|title=Lillian Hayman, 72, Actress and Singer |publisher=[[The New York Times Company]] |location=[[New York City]] |date=November 2, 1994 |access-date=September 30, 2016 }}</ref><ref name="Holly1996">{{cite book|last=Holly |first=Ellen |author-link=Ellen Holly |title=One Life: The Autobiography of an African American Actress|url=https://archive.org/details/onelifeautobiogr00holl|url-access=registration |year=1996|publisher=[[Kodansha|Kodansha International]]|isbn=978-1-56836-158-1}}</ref><ref name="StarNews1985">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=October 23, 1985 |title=Tipoff |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=puJOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yhMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7017%2C6738490 |newspaper=[[Star-News|Wilmington Morning Star]] |location=[[Wilmington, North Carolina]] |access-date=October 1, 2016}}</ref>

Sadie is introduced in July 1968 as former [[Lord family]] maid at their [[manor house]], [[Llanfair (One Life to Live)|Llanfair]]. She eventually quit her job there to become head of housekeeping at Llanview Hospital. She lives across the hall from her good friend [[Anna Wolek]] ([[Doris Belack]]). Sadie is a [[widow]] and mentions her "lost" and absent daughter [[Carla Gray]].<ref name="Nixon2017"/><ref name="Waggett2008">{{cite book|last=Waggett|first=Gerry|title=The One Life to Live 40th Anniversary Trivia Book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FxIAmjBPZCQC&pg=PA83|date=15 July 2008|publisher=[[Hachette Books|Hyperion Books]]|isbn=978-1-4013-2309-7|pages=83–}}</ref><ref name="PalmerCulture2006">{{cite book|first=Colin A. |last=Palmer|location=[[Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture]], [[New York City]]|title=Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history: the Black experience in the Americas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70gUAQAAIAAJ|year=2006|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]]|isbn=978-0-02-865821-6}}</ref>

A mystery woman named [[Carla Gray|ClaraCarla Benari]] ([[Ellen Holly]]) shows up in town in October 1968, introduced as an [[Italian American]] woman who becomes secretary to Llanview Hospital chief of staff and doctor [[Jim Craig (One Life to Live)|Jim Craig]] ([[Robert Milli]]) and dates [[African American]] [[resident physician]] [[Price Trainor]] (Peter DeAnda). Many hospital staffers are shocked at the prospect of a [[white American]] woman dating a black man. A few months later, it is [[reveal (narrative)|revealed]] that "Clara Benari" is the [[assumed name]] of Carla Gray, Sadie's lighter-skinned black daughter [[passing (racial identity)|passing]] as white. Sadie is furious that her daughter would deny her [[Black pride|heritage]], but they eventually reconcile, and Carla embraces her roots and reclaims her surname "Gray."<ref name="Ebony1979">{{cite magazine |last=Howell |first=Howard O. |title=Ellen Holly: 'One Life to Live' Star Will Have Eight-Million Guests At Her TV Wedding |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yn2aYTGaVQsC&pg=PA149 |magazine=[[Ebony (magazine)|Ebony]] |location=[[Chicago]] |publisher=[[Johnson Publishing Company]] |date=October 1979 |access-date=September 30, 2016 }}</ref><ref name="James1991">{{cite book|last=James|first=Cathy Lynette|title=Soap Opera Mythology & Racial-ethnic Social Change: An Analysis of African American, Asian/Pacific American, & Mexican/Hispanic American Storylines During the 1980s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fA8bAQAAIAAJ|year=1991|publisher=[[University of California, San Diego]], Department of Sociology}}</ref><ref name="Jet1995">{{cite magazine |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Services Held In NY For 'One Life To Live' Actress, 72, Who Died Of Heart Attack |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qj0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18 |magazine=[[Jet (magazine)|Jet]] |location=[[Chicago]] |publisher=[[Johnson Publishing Company]] |date=January 9, 1995 |access-date=September 30, 2016 }}</ref><ref name="PalmerCulture2006"/>

[[Category:Fictional African-American peoplecharacters in television]]